ThinkFast Consulting, Inc. Supports Industry Charge to Deliver Open OLAP Data Access Standard.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 22, 2000

New industry standard provides leading-edge technology and common

interface for enhanced business intelligence solutions

ThinkFast Consulting, Inc., a premier, full-service provider of integrated, enterprise-wide business intelligence (BI) solutions, has today announced its support for a new platform-independent data access standard for data managed by leading OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) servers. The new standard, known as JOLAP (Java(TM) interface for On-Line Analytical Processing), provides an open, standards-based mechanism for working with OLAP data sources. JOLAP will enable ThinkFast to better serve its wide base of customers by providing them with the latest in leading-edge query and analysis technology to support their business analytics initiatives.

The new economy demands that companies seeking competitive advantage be able to measure and optimize the effectiveness of their e-business initiatives in order to become more customer focused. While OLAP is the key enabling technology in these business analysis applications, JOLAP extends the "write once run anywhere" Java vision into the realm of business analysis.

"We are pleased to announce our support for this new industry standard because it gives our customers a common programming environment. This means we can provide our customers with faster deployment of more flexible custom Web-based BI solutions leveraging JAVA standards. In addition, this technology simplifies the deployment of complex enterprise BI applications spanning multiple database platforms," says Tom Phelps, president of ThinkFast Consulting, Inc. "ThinkFast Consulting is committed to embracing leading-edge technology and open standards. The use of JOLAP is a logical extension of our efforts to help customers derive maximum returns on their business intelligence investments," he adds.

Because JOLAP is platform independent, vendor independent, and provides a single method of accessing multidimensional data, developers can write an analysis application and deploy it across any JOLAP-compliant OLAP data source, or use that OLAP data source against any JOLAP compliant application. In essence, JOLAP means quicker, simpler development processes for Java-based OLAP applications that can be deployed to large user communities over the Web. It brings OLAP development within easy reach of the mainstream Java development community by providing an open, scaleable, and cross-platform OLAP application program interface that is part of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE(TM)).

JOLAP is being developed through the Java Community Process(SM) 2.0 (JCP) program, the community-based process for developing Java technology specifications. It is based on the industry standard Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) initiated by Hyperion, IBM, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Unisys, SAS Institute and Nokia. Hyperion, the worldwide analytic application software leader, is a ThinkFast Consulting Premier Partner

About JOLAP

JOLAP is designed to be the OLAP counterpart of the highly successful JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) interface standard for data managed by relational databases. For more information about JOLAP, visit http://java.sun.com/aboutJava/communityprocess/jsr/jsr_069_jolap.html. Nominations for the Expert Group may be submitted at http://java.sun.com/jcp/cafe.html, Select JSR-69, Java OLAP Interface (JOLAP). Nominees must be Java Community Process (JCP) Participants. Companies who are not Participants can sign up at http://java.sun.com/aboutJava/communityprocess/getstarted.html.

About the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition

The Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) defines the standard for developing multi-tier enterprise applications. J2EE simplifies enterprise applications by basing them on standardized, modular components, by providing a complete set of services to those components, and by handling many details of application behavior automatically, without complex programming. For information about J2EE, visit http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/software/oe-platforms/java2ee.html

About the Java Community Process(SM) 2.0 (JCP) program

The Java Community Process(SM) (JCP) program is the formalization of the open process that Sun Microsystems, Inc. has been using since 1995 to develop and revise Java(TM) technology specifications in cooperation with the international Java community. The JCP fosters evolution of the Java technology in Internet time, and in an open, participative manner.

About ThinkFast Consulting, Inc.

ThinkFast Consulting, Inc. is a premier full-service provider of enterprise-wide business intelligence (BI) services designed to provide customers with real-time structured access to information for strategic and tactical decision making. The company's offerings include specialized BI for financial and sales/marketing applications, as well as Data Warehousing, CRM Analytics, ERP Analytics and Web Analytics solutions to address the market requirement for the analysis of data. To support its enterprise BI solutions, the company maintains a strong commitment to education, knowledge transfer and mentoring. ThinkFast is headquartered in Chicago, and has local offices in Atlanta, Battle Creek, MI., Dallas, Denver Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Francisco and St. Louis. For more information, visit: www.thinkfast.com.

Note to editors: Hyperion is a registered trademark and Hyperion Solutions is a trademark of Hyperion Solutions Corporation.