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More old news: SHL ACQUIRES 45% STAKE IN COGNI-CASE
Partnership Supports SHL's Year 2000
Strategy
OTTAWA - SHL Systemhouse Inc. announced today
the purchase of 45% of the voting shares of
Cogni-CASE Inc., (CCI) a Montreal-based firm
specializing in computer reengineering. The company
is most noted for its development of Cogni-2000O, a
software tool to help automate the conversion of
central processing system date and time stamp files
for the year 2000.
The deal includes a license agreement for SHL to use
CCI's tools for year 2000 projects, however further
terms of the deal were not disclosed. The
partnership forms part of SHL's global strategy to
become a leading force in the implementation of
year 2000 conversion solutions. With the acquired
interest in Cogni-CASE, the year 2000 practice in
Canada will be established in Montreal. From there,
expertise will be migrated to other regions across
Canada.
"The deal represents a significant investment in
this Montreal firm as well as in our ability to
deliver timely, efficient solutions to our clients. I'm
pleased to be able to tap Canadian resources to
support SHL's efforts both locally and globally,"
commented Ian McLaren, president, SHL Canada.
Gilbert Boucher, executive vice-president for SHL in
Quebec noted that the partnership provides SHL with
one of the most sophisticated conversion tools on
the market. It assists consultants in SHL's year
2000 practice with a proven solution for the
automation of many repetitive tasks in a conversion
project, he said. Equally important, he added, it will
benefit Montreal by creating in excess of 100 jobs
over the next three months to deal with the backlog
of contracts currently in place.
Added McLaren, "Our clients have a lot at stake in
the area of conversion 2000. They need guaranteed
'time to market' support for their critical
applications. With this leading edge technology and
service we will be able to provide this support for
business, government and other sectors across
Canada."
"SHL offers an exceptional network of consultants
for worldwide deployment of this business
solution," said Cogni-CASE President Ronald
Brisebois. "This market holds tremendous potential
because we know that only 20% of Canadian
companies, 15% of US companies and 5% of
companies elsewhere in the world have completed
the conversion of their computer systems to the
year 2000," he added.
The arrival of the new millennium in the year 2000
will present numerous problems for computer
systems, because their central processing units are
incapable of handling the new millennium
designation. Although the solution may appear
simple; namely, to increase the capability of date
fields in software programs, the task is in fact
enormous. Software applications can include several
hundred and even thousands of programs, files,
databases and utilities which will require
modification to operate properly as of January 1 in
the year 2000. Gartner Group of Stamford, CT
estimates that worldwide spending on year 2000
conversion projects will top $600 billion US over
the next three years.
Cogni-CASE Inc. is recognized as one of the world
leaders in reverse engineering solutions and offers a
generic application reverse engineering platform
which supports almost every existing language,
database and platform. Founded in Montreal in 1991,
Cogni-CASE is naturally oriented toward innovation
and new technological and organizational solutions
in the computer industry.
An MCI company, SHL is a recognized leader in
enabling business transformation through
client/server computing and is widely credited with
having defined the TRANSFORMATIONAL
OUTSOURCINGTM services market. SHL employs more
than 6,000 professionals who serve major
commercial and public sector clients in North and
South America, Europe and Asia.
TRANSFORMATIONAL OUTSOURCINGTM is a trademark
of SHL Systemhouse Inc.
Cogni-2000O is a trademark of Cogni-CASE Inc.
For further information, please contact:
In the U.S.
Tim Grace
Media Relations
(312) 697-7430
In Canada
Mary Keating
Media Relations
(905) 892-0738
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From: systemhouse.mci.com |
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