I'm surprised that today's press release wasn't yet posted here.
Pretty positive announcement containing substance.
The last of the "weak hands" were cleared out today. Notice very high volume while spiking down followed by a sharp reversal (I've seen this pattern numerous times in the past with other: selling-off-for-no-good-reason companies. If tech's stay strong, we should be testing $30-$31 resistance level by weeks end.
PLATINUM technology Announces Major Upgrades to Decision Support
Solutions
PLATINUM positioned for strong growth in decision support market
OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- PLATINUM technology, inc. (Nasdaq: PLAT - news) today
announced major upgrades to its tools for online analytical processing (OLAP), reporting, and decision support application
development, positioning the company for strong growth in the billion-dollar decision support market. PLATINUM's new
InfoBeacon 4.0, InfoReports 3.2, and Forest & Trees 5.0 enable organizations to exploit the power of decision support
technology more quickly and easily with a host of new features that boost performance and improve end-users' access to
information.
Today's announcement follows PLATINUM's January 26 introduction of PLATINUM Perspectives for Market Analysis.
Perspectives is a decision support framework that enables sales and marketing managers to create and manage their own
views and analyses of information. It empowers business users to make better, faster decisions while minimizing the impact on
information technology departments.
With its new and upgraded solutions, PLATINUM is gaining strong momentum in the decision support market, which is
growing nearly 30 percent annually, according to the SoundView Financial Group, Inc. PLATINUM is one of the top four
vendors from whom organizations intend to buy a decision support solution in 1998, according to SoundView. InfoReports,
according to the January 1998 META Group report ''Data Warehouse Marketing Trends/Opportunities,'' more than doubled
its market share in the last year.
St. Louis, Mo.-based CPI Corporation (NYSE: CPY - news) recently selected PLATINUM's InfoBeacon, InfoReports, and
Forest & Trees to improve its employees' analysis of sales data. ''PLATINUM's breadth and depth of decision support
solutions, as well as its consulting, are unmatched in the industry,'' said Matt Harris, senior programmer analyst for CPI. ''The
power and ease of use of PLATINUM's solutions help our business analysts make critical decisions about the products we sell
in our stores. PLATINUM has contributed to our company's success and its enterprise vision will ensure our future growth.''
CPI operates 1,200 retail stores including 1,026 Sears Portrait Studios in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada and 156 Prints
Plus wall decor stores.
A key factor fueling PLATINUM's momentum in the decision support market is its comprehensive product line, which includes
pre-packaged business applications for industry-specific solutions; tools for scalable, custom solutions; and Perspectives,
which provides a framework to combine the flexibility of tools with the fast-deployment of pre-packaged applications. This
comprehensive product line enables PLATINUM to meet organizations' growing need for multiple types of decision support
solutions. ''Organizations are discovering that one tool cannot meet all their decision support needs,'' said Tom DePasquale,
senior vice president of data warehousing solutions for PLATINUM. ''They often find that they need a combination of
solutions to provide different levels of users with different views and analyses of information. An executive, for example, will
have different information needs than a business analyst. With a full arsenal of decision support software, PLATINUM is
uniquely positioned to deliver solutions that meet the needs of every user community within an organization.''
About InfoBeacon 4.0
InfoBeacon is an OLAP tool that enables complex analysis and interactive problem-solving with unparalleled scalability and
performance. It leverages a three-tier architecture and full Internet capability to provide business users with advanced analysis
capabilities such as drill down, ranking, and ratios.
Unlike many OLAP tools, InfoBeacon does not require a proprietary database. New features available in Version 4.0 of
InfoBeacon include:
enhanced administration functions to speed implementation and boost performance;
convenient, dynamic access from a Web browser;
enhanced SQL generation features for improved database access performance; and
the ability to capture statistics based on users' requirements.
About InfoReports 3.2
InfoReports is an enterprise-class reporting solution that delivers desktop- and server-based reporting across multiple, large
databases. It can generate multiple queries from heterogeneous databases, across multiple platforms. InfoReports empowers
end-users to specify runtime variables on reports themselves, minimizing their need for help from IT departments. New features
available with Version 3.2 of InfoReports include:
enhanced security through a new network connection;
multi-level HTML frame generation to boost performance and improve report navigation; and
post-conversion processing, providing more report distribution options.
About Forest & Trees 5.0
Forest & Trees is a tool for rapidly developing highly intuitive, graphical decision-support applications. It provides IT staff with
a point- and-click, dialog-based environment to develop applications that enable business-users to make better decisions,
faster. New features available in Version 5.0 of Forest & Trees include:
32-bit functionality for enhanced performance;
the ability to develop applications that automatically invoke other applications, allowing distributed processing and
promoting component- based development practices;
simplified application logic that reduces development and maintenance time; and
enhanced support for enterprise deployment of Forest & Trees applications.
About Perspectives for Market Analysis
Perspectives is a decision support framework that enables sales and marketing managers to analyze complex relationships
among multiple product dimensions and metrics to reveal emerging trends. For example, it enables users to review revenues by
fiscal period or sales region, identify low sellers and product-region mismatches, and track profitability by product or business
unit. Perspectives features wizards for easy customization, allowing business users to view and analyze information to best suit
their needs. It provides for rapid development of decision support applications using server- based OLAP technology that
easily scales to meet expanding data volume and complexity.
Availability, Platform Support and Pricing
InfoBeacon 4.0 is available immediately. It supports Windows 95 and NT, major UNIX systems, and leading database
management systems. Prices start at $65,000, plus $45,000 for required implementation consulting.
InfoReports 3.2 is available immediately. It supports Windows 95 and NT, and major UNIX systems. Prices start at $695 for
the client version, and $10,000 for the server version.
PLATINUM expects Forest & Trees 5.0 to be available by the end of the first quarter of 1998. It supports Windows 95 and
NT, and leading database management systems. Prices start at $995 for the developer edition, and $295 for each run-time
license.
Sales information can be obtained by contacting PLATINUM at 800-442-6861 or 630-620-5000; or at info@platinum.com. |
