Fiserv Selects Arbor's Essbase for its OLAP Platform; Essbase to be included in the Fiserv InformEnt data warehouse system

Business Wire, Sept 5, 1995

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 5, 1995--Fiserv, a leading provider of information systems and services for the financial industry, has selected Essbase, Arbor Software Corporation's multidimensional database, as the on-line analytical processing (OLAP) platform for the Fiserv InformEnt enterprise-wide information management data warehouse system. Essbase is being integrated into the InformEnt solution, and the OLAP capability will be available to users this September.

Fiserv has been offering the InformEnt system over the last three years as part of an advanced information management and decision support solution. InformEnt collects and integrates comprehensive customer, financial and operational data throughout an enterprise and makes it available through a single Oracle data warehouse running on a UNIX server.

Essbase extends the InformEnt system's analytical capabilities beyond the reporting and query tools initially offered, facilitating analysis of financial performance, exception analysis and research. For example, the customizable organization and classification feature allows bankers to uniquely analyze customer profitability, product profitability, operational performance and regulatory compliance from a specific department or region to an entire multi-bank holding company.

"With the pressures of consolidation and competitive issues, financial institutions of all sizes need to understand exactly who their customers are, where the profit centers reside and where the next opportunities will be," said Paul Jameson, senior vice president of the Fiserv Fusion Business Unit based in Pittsburgh, PA. "This information is not available from the routine static reports that land on management's desk each month. It is only through analytical sessions using InformEnt and Essbase that analysts really pull out the information needed to make critical decisions."

Essbase complements the data warehouse by staging subsets of warehouse data for planning and analysis applications. With Essbase, users of the Fiserv InformEnt system can employ familiar desktop tools, including Excel and Lotus 1-2-3, to analyze any conceptual view, including both summary and detail information. Essbase can consolidate historical and projected data, and provides an analytical engine for computing derived data. Response times are consistently fast, allowing for iterative "speed-of-thought" analysis sessions.

"With InformEnt, Fiserv has built an extremely robust decision support solution for the banking industry that is truly unique in the scope of data stored within the warehouse," said James Dorrian, Arbor president and CEO. "Within this data warehouse environment, Essbase is the analytical vehicle that helps to put critical, timely information in the hands of the analysts."

About Fiserv

Fiserv Inc. is an independent provider of financial data processing systems and related information management services and products to banks, credit unions, mortgage firms and savings institutions worldwide. With more than 7,000 employees in over 60 locations in the United States, London and Singapore, Fiserv currently serves the technology needs of more than 5,000 financial institutions.

A publicly held company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., Fiserv Inc. is traded on the NASDAQ over-the-counter market under the symbol (FISV).

About Arbor Software

Arbor Software Corporation develops and markets multidimensional database software for business planning, analysis and management reporting applications. Arbor's products are used by more than 500 corporations spanning a broad range of industries and business analysis applications including Bank of America, Chemical Bank, Emery, Fidelity, Los Angeles Times, Neutrogena, Pennzoil, PEPSICO, and Prudential. Arbor's products are sold direct as well as through systems integrators and VARs worldwide. Arbor has alliances and partnerships with numerous companies, including Andyne, Cognos, Comshare, Hewlett-Packard, Hogan Systems, Informix, Microsoft, Red Brick, Sybase, Tandem, Trinzic and Walker Interactive Systems. Arbor offices are located in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Sunnyvale, Washington D.C. and London. -0-

Note to Editors: Essbase is a registered trademark of Arbor Software Corporation. InformEnt is a trademark of Fiserv Inc. All other product names are trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Arbor Software

Marguerite Padovani, 408/541-4053

or

Fiserv

Paul Jameson, 412/577-3101