MicroStrategy's DSS Broadcaster 5.5 Earns Strong Approval from Analyst Community; Industry Experts Recognize Commercial and Consumer Significance of Intelligence Platform

Business Wire, March 22, 1999

VIENNA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 22, 1999--MicroStrategy Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of mission-critical decision support systems, today announced overwhelming analyst support of DSS Broadcaster 5.5(TM), an intelligence platform for developing second-generation e-commerce solutions and enterprise from the analyst community, validating the cusiness intelligence market, and our ability to bridge our core technology offering with the emerging information needs of today's Global 2000 players. Whether our custof anything new might be of interest to them, by notifying them of relevant information through their preferred communication channel. Enhancements in this release include dynamic formatting capabilities and increased scalability, allowing more widespread deployment both in terms of new applications and a greater number of recipients. We believe that DSS Broadcaster is a natural adjunct to MicroStrategy's core decision support technology, providing organizations with an intelligent platform capable of delivering business intelligence and e-commerce information to users according to their individual and customized requirements."

NIGEL PENDSE, AUTHOR OF THE OLAP REPORT

"I am impressed with the way MicroStrategy is pressing ahead with its active information delivery approach exemplified by DSS Broadcaster 5.5, rather than the passive portal strategy being pursued by most business intelligence vendors," said Nigel Pendse, lead author of The OLAP Report (http://www.olapreport.com). "There is a definite demand for systems that can proactively deliver highly personalized information to the many users who do not have the time or training to assemble it themselves from multiple disparate data sources. And the welcomed scalability improvements in the latest release will allow larger user communities to be supported."

THE DATA WAREHOUSING INSTITUTE

"Business intelligence vendors are beginning to recognize the importance of delivering information to users when they want it and how they want it," said Wayne Eckerson, Vice President of Technology Services for The Data Warehousing Institute. "Most users don't want to spend time learning new technologies, exploring vast databases, or sorting through reams of reports. They just want relevant data sent to them along with the functionality needed to act on the data. This is true for both corporate users and consumers. This type of personalized analytic application can be a powerful tool for enhancing e-commerce and customer relationship management initiatives."

PATRICIA SEYBOLD GROUP

"DSS Broadcaster 5.5 delivers a sophisticated XML generation engine that differentiates it from most other business intelligence offerings on the market today," said Mitch Kramer, Director, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing for the Patricia Seybold Group. "XML is more flexible than HTML. It can be used to personalize Web documents and to present them in richer visual formats. DSS Broadcaster 5.5 leverages these XML capabilities, building them onto its event-driven messaging capabilities. The product can deliver the right, visually- rich, personalized information to large communities of users when each user needs it most."

About MicroStrategy Incorporated

MicroStrategy is a leading worldwide provider of enterprise decision support system ("DSS") software and related services. MicroStrategy's product line (DSS Suite(TM)) enables both active and passive delivery of information from large-scale databases, providing Global 2000 enterprise user communities with timely answers to mission-critical questions.

MicroStrategy's decision support platform enables users to query and analyze the most detailed, transaction-level databases, turning data into business intelligence. In addition to supporting internal enterprise users, MicroStrategy's products extend DSS beyond corporate boundaries to customephones, pagers and other wireless communications devices. MicroStrategy also offers a comprehensive set of consulting, training and support services for its customers and partners.

MicroStrategy has over 650 customers across such diverse industries as retail, telecommunications, finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and consumer packaged goods. MicroStrategy's customers use DSS Suite to perform mission-critical activities such as: customer segmentation and profitability analysis; supply chain management; one-to-one customer marketing; financial analysis; customer acquisition, retention, and churn analysis; merchandising and inventory analysis; product category management; and customer risk profiling. Representative MicroStrategy customers include American Express Travel Services, CVS Pharmacy, Harris Teeter, IMS America, Kmart, MCI WorldCom, Merck-Medco, Nike, and Ralston Purina. MicroStrategy has also entered into relationships with more than 145 system integration, application development and platform partners, including Acxiom, Andersen Consulting, HNC Software, IBM, NCR, and Oracle.