MapInfo Joins Oracle Portal Partner Initiative Program; MapInfo Offers Location-based Intelligence `Portlets' to Enhance Enterprise Marketing Portals

Business Wire, Oct 2, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

Oracle OpenWorld

Booth #2728

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 2, 2000

MapInfo Corporation (Nasdaq: MAPS) today announced it has joined the Oracle(R) Enterprise Portal Partner Initiative Program as part of a growing community that will deliver solutions or services based on the open Oracle Enterprise Portal framework. As a participant in the program, MapInfo will be providing a series of `portlets' designed to enable companies to analyze data stored in their Oracle8i(TM) based on location and geodemographic information. The MapInfo portlets will provide organizations with continuously updated access to the corporate database allowing for market and customer analysis through intuitive mapping and querying. All of the MapInfo portlets are components of the MapInfo(R) MapInsight(TM) solution -- a marketing intelligence portal built on Oracle8i.

The MapInfo portlets include the MapSelect Portlet, MapView Portlet and a series of additional portlets designed to geographically enable a company's marketing activities. Users throughout the organization will be able to easily add the MapInfo portlets to the Oracle Portal, and each portlet will give the user a unique view of the database.

For example, the MapView and MapSelect Portlets will enable users to quickly query the Oracle database to visualize selected customers within a specific distance of a given location -- an intersection or a cell tower -- and will display the information in a presentation quality map. The ability to see customers or prospects relative to infrastructure -- store sites, cell towers, even major roads and highways -- is key to making profitable business decisions. The MapInfo portlets make it easy for businesses to add location-based marketing decisions to their business processes.

"By partnering with Oracle, the leading e-business software provider, MapInfo further strengthens its position as the leader in location-based analysis by adding to the wealth of technology and service developments around enterprise portals," said Brian Lantz, vice president, business and sales development at MapInfo. "It is our belief that enterprise portals will quickly become the single point of access people will use for a variety of daily activities -- whether it be accessing corporate, business-to-business or Internet applications. Our goal is to add location-based intelligence to those portals and also to provide MapInfo's MapInsight solution as a pre-built, marketing intelligence portal built on the Oracle8i platform."

The Oracle Portal Partner Initiative Program is dedicated to establishing a community of leading System Integrators (SIs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Content Aggregators (CAs) who build, deliver and support solutions built around Oracle's Portal Framework. By joining the Oracle Enterprise Portal Partner Initiative, MapInfo can collaborate with other members of the program, have access to sample portlets and code as well as the latest versions of Oracle's Enterprise Portal framework.

"The Internet began a race for widespread information access, now the race is to manage the Internet information glut by centralizing relevant, and timely information for individual use," said Jeremy Burton, Oracle senior vice president, Internet Platform Marketing. "Corporate portals built using Oracle's Enterprise Portal framework help solve the information and application management problem, while our partners provide vital, value-added content, integration and services to a hungry marketplace."

About Oracle

Oracle Corporation provides the software that powers the Internet. For more information about Oracle or the Oracle Portal Partner Initiative, please call (650) 506-7000.

About MapInfo

MapInfo Corporation enables customers to use location to transform information into business advantage. A global company and technology leader, MapInfo provides business intelligence solutions that are deployed across organizations to help them better understand their markets and customers. MapInfo solutions are available in 21 languages through a network of strategic partners and distribution channels in 58 countries. Headquartered in Troy, NY, MapInfo Corporation is on the World Wide Web at www.mapinfo.com.

MapInfo is a trademark of MapInfo Corporation. Oracle is a registered trademark and Oracle8i is a trademark or registered trademark of Oracle Corporation.