Actuate Spreadsheet Application Platform Garners Industry Validation; Actuate Spreadsheet Applications Help Companies Avoid Errors, Inconsistencies and Compliance Risks Typically Introduced by Manual Spreadsheet Processes

Business Wire, Oct 18, 2005

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- Actuate Corporation (NASDAQ:ACTU), the world leader in Enterprise Reporting Applications, today announced industry support for the first Spreadsheet Application Platform that gives corporations the ability to create closed-loop spreadsheet applications that integrate workflow, write-back and business models all in a single spreadsheet. (See related announcement, "Actuate Delivers the Industry's First Spreadsheet Application Platform," 10.17.05.) Managing the creation of collaborative business processes within spreadsheets allows companies to leverage their existing investment in this widely adopted personal productivity tool and automate previously siloed spreadsheet-based processes such as sales forecasting, capacity management and customer self-service.

AMR Research

"In today's compliance-influenced world, 'control' is a big buzzword," said John Hagerty in the July 2005 AMR Research Report, "What Buyers Value Most From Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting Products." "Financial processes need to be well managed to ensure accuracy in an age of corporate and financial governance mandates. Some firms feel overly exposed when planning data integral to financial performance forecasts is downloaded, modeled, manipulated, and distributed throughout the organization. Using that data for critical decision-making without sufficient controls and standards can add insult to injury. Spreadsheets are often demonized as the cause of these problems, but companies realize they are integral to day-to-day operations. Spreadsheets, with control, are an important value customers want."

ComputerWire

"Love them or hate them, spreadsheets are here to stay and will remain the data analysis tool of choice for most business users for the foreseeable future," said Madan Sheina, principal analyst, BI Technologies at ComputerWire. "Striking a balance between control and flexibility is key. Actuate's automation features manages to introduce a necessary level of control over wide-scale spreadsheet deployment while at the same time still giving users enough freedom and leeway to continue to create innovate applications using their favorite analysis tool on the desktop."

Forrester Research

"Excel will be used more and more in the context of BI at the tactical and operational levels for reporting and analysis," stated Keith Gile, Forrester Research, Keeping IT Sane In A Crazy BI World Of Excel, Forrester Research, Inc., June 29, 2005. "To exploit spreadsheet features within the context of BI, Excel should be integrated with a BI platform to help IT establish control."

IDC

"One of the reasons that Business Intelligence technologies have not fulfilled the needs of customers better is because BI vendors have focused on individual features such as OLAP and failed to take a more holistic approach to automating the entire decision-making process," said Dan Vesset, research director, analytics and data warehousing at IDC. "The workflow, collaboration and guided analysis in Actuate's Spreadsheet Application Platform is a solid step toward 'Decision Process Automation' -- which is the future direction of Business Intelligence technology."

Innovent Solutions

"We work with many companies that have invested considerable time and resources into creating business logic for sales and workgroup forecasting within spreadsheets," said Keith Mericle, president of Innovent Solutions. "By using Actuate, we see a significant opportunity for these companies to save money, increase efficiency, and reduce inconsistencies by adding server-based manageability and workflow to these spreadsheet based processes."

Ventana Research

"The traditional spreadsheet has enormous advantages but also inherent technical flaws when used in any repetitive, collaborative enterprise-wide process," according to Robert Kugel, CFA, Vice President and Research Director of Financial Performance Management at Ventana Research. "By adding workflow, collaboration, and centralized updating capabilities, companies using Actuate's spreadsheet application platform can make spreadsheet-based processes such as sales forecasting, workforce planning, and customer self-service much more effective, timely and controllable."

About Actuate Corporation

Actuate Corporation is the world leader in Enterprise Reporting Applications that ensure 100% adoption by users. Actuate's Enterprise Reporting Application Platform is the foundation on which Global 9000 organizations (companies with annual revenues greater than $1 billion) and packaged application software vendors develop intuitive, Web portal-like reporting and analytic applications that empower 100% of users with decision-making information. These applications are deployed inside and outside the firewall to improve corporate performance across a range of business functions including financial management, sales, human resource management, and customer self-service. When tested against other business intelligence products, Actuate's Enterprise Reporting Application Platform has been proven to offer industry-leading scalability and the lowest Total Cost of Ownership. Actuate has over 3,000 customers globally in a range of industries including financial services, pharmaceuticals, insurance, and distribution services, as well as the government sector.