DataFlux Introduces CDI Solution to Deliver Better Customer Data across the Enterprise; DataFlux® Customer Data Integration Offering Helps Manage Data Quality across Disparate Enterprise Systems

Business Wire, March 2, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO -- DataFlux, a leading provider of data quality integration solutions, today introduced the DataFlux(R) CDI Solution (customer data integration) that enables companies to intelligently synchronize, consolidate and manage customer information from across an enterprise. Through a data quality-focused approach to CDI, DataFlux helps organizations deliver a single, unified view of the customer while leveraging existing investments in IT systems and enterprise applications.

The DataFlux CDI Solution extends the DataFlux Data Quality Integration platform, adding preconfigured business rules for managing customer data, as well as best practices and a tunable data model to lower the time-to-value for CDI implementations. The CDI solution enables DataFlux customers to implement data quality and matching, augment customer data, enforce householding practices, and manage data in a master customer file. The solution also can build cross-references to source systems and provides access to other "interested systems."

"Organizations are struggling to compete in an environment that grows more competitive every day," said Tony Fisher, president and general manager of DataFlux. "The inability to answer important business questions, such as 'Who are my best customers?' and 'Which customer data source contains the information?' can cripple an organization. The DataFlux CDI offering enables enterprises to leverage master data management principles to gain a unified, high-level view of all their customer data.

"Business requirements change all the time and central to the DataFlux CDI Solution is the flexibility to adapt to the changes that our customers face," Fisher continued. "We provide a streamlined approach to managing customer data from disparate CRM, ERP or other business applications."

The DataFlux CDI Solution helps companies enhance the visibility and viability of data quality standards and practices throughout the enterprise. The DataFlux service-oriented architecture (SOA) allows business users to build business rules that enforce data standards - and apply these rules across systems and applications. Organizations can use these rules to help enterprise customer data meet corporate standards for data quality, allowing users to build a more consistent, accurate and reliable view of customer information.

Jignesh Shah, solutions architect for Intrawest, a world leader in destination resorts and adventure travel, said: "With millions of customers visiting our resort properties each year, Intrawest faced a common challenge: how to build better relationships with our existing customer base by intelligently integrating customer data from a disparate group of business units. DataFlux technology helped us create a single view of the customer across our business systems, allowing us to treat each customer as an individual - and maximize our overall customer relationship efforts."

"Although master data management offerings promise to bridge multiple enterprise applications, it is increasingly important to guarantee the integrity of that data as it is imported from multiple sources," said Aaron Zornes, founder and chief research officer of the CDI Institute. "Third-generation CDI solutions integrate data quality management via Web services in a services-oriented architecture or SOA approach as this is the preferred approach to ensure overall customer data integrity."

DataFlux CDI Solution Features

Key features of the DataFlux CDI Solution include:

--Data quality expertise - DataFlux has worked on thousands of data quality implementations. That knowledge is infused within the technology, best practices and methodologies that are the foundation of the DataFlux CDI Solution.

--Implementation flexibility - The DataFlux CDI Solution is highly scalable, enabling organizations to deploy this powerful integration technology on enterprise-wide platforms. Companies can also deploy the master file as a physical or virtual reference database.

--Unified data management platform - All components of DataFlux technology - from data profiling through data monitoring - are built on the same platform. This functionality empowers business and IT users to perform any CDI task from the same interface, minimizing the learning curve and maximizing resources.

--Sophisticated workflow builder - The DataFlux CDI Solution features an innovative drag-and-drop workflow builder, allowing users to quickly modify prebuilt jobs, add sources, adjust householding rules and create custom business rules. These workflows can then be used in batch environments or published to the DataFlux Integration Server to be exposed through the SOA.

--International capabilities - The Quality Knowledge Base at the foundation of all DataFlux products is available for many different geographic regions and languages.

More details on the DataFlux CDI Solution are available at http://www.dataflux.com/Implementations/CDI.asp.> About DataFlux

DataFlux enables organizations to analyze, improve and control their data through an integrated technology platform. Through its enterprise data quality integration solutions, companies can build a solid information foundation that delivers a unified view of customer, product or supplier data. A wholly owned subsidiary of SAS (www.sas.com), DataFlux helps customers enhance the effectiveness of their data-driven initiatives, including customer data integration (CDI), enterprise resource planning (ERP), legacy data migration and compliance. To learn more about DataFlux, visit www.dataflux.com.