Initiate Systems Releases New Organizational Hierarchy Management Software, Upgrades Initiate Identity Hub; Extends CDI Market Leadership with Initiate Hierarchy and Initiate Identity Hub 7.2 Products

Business Wire, Sept 12, 2006

CHICAGO -- Initiate Systems Inc., the leading provider of software for creating the most complete, real-time views of data about people, households and organizations, today announced the general availability of Initiate(TM) Hierarchy, the first software application that creates a real-time, complete logical master hierarchy from multiple sources. Initiate(TM) Hierarchy is for organizations that require visibility into their complex B2B relationships. The company also released Initiate Identity Hub(TM) software version 7.2, a new version of its market leading CDI software.

Originally deployed by Microsoft Corporation in May 2006 for its Microsoft Individuals and Organizations (MIO) project, Initiate(TM) Hierarchy is helping Microsoft improve customer and partner satisfaction, financial reporting and field productivity. Initiate(TM) Hierarchy creates an extremely accurate, high-performance transactional data hub that includes complete views of B2B organizational hierarchies.

A commissioned study by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Initiate Systems reported that most enterprises have some form of data management in place, though they struggle with their existing and in-house approaches to hierarchy management. As a result, these companies are seeking new ways to help them meet their growth, efficiency, strategy and regulatory goals. ("Hierarchy Management: A Qualitative Market Analysis for Initiate Systems" a commissioned study by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Initiate Systems, August 2006).

Many organizations today wrestle with non-integrated, conflicting views of business and individual relationships throughout their enterprise, and seek ways to understand these complex hierarchies and relationships. Traditional approaches to managing organizational hierarchies are costly, latent and do not provide the accuracy levels needed to address the hierarchy management challenge effectively. Initiate(TM) Hierarchy solves the hierarchy management challenge with a comprehensive and effective application that provides the most accurate, scalable and easily deployed solution for companies that want to understand the true and total value of each business and customer relationship.

"Without an understanding of how customers, partners and suppliers fit into their overall business ecosystem, organizations will not grow and prosper," said Bill Conroy, president and CEO, Initiate Systems. "Business objectives are driving the interest in organizational hierarchy management. With Initiate(TM) Hierarchy, enterprises can finally understand their business and customer relationships and leverage that knowledge to advance their business objectives."

With Initiate(TM) Hierarchy, organizations receive the most accurate, efficient and comprehensive method for managing organizational hierarchies:

--Logical master representations of hierarchies are created by simultaneously consuming and blending hierarchy data from multiple information sources, both internal and external, then probabilistically comparing and matching the hierarchy structure across sources;

--Individuals are classified in real time against the logical master hierarchy, creating immediate awareness of customers within organizations, and organizations within hierarchies;

--Initiate(TM) Hierarchy Global Manager administers and manages hierarchies via a web-based user interface and provides intuitive 'tree views' of hierarchies; powerful search capabilities that allow users to query and navigate through hierarchies to look for broad or detailed information; easy retrieval of organizational data based on a range of criteria such as member attributes or organizational linkages; and an administrative tool that performs side-by-side comparisons of member data within an organization context; and

--Hierarchy modifications are easily made then are logged and audited for future reference.

In addition to the new capabilities in Initiate(TM) Hierarchy, version 7.2 of Initiate Identity Hub(TM) software includes new internationalization, identity services and engine-driven weight generation support. The new version processes languages in multi-byte format, such as Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and Korean. Initiate(TM) Identity Services Publisher, a new product offering, is for enterprises that have multiple business applications and require interoperability in a service-oriented architecture environment. New data analysis and tuning functions increase matching accuracy by enabling customers and partners to generate their own weights and configure and deploy them into the algorithm.

Initiate(TM) Hierarchy, Initiate(TM) Identity Services Publisher and Initiate Identity Hub(TM) software version 7.2 are available immediately. For additional information, please visit www.initiatesystems.com.

About Initiate Systems

Initiate Systems, Inc. is the leading provider of software for companies and government agencies that want to create the most complete, real-time views of people, households and organizations from data dispersed across multiple application systems and databases. Initiate Identity Hub(TM) software is more accurate, scalable, rapidly deployed and widely used than any other customer data integration and enterprise master person index solution. Many organizations in the financial services, government, healthcare, hospitality and retail sectors are using Initiate(TM) software to deliver the right data at the right time to all critical touch points. Initiate Systems' proven experience makes it uniquely qualified to enable strategic initiatives that allow organizations to increase revenue and efficiency and reduce operating costs and risks. Initiate Systems operates globally through its subsidiaries, with corporate headquarters in Chicago and offices across the U.S., a Canadian office in Toronto, an EMEA office in London and a Pacific Rim office in Sydney.