Informix and INFOTEC Deploy Latin American Portal for Bancomext; Technology Provides Global Reach for Mexican Companies Competing in the Business to Business Arena - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, April 24, 2000

Informix Corporation (NASDAQ:IFMX), the technology leader in the software infrastructure for the i.Economy, and INFOTEC, a technology-based competitiveness center, Tuesday announced the deployment of a scalable Web portal for Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterio, the National Foreign Trade Bank (Bancomext) called Bancomext.com. The new site provides Mexican import and export companies a venue to attract, manage and conduct business across the globe. The Bancomext.com portal relies on the combined resources of Informix i.Sell e-commerce solution and INFOTEC's integrator technology. The Bancomext.com collaboration is considered to be the most technologically advanced in Latin America to date.

The institution's electronic commerce director Eligio Serna said the project "goes hand-in-hand with the Bank's strategy to develop Mexican exporters, allowing them to compete in the international market on equal terms."

After evaluating several tools, Informix i.Sell was chosen for its ability to offer personalized content management and a full software infrastructure for the Web. The deciding criteria were:

-- Local support and service

-- Fail-over capability or redundancy on all levels

-- Tight integration between the application server, associated tools and the database

"We were looking for a complete, integrated solution that would include information for knowledge workers, e-commerce solutions and marketing tools," said Laura Cruz, automated systems manager, Bancomext. "Informix was the only one able to offer the technology that would meet our needs. The adoption of this technology allows us to better connect the value proposition of our portal with individual visitors and guarantee that we generate long-term relations with our member companies."

Raul Flores Arreola, assistant data technologies director of INFOTEC, said, "As a result of this combined project, we anticipate significant business benefits including lower operational costs, integration of the systems and databases, and an increase in the system's overall efficiency."

"The Bancomext.com portal will act as a technological catapult in the country," said Enrique Perezyera, vice president, Latin America, Informix. "We are helping meet Export Bank's objective of developing the growing base of Mexican exporters. Together, Informix and INFOTEC will continue to provide systems integration, consulting and applications development as a part of a wide range of services needed to support the Bancomext.com portal."

Informix i.Sell is a complete end-to-end e-commerce solution that combines the most powerful database transaction engine, Informix Internet Foundation.2000, with best-of-breed e-commerce applications, i.Informix enterprise consulting services, and global support. i.Sell has added more business-critical personalization, security and global operations features to give a compelling shopping experience, scalable transacting to support a growing business, and the sophisticated analysis needed to help improve sales.

The Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior (Bancomext) is the Mexican Government agency whose mission it is to increase the competitiveness of Mexican companies, particularly, small and medium-sized businesses linked directly and indirectly to exports and/or efficient substitution of imports. Bancomext provides integral support through quality training, information, consulting, project coordination and financing services. Companies are served through a network of worldwide offices, banking and non-bank intermediaries, and through on-line Internet and Telemarketing services. For more information visit http://www.bancomext.com.mx

The Fondo de Informacion y Documentacion para la Industria (INFOTEC) [Information and Documentation Fund for Industry], based in Mexico City, is a technology-based competitiveness center which fulfills a social mission using a business strategy. It helps both private and public Mexican organizations to raise their levels of productivity and competitiveness, through integrated solutions based on the application of information, organizational and production technologies. The National Technology Network (Red Tecnologica Nacional - RTN); the Advanced Technologies Center (Centro de Tecnologias Avanzadas - CTA); the Business Information Service (Servicio de Informacion Empresarial - SIE) and the Organizational Technology (Tecnologia Organizacional - TO) are, are part of what Infotec offers. For more information visit: http://www.infotec.com.mx

Based in Menlo Park, CA, Informix Software is the technology leader in software infrastructure solutions for the Internet. Informix is the first and only company to integrate e-commerce and business intelligence on a true Internet infrastructure. We provide a complete, fast and simple way to bring businesses to the Web, personalize content management, and analyze information real-time. This, with our highly scalable Web engines and media asset management capabilities, gives our customers a unique competitive advantage. FMI: www.informix.com.