Lumina Adds State-of-the-Art Optimization Capabilities to Its Analytica Platform for Business Analytics

Market Wire, March, 2005

Lumina Decision Systems, Inc. today announced Analytica® 3.1, the latest release of its innovative visual software tool for business analytics. Release 3.1 introduces the Analytica Optimizer, enabling Analytica users to find optimal decision strategies in business and policy models. It incorporates cutting-edge optimization and solver technology licensed from Frontline Systems, Inc., developers of the Solver shipped with Microsoft Excel.

"Analytica offers many advantages over traditional spreadsheets with its visual modeling and easy handling of multiple dimensions," said Daniel Fylstra, CEO of Frontline Systems. "This is important for optimization models, which frequently use many dimensions. We look forward to use of our Solvers by existing and new Analytica users."

"We're excited to offer our customers this state-of-the-art technology from the leader in spreadsheet optimization," said Dr. Max Henrion, CEO of Lumina. "The Analytica Optimizer offers capabilities that are greatly enhanced over the Solver for Excel that Frontline Systems originally developed for Microsoft."

The Analytica Optimizer enables users to find the decision strategies that maximize value, minimize costs, or optimize any quantified objective subject to resource constraints. It integrates with Analytica's Monte Carlo risk analysis to support powerful optimization under uncertainty. It supports Analytica's Intelligent Arrays™ for dynamic optimization with multidimensional models. The Analytica Optimizer is available as an extension to Analytica Enterprise, Power Player, and Analytica Decision Engine (ADE).

Analytica 3.1 is available now from Lumina Decision Systems. A free trial version is available for download from www.lumina.com.

About Lumina Decision Systems, Inc.

Lumina Decision Systems, Inc. (www.lumina.com) offers the leading alternative to spreadsheet software for business decision support and risk analysis. Its flagship Analytica line of software provides visual, scalable tools for rapid development and deployment of effective decision models and analytic applications. Analytica customers include many Fortune 500 companies and leading management consultants, with users in over 40 countries. Founded in 1991, Lumina is headquartered in Silicon Valley in Los Gatos, California (650-212-1212).

About Frontline Systems, Inc.

Frontline Systems, Inc. (www.solver.com) is the leader in spreadsheet optimization software that helps analysts and managers optimally allocate scarce resources -- money, equipment, and people -- to realize substantial cost savings. Frontline developed the solvers/optimizers in Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro, distributed to more than 100 million spreadsheet users. Founded in 1987, Frontline is headquartered in Incline Village, Nevada (775-831-0300), with a European sales and marketing subsidiary, Frontline Systems UK Ltd., in Bury St. Edmunds, United Kingdom (01284 748035).

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