HP EXPANDS OPENWAREHOUSE PORTFOLIO WITH PRODUCTS FOR MEDIUM-SIZED
INSTALLATIONS; NEW PRODUCT FEATURES INCLUDE INFORMATION CATALOG AND
REPORTING

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 21, 1995 -- Expanding its worldwide OpenWarehouse
portfolio, Hewlett-Packard Company today announced HP Intelligent
Warehouse products targeted at medium sized companies. HP also enhanced HP
Intelligent Warehouse end-user functionality and reporting tools.

The product-family members mean that medium to-large companies can now take
advantage of HP's data-warehouse functionality that previously was
available primarily to large, global companies. Through HP's technology,
companies such as 3M, General Electric, GTE, Mobil Oil and Pillsbury are
harnessing the power of corporate information for competitive advantage.
With the extended product family, HP is extending its leading, high-end
data-warehouse management software to smaller environments with 15-25
gigabytes of data and 20-35 users.

New IW Functionality

New functionality includes the HP Intelligent Warehouse Guide, hierarchical
hub capabilities, subject-area "drill across" for queries, charge-back
capabilities and superior complex-query performance.

The HP Intelligent Warehouse Guide is the information catalog that lets
nontechnical end users browse warehouse data easily for precise business
implications. Users also can see what reports already exist and use them
directly or leverage them easily into new reports.

Currently, data warehouses are like large libraries with no card catalog.
They contain lots of information, but there is no easy way to use it. HP's
guide remedies this problem.

The HP Intelligent Warehouse Guide, like the rest of HP Intelligent
Warehouse, integrates with and complements most ODBC-compliant data-access
tools, including such popular tools as Business Objects, Cognos Impromptu,
Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel PowerView and many others.

Hierarchical hub structure allows multiple data warehouses to be tied
together for a full enterprise view of all data and quick access to local
data. This minimizes performance overhead while letting users leverage the
full value of enterprise-wide data. Hierarchical hubs also allow a
federation of data warehouses that can be integrated for an
enterprise-wide view, yet retain autonomous ownership and management. This
is valuable in decentralized companies in which business units want to
maintain control, but corporate management needs enterprise-wide
information.

Drill-across capability makes querying the data warehouse easier. It lets
users make a single query for data in different subject areas, such as
product shipments and orders. In most data warehousing environments,
decision-makers have to ask both questions separately and then compare the
data.

Charge-back capabilities let administrators charge for accessing data
warehouses through automated, detailed logs that track users' query time.
This allows the cost of implementing a data warehouse to be allocated
fairly across the groups using it.

Enhanced performance because the HP Intelligent Warehouse optimizer
optimizes large and complex queries to the data warehouse for
significantly improved performance. Performance gains will vary widely,
but overall queries sent first through HP's optimizer will perform better
than those that go through a standard RDBMS optimizer.

Server-based Reporting

HP will provide server-based reporting through integrating Software
Interfaces' ProReports tool with HP Intelligent Warehouse. ProReports
creates production reports and highly unstructured ad hoc reports.
Multiple query capabilities allow users to do side-by-side comparisons.

Production reporting -- for reports regularly needed by many users, such as
quarterly division sales figures -- is streamlined. One person can create
a formatted report and then send it to the server for broad distribution
across multiple platforms and operating systems. Current PC-based tools
don't provide an easy way to do this. In a PC-based tools scenario,
potentially many people could query the server to create the same report
formatted for their particular platform. With ProReports, entire
workgroups or divisions can get the same query results while enhancing
overall data-warehouse performance, eliminating duplicate work and
administrative burden.

ProReports also lets users easily create reports that show comparisons --
such as first quarter 1994 sales vs. first quarter 1995 sales. Making
comparisons is at the heart of decision-making, yet most tools only
support showing results.

Low- and High-end HP Intelligent Warehouse

A low-end HP Intelligent Warehouse installation includes basic capabilities
and starts at $75,000 (U.S.). (Previous low-end pricing started at
$180,000.) Administrative capabilities include graphical displays,
security controls, charge-back facility and query-usage report
capabilities. End-user features include the ability to query using
business terms rather than database constructs and fast receipt of
information in the form requested, with minimal computer-use time.

Additional high-end HP Intelligent Warehouse features include hierarchical
hub capabilities and partition management. Costs vary depending on
configuration, but start at $240,000 (U.S.). A large-scale enterprise
deployment of multiple HP Intelligent Warehouse hubs and data servers
could include mainframe-alternative systems, serve 2,000 users and handle
terabytes of data.

Data-warehouse Definitions

A data warehouse is an integrated decision-support database that is
maintained separately from an organization's operational or production
databases. OpenWarehouse is HP's overall program for delivering full
open-systems data-warehousing solutions to fill the decision-support needs
of major corporations and to help them gain competitive advantage.

HP Intelligent Warehouse is HP's first product under its OpenWarehouse
program HP Intelligent Warehouse consists of middleware, administrative
and end-user tools that makes data warehouses easy to manage and use. It
is delivered through HP's Professional Services Organization, the
consulting, systems integration and customer education arm of HP's
computer business.

HP's OpenWarehouse program is part of HP's overall Mainframe Alternative
Program. Implementing a data warehouse is a good first step for users who
want betta access to mainframe-based data. HP has migrated more than 1,000
companies successfully to open-systems, client/server computing as part of
its Mainframe Alternative Program. HP believes its success in this program
is based on the company's ability to deliver mainframe performance with
high-quality applications from proven software companies; its strong
relationships with key partners; and its worldwide support, consulting and
customer-education organization.

Availability

New HP Intelligent Warehouse features are expected to be available April
1995. The integrated ProReports product is planned for April 1995 and will
be sold by Software Interfaces. ProReports prices start at $695 (U.S.) for
the client and $10,000 (U.S.) for the server.

HP is the second-largest computer supplier in the United States, with
computer related revenue of $19.6 billion in its 1994 fiscal year.

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global manufacturer of computing,
communications, and measurement and products recognized for excellence in
quality and support. HP has 98,400 employees and had revenue of $25
billion in its 1994 fiscal year.

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