ELECTRONIC COMMERCE, DATA MANAGEMENT, COMPUTER TELEPHONY INTEGRATION
TECHNOLOGIES FUEL AMS LAB EXPANSION

Fairfax, VA -- Anticipating growing demand for a range of new technologies,
American Management Systems (AMS) announced the expansion of the AMS
Center for Advanced Technologies with the introduction of three new
laboratories: the Electronic Commerce, Data Management and Computer
Telephony Integration labs.

"Electronic commerce, very large databases and computer telephony are key
trends that will have a far-reaching impact on the way information systems
are designed," said Dr. Jerrold M. Grochow, AMS's chief technology officer
and director of the AMS Center for Advanced Technologies. "AMS is
committed to developing solutions that translate the promise of today's
emerging technologies into sound applications that produce tangible
business benefits."

Electronic Commerce Lab

The Electronic Commerce lab is dedicated to increasing the understanding of
issues related to transacting business electronically and the appropriate
use of technologies such as Internet applications, electronic data
interchange (EDI) and smart cards. AMS recognizes that today's commerce is
increasingly transacted in a global electronic marketplace, forcing
companies to re-evaluate and adapt their current business processes. AMS
is already providing services to help businesses reengineer complex
processes and implement the most suitable electronic commerce solutions.
The new lab will enable AMS to expand the range of its offerings and
maintain leadership in relevant research.

As part of this effort, AMS actively participates in organizations such as
the Cross-Industry Working Team (XIWT) of the Corporation for National
Research Initiatives which studies the National Information
Infrastructure, and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
Accredited Standards Committee X12 responsible for developing and
maintaining standards for EDI.

Data Management Lab

The Data Management lab is chartered with exploring methodologies, hardware
and software that help AMS clients create and use large databases for
strategic business applications. Many industries such as banking,
insurance, health care and telecommunications rely upon the collection and
analysis of large amounts of data to improve customer service, develop new
products and effectively manage risk. The newest hardware and software is
often required to process this abundant data.

Instead of approaching data warehousing as primarily a storage function,
AMS takes a "data mining" approach when researching data management
capabilities. Data mining refers to efficiently exploring and analyzing
data, thereby making it a more valuable business resource. The Data
Management lab works with methodologies to evaluate and implement parallel
processing and data mining techniques to improve client competitiveness.

Computer Telephony Integration Lab

The Computer Telephony Integration lab's mission is to research and support
the application of computer intelligence to the multiple uses of business
telephone systems, otherwise known as computer telephony integration (CTI)
solutions.

Since the telephone is still the most ubiquitous way for businesses and
customers to interact, AMS is exploring numerous ways to apply telephony
integration to create a systematic approach to customer service. For
example, the lab is focusing on call centers where computers control both
the telephone and the system workflow for a group of agents who answer or
make calls to customers. The lab is exploring new advances in interactive
voice response technologies and standards that enable customers to
interact through the telephone without an agent.

Implementing applications that closely link telephone and computer systems
increases individual as well as workgroup productivity. As a result, AMS
is exploring desktop/groupware productivity where desktop applications
control and retrieve information from the telephone or integrating voice
capabilities with traditional groupware applications such as electronic
mail.

The AMS Center for Advanced Technologies is an applied research lab
designed to increase awareness, understanding and appropriate use of new
and emerging technologies. The Center serves as a resource to conduct
"proof of concept" implementations and evaluate emerging technologies by
beta testing the latest software, operating systems, wireless computing
devices and system architectures such as parallel processors. The Center
includes six other applied research laboratories: Client/Server,
Collaborative Work Environments, Mobile Computing, Object and
Architecture, Performance and Measurement, and User Interface and Digital
Media.

AMS's business is to partner with clients to achieve breakthrough
performance through the intelligent use of information technology. AMS is
a business and information technology consulting firm that provides a full
range of services: business reengineering, change management, systems
integration, and systems development and implementation. AMS, which
completed its twenty-fifth consecutive year of growth, is headquartered in
Fairfax, Virginia, with offices in 41 cities throughout North America and
Europe. AMS's revenues for 1994 were $460 million.

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