Conference nsic00::eis_dw

[First! for the Web]

Sagent finds suite spot in Oracle Data Mart deal; Oracle adopts key data
movement capabilities from Sagent Technology, Inc. for new family of
integrated Data Mart solutions

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Date: Tuesday, April 1, 1997
Source: Business Wire
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PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via Individual Inc. -- SAGENT
TECHNOLOGY, INC. announced today that its data movement functionality has
been chosen to play a key role in Oracle's new family of Data Mart Suites,
also announced today.

Oracle's licensing of Sagent's data movement functionality, part of a
worldwide agreement between the two companies, strongly positions Sagent in
the rapidly growing market for decision support products and confirms the
strengths of the company's technological underpinnings.

Sagent's data movement functionality provides data mart designers with the
critical tools needed to efficiently extract data from live production
databases or data warehouses, massage the data to make it more useful for
decision makers and load it into data marts. The key to the powerful data
movement capabilities Sagent is delivering to Oracle is its unique Data
Flow Technology.

Sagent's Data Flow Technology lets developers perform data movement
functions easily through a unique graphical interface by linking icons to
create Data Flow plans for extracting data from various sources,
transforming it and delivering it to data marts.

"The partnership with Oracle will allow us to maintain and strengthen our
technology leadership position in the data movement arena while continuing
to focus resources on improving and increasing the functionality in our
end-user information access products," said Ken Gardner, president, CEO and
cofounder of Sagent Technology, Inc. "Oracle's endorsement and adoption of
our data movement functionality provides tight integration of Sagent's data
movement functionality in to Oracle's Data Mart Suite."

In addition to licensing Sagent's data movement functionality -- called
extraction, transformation and transportation (ETT) by Oracle, and used as
its Data Mart Builder -- the agreement involves the porting of this
capability to popular UNIX platforms (IBM AIX, HP-UX and Sun Solaris) for
use in future Oracle Data Mart Suite products as well as by Sagent. The
agreement will also generate localized versions of the data movement
functionality in French, Spanish and German for use by both companies.

"Our partnership with Sagent allows Oracle to offer its customers a family
of tailored, turn-key data mart solutions that bring best-of-breed
technologies together in one box," said Jerry Held, senior vice president
of Oracle Server Technologies. "We chose Sagent because they have created
the most intuitive and well-engineered data mart technology available
today, technology we are pleased to be able to offer our customers."

Through the sales of Oracle Data Mart Suites, Sagent anticipates a
significant installed base of users will gain experience with the Sagent
Data Flow Technology and the easy access to powerful functionality it
offers. As a result, Sagent sees strong demand ahead for the company's own
current and future front-end tools, including the collaborative Sagent
Information Studio, which extend the benefits of Data Flow Technology
directly to users' desktops.

In addition, Sagent expects the UNIX porting and localization made possible
by the agreement -- not to mention the increased name recognition -- to
catapult the acceptance of its own Sagent Data Mart Solution products,
especially as the company initiates its marketing thrust into Japan and
Western Europe later this year.

According to a 1996 Robertson Stephens & Co. report, data marts are
expected to account for 50 to 75 percent of the $15 billion decision
support systems market over the next 5 years. Additionally, a 1996 Sentry
Research report, "Data Warehousing Directions," showed that a single-vendor
solution was preferred by 53 percent of respondents.

The Oracle data mart family consists of market-specific, product suites
that let line-of-business users -- such as financial, sales and marketing
departments -- analyze subject-oriented data and make more informed
business decisions. The Oracle Data Mart Suites provide integrated tools
companies can use to design, build, deploy, manage and use data marts more
effectively.

About Oracle Corporation

Oracle Corp. is the world's leading supplier of software for information
management, and the world's second largest software company. With annual
revenues of more than $5.2 billion, the company offers its database, tools
and applications products, along with related consulting, education and
support services, in more than 90 countries around the world.

About Sagent Technology, Inc.

Sagent Technology was founded in June, 1995 to bring business information
closer to decision-makers and make it quicker and easier to use and share.
Sagent Technology provides an integrated set of tools for populating data
marts or functional data warehouses and presenting data to end-users in
meaningful, business-appropriate ways.

The company was co-founded by Ken Gardner and John Zicker, both formerly
with ReportSmith, Inc., and its marketing efforts are headed by Perry
Mizota, formerly vice president of marketing at Business Objects, Inc.
Sagent is funded by Crosspoint Venture Partners, El Dorado Ventures,
Greylock Limited Partnerships and U.S. Venture Partners.

Note to Editors: Sagent's web site is located at: www.sagenttech.com .
Sagent and Sagent Information Studio are trademarks of Sagent Technology,
Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Sagent Technology, Inc. | Gillian Webster, 415/496-3117 |
[email protected] | or | Evans Communications | Lisa Sheeran,
415/648-0347 | [email protected]
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[First! for the Web]

Ralph Kimball signs exclusive contract with Sagent Technology; Data
warehousing guru to serve as product designer and technical spokesperson

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Date: Wednesday, April 9, 1997
Source: Business Wire
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PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via Individual Inc. -- Sagent
Technology, Inc. announced today that Ralph Kimball, one of the industry's
foremost data warehousing experts and author of the best-selling book, The
Data Warehouse Toolkit, has affiliated with the company to provide
technical guidance in product design as well as design transforms for
vertical markets for Sagent's Data Flow Technology. Kimball's relationship
with Sagent is exclusive in the data warehouse tools market.

Kimball will also act as a technical spokesperson for Sagent. In addition,
he elected to make an equity investment in Sagent, underscoring his
long-term commitment to the company.

"Sagent understands extraordinarily well the issues and challenges facing
organizations as they deploy data marts to distribute information to
decision-makers," Kimball said. "Deploying a data mart is still too
complicated. Customers are looking for an approach that will cut down on
the overburden of vendors, interfaces and product philosophies. Sagent has
the correct answer by addressing both the back and front end requirements
of a data mart with an integrated, single, smooth, consistent data flow
architecture and interface."

"Ralph is an icon in the information technology industry. His pioneering
work in the data warehousing market and his vision of dimensional modeling
has transformed decision support into a more workable, contemporary
concept," said Ken Gardner, president and CEO of Sagent Technology. "From a
practical standpoint, Ralph has more experience designing data warehouses
than anyone on the planet -- which will be extremely valuable to us as we
translate technology into customer solutions."

In addition to providing ongoing technical expertise, Kimball will design
transforms that will allow the Sagent Data Mart Solution to be optimized
for a number of specific vertical industries including finance, human
resources, retail and telecommunications. He will also work with Sagent on
a data mart seminar series.

About Ralph Kimball

Ralph Kimball was co-inventor of the Xerox Star workstation, the first
commercial product to use mice, icons and windows. He was vice president of
applications at Metaphor Computer Systems, a decision support software
company, and founder and CEO of Red Brick Systems, a leading provider of
data warehousing systems.

Kimball is a leading proponent of the dimensional approach to designing
large data warehouses. His 1996 book entitled The Data Warehouse Toolkit is
a practical guide for building dimensional data warehouses, and has become
the best-selling book on the subject. His seminar series entitled Data
Warehousing in Depth is a three-day program co-sponsored by Red Brick
Systems providing the skills necessary to plan, implement and manage a data
warehouse, and has been attended by more than 3000 professionals.

About Sagent Technology

Sagent Technology was founded in June, 1995 to bring business information
closer to decision-makers and make it quicker and easier to use and share.
Sagent Technology provides an integrated set of tools for populating data
marts -- or functional data warehouses -- and presenting data to end-users
in meaningful, business-appropriate ways. The company was co-founded by Ken
Gardner and John Zicker, both formerly with ReportSmith, Inc., and its
marketing efforts are headed by Perry Mizota, formerly vice president of
marketing at Business Objects, Inc. Sagent is funded by Crosspoint Venture
Partners, El Dorado Ventures, Greylock Limited Partnerships and U.S.
Venture Partners.

Notes to Editors: Sagent's web site is located at: www.sagenttech.com

Sagent is a trademark of Sagent Technology, Inc. All other trademarks are
the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Sagent Technology, Inc. | Gillian Webster, 415/496-3117 |
[email protected] | or | Evans Communications | Lisa Sheeran,
415/648-0347 | [email protected]
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[First! for the Web]

Sagent introduces new data mart packages; New integrated and modular
packages for data mart population and end user analysis provide more
flexibility

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Date: Tuesday, April 29, 1997
Source: Business Wire
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PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via Individual Inc. -- SAGENT
TECHNOLOGY, INC. today unveiled five new integrated and modular data mart
packages that provide more flexibility for organizations interested in
implementing data marts.

The new data mart packages address the three most common types of scenarios
faced by data mart implementers: extracting and populating a data mart from
operational systems or a corporate data warehouse; implementing end user
analysis tools to access the data in data marts; and organizations that are
looking for an integrated solution that does both functions.

The five new packaging options for Sagent's data mart products allow
implementers to choose the level of functionality that best matches their
needs.

"We have seen that organizations tend to focus on one of three areas when
they start their data mart project: either data mart population, end-user
analysis or a total end-to-end integrated solution," said Ken Gardner,
president, CEO and co-founder of Sagent Technology. "Our new packages have
been designed to address these needs and provide our customers with the
flexibility to start with either back-end population, front-end data
analysis, or both."

The five new Sagent Data Mart Packages are as follows:

Product Packaging and Pricing

Package No.1 - Data Mart Population

This package provides data mart population capabilities. Data can be
extracted from operational data sources or data warehouses, transformed and
then loaded into data marts.

Price: $25,000

Package No.2 - Client/Server OLAP

This package is designed for organizations that require end-user analysis
capabilities, such as pivoting, drilling and filtering the data in either
crosstabs or charts.

Price: $50,000 for 20 client/server users

Package No.3 - Web OLAP

This package provides end-user OLAP capabilities for client/server and Web
users.

Price: $90,000 for 20 client/server users and unlimited Web users

Package No.4 - Integrated Client/Server

This package combines packages 1 and 2 into a cost-effective solution for
organizations requiring both data mart population and client/server
analysis capabilities.

Price: $65,000 for 20 client/server users

Package No.5 - Integrated Web

This is a combination of packages 1 and 3, which provides organizations
with both data mart population and Web-based analysis capabilities.

Price: $105,000 for 20 client/server users and unlimited Web users

ABOUT SAGENT TECHNOLOGY, INC.

Sagent Technology was founded in June, 1995 to bring business information
closer to decision-makers and make it quicker and easier to use and share.
Sagent Technology provides integrated data mart tools for populating data
marts -- or functional data warehouses -- and giving end users intuitive
access to the data. The company was co-founded by Ken Gardner and John
Zicker, both formerly with ReportSmith, Inc., and its marketing efforts are
headed by Perry Mizota, formerly vice president of marketing at Business
Objects, Inc. Sagent has strategic partnership agreements with Oracle,
Microsoft, Prism Solutions and Ralph Kimball Associates. Sagent is funded
by Crosspoint Venture Partners, El Dorado Ventures, Greylock Limited
Partnerships and U.S. Venture Partners.

Note to Editors: Editors note: Sagent's web site is located at:
www.sagenttech.com Sagent, Information Studio and Flashcube are trademarks
of Sagent Technology, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.

CONTACT: Sagent Technology, Inc. | Gillian Webster, 415/496-3117 |
[email protected] | or | Evans Communications | Lisa Sheeran,
415/648-0347 | [email protected]
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[First! for the Web]

Sagent delivers Version 2 Data Mart Solution with interactive desktop and
web-based analysis tools; Innovative OLAP Architecture first to combine
scalability and high performance

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Date: Tuesday, April 29, 1997
Source: Business Wire
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PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via Individual Inc. -- SAGENT
TECHNOLOGY, INC. today made it easier for decision makers to analyze their
company's critical data by introducing Version 2 of its flagship Sagent
Data Mart Solution, adding interactive multidimensional analysis
capabilities to the system's popular data mart population capabilities.

The Sagent Data Mart Solution Version 2, lets workgroup users display,
drill, pivot and filter multidimensional data sets in crosstab or chart
form with uncompromised performance, while giving browser users all the
analytical capabilities over the Internet or corporate intranet.

Sagent Version 2's new multi-tiered on-line analytical processing (OLAP)
architecture avoids the tradeoff between high performance and scalability
plaguing other products by combining the best of desktop multidimensional
technology and server-based aggregate processing. It is also the first to
automatically create and populate specified aggregate data tables on the
server, relieving IS from this time-robbing and error-prone burden.

"With Sagent Version 2, we've finally solved the problem of simultaneously
achieving performance and scalability in on-line analytical processing,"
said Ken Gardner, president, CEO and co- founder of Sagent Technology.
"Only the end-to-end system's approach of the Sagent Data Mart Solution can
offer the degree of seamless integration, high performance and scalability
we have achieved with the new multidimensional analysis capabilities
introduced in Version 2."

Introduced in October 1996, the Sagent Data Mart Solution is the first
tightly integrated set of tools for populating data marts, managing them
and providing decision makers with facilities to intuitively access,
analyze and collaborate on data. Version 2 integrates Visual Basic for
Applications 5.0 as the scripting language to provide more powerful data
manipulation beyond the capabilities of SQL. Sagent was chosen by Microsoft
as one of the first licensees of this technology.

According to a 1996 Robertson Stephens & Co. report, data marts are
expected to account for 50 to 75 percent of the $15 billion decision
support systems market over the next 5 years. Additionally, a 1996 Sentry
Research report, Data Warehousing Directions, showed that a single-vendor
solution was preferred by 53 percent of respondents.

SAGENT ANALYSIS

The new Sagent Analysis desktop module for Version 2 adds OLAP capabilities
to Sagent Information Studio, the end-user, desktop component of the Sagent
Data Mart Solution. It lets users immediately begin performing intuitive
multidimensional analysis of their data in a familiar, easy-to-use
environment that seamlessly integrates all of the workgroup features
available in Sagent's Information Studio, including publish-and-subscribe
distribution.

Sagent Analysis lets users view their data as crosstabs or charts of
multiple dimensions, and stages the results of queries as aggregate totals
on the desktop for optimal performance during analysis. Data can be
presented as crosstabs that summarize and organize the data by dimensions
rather than listing individual records, or displayed using a variety of
business charts, such as pie charts and bar graphs. Charts can be selected
and formatted with the aid of a powerful wizard to guide the user through
the process.

Analysis can be performed by drilling, pivoting and filtering the data in
either crosstabs or charts, and by selecting from a variety of aggregate
functions. Multiple analysis displays give users several different views of
the same data, each view immediately accessible with a simple mouse click.
Users can also use the new exception highlighting feature to find data that
meets specified business criteria. Finally, all crosstab data can easily be
saved as an Excel spreadsheet or incorporated into other Microsoft Office
applications.

HIGH PERFORMANCE AND SCALABILITY

Only Sagent Analysis combines the performance of desktop multidimensional
cubes with the scalability of server-based aggregate processing by
combining the best of both technologies. As a result, Sagent Analysis can
address a broader range of analytical processing applications.

On the desktop, Sagent's Flashcube technology enables Sagent Analysis to
deliver extremely fast response times as users drill down to get more
detail by staging the results of each information request in a
multidimensional format in local memory. Crosstabs and charts immediately
display changes made by users while drilling, pivoting or filtering because
Sagent Analysis intelligently uses aggregates created in real time on the
desktop or already stored on the server.

At the server level, the Sagent Data Mart Server is "aggregate aware,"
enabling it to quickly process information requests involving very large
amounts of summarized data. And unlike any other multi-tiered OLAP product
in the industry, the Sagent Data Mart Server can also automatically create
and populate the aggregate tables in the underlying database. Typically,
this process is performed manually by a data administrator, which is both
time consuming and prone to errors.

WEB ENABLED

In Sagent Version 2, Sagent WebLink gives Web browser users on the Internet
or corporate intranet the same data analysis capabilities found in Sagent
Analysis. New ActiveX controls let users display, drill, pivot and filter
crosstabs and charts within their browser, on any operating system. Sagent
WebLink is a server-based facility that allows components built within the
Sagent environment to be accessed and executed through popular Internet web
browsers.

WORKGROUP ENABLED

Because Sagent Analysis is part of the Sagent Information Studio, it
automatically inherits all of that desktop environments workgroup
decision-making capabilities. Workgroups can easily share queries, query
results and ongoing analysis.

Sagent's easy-to-use distribution features follow a publish-and-subscribe
model for data sharing. After users have graphically built and run a
request for information, they can publish these requests, called Plans, for
others in the workgroup to access and use. Similarly, the results of these
information requests, called Snaps, can also be published and made
available to anyone in the workgroup. Whenever a change is made to a
published item, Sagent agents automatically issue alerts to all subscribed
parties, enabling all workgroup members to stay current.

PRICING & AVAILABILITY

Version 2 of the Sagent Data Mart Solution is in production and is offered
in five different packages. For pricing and details on the five packages,
please refer to the Sagent Data Mart Packages press release dated 4/28/97.

ABOUT SAGENT TECHNOLOGY, INC.

Sagent Technology was founded in June, 1995 to bring business information
closer to decision-makers and make it quicker and easier to use and share.
Sagent Technology provides integrated data mart tools for populating data
marts -- or functional data warehouses -- and giving end users intuitive
access to the data. The company was co-founded by Ken Gardner and John
Zicker, both formerly with ReportSmith, Inc., and its marketing efforts are
headed by Perry Mizota, formerly vice president of marketing at Business
Objects, Inc. Sagent has strategic partnership agreements with Oracle,
Microsoft, Prism Solutions and Ralph Kimball Associates. Sagent is funded
by Crosspoint Venture Partners, El Dorado Ventures, Greylock Limited
Partnerships and U.S. Venture Partners.

Note to Editors: Sagent's web site is located at: www.sagenttech.com
Sagent, Information Studio and Flashcube are trademarks of Sagent
Technology, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.

CONTACT: Sagent Technology, Inc. | Gillian Webster, 415/496-3117 |
[email protected] | or | Evans Communications | Lisa Sheeran,
415/648-0347 | [email protected]
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[First! for the Web]

Sagent Data Mart Solution to support third-party tools; open strategy
starts with agreements with Seagate Software and Abacus Concepts

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Date: Tuesday, May 6, 1997
Source: Business Wire
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PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via Individual Inc. -- Sagent Technology
Inc. today announced it will open the Sagent Data Mart Solution to third
party front-end tools to provide customers with a wider choice of end-user
data manipulation solutions.

To kick off this open strategy, Sagent has signed an agreement with Seagate
Software, the maker of the award-winning Crystal Reports product, and
Abacus Concepts Inc., the developer of StatView, the award-winning
statistical analysis package.

"Our goal is to have the Sagent Data Mart Solution act as an integration
platform for organizations looking to implement data marts. We will provide
many of the capabilities ourselves, like the data mart population and
end-user OLAP functions we currently offer," said Ken Gardner, president,
CEO and co-founder of Sagent Technology.

"However, there are compelling reasons to provide an open approach and to
work with leading third-party products. Most importantly, we want to ensure
that organizations will have a complete data mart solution and this may
include leveraging products they've already invested in, as well as using
third-party products that meet specific end-user needs."

Third party tools will be integrated with the Sagent Data Mart Solution by
acting as targets of result sets generated from within the Sagent
environment. This type of integration will enable third-party products to
leverage the unique features of the Sagent solution, including its
high-performance, multi-threaded architecture and its unique data-flow
technology.

Agreements with Seagate Software and Abacus Concepts

The agreement with Seagate Software will allow Sagent to resell the Seagate
Crystal Reports product, which will be tightly integrated into the Sagent
Data Mart Solution. Sagent will resell a five-pack of Seagate Crystal
Reports for $1,975, and it is expected to be available from Sagent in the
second quarter of 1997.

"This OEM arrangement means that Sagent customers will now benefit from the
powerful ad hoc reporting capability of Seagate Crystal Reports and
underscores Seagate Software's position as a leading provider of data
analysis for the Sagent Data Mart Solution," said Michael Brooks, manager
of strategic relations at Seagate Software.

The agreement with Abacus Concepts Inc., maker of StatView, will allow
Sagent to resell StatView for Sagent, a one-button integration of the
StatView statistical analysis package with the Sagent environment. This
integration will enable decision makers to easily perform statistical
analysis of data stored in their data marts. Pricing and availability for
this product will be announced later this year.

"Sagent and Abacus share a common goal of delivering information in a
useful, relevant form to knowledge-workers throughout an organization,"
said Dan Feldman, president and CEO of Abacus Concepts. "This OEM
arrangement is good news for Sagent customers desiring the ability to
quickly and easily perform statistical analysis and present the results."

"These agreements are the first in our initiative to open our solution so
that our customers have a choice of leading front-end tools," added
Gardner. "We are very pleased to announce our relationships with Seagate
Software and Abacus Concepts. We also welcome any other third-party vendors
who would like to integrate their offerings with the Sagent Data Mart
Solution."

In addition to the agreements with Seagate Software and Abacus Concepts,
Sagent expects to announce third party relationships later this year in
other areas such as data mining and mapping.

About Seagate Crystal Reports

Seagate Crystal Reports is the award-winning client/server report writer
that lets users design presentation quality reports and integrate them into
database applications.

Reports can be created from all popular PC, SQL and ODBC based databases,
as well as from administrative data such as Event Logs in Windows NT and
Information Stores in Microsoft Exchange Server and distributed through
popular communication infrastructures including the Internet, cc: mail,
Microsoft Mail, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange Server and more. Seagate
Crystal Reports has shipped over two million copies today and is bundled by
more than 150 vendors.

About Seagate Software Inc.

Seagate Software, a subsidiary of Seagate Technology Inc. develops tools
and applications in the areas of business intelligence and infrastructure
management, including network, systems and storage management. Its industry
leading software solutions are developed as integral components of a total
data management product strategy supporting all major operating
environments.

Seagate Software has established strategic relationships with Microsoft,
Novell, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Cabletron and other industry leaders, and
markets its products worldwide, through distributors, value-added
resellers, systems integrators, retailers and OEMs. Seagate Software's home
page address on the World Wide Web is http://www.seagatesoftware.com.

About Abacus Concepts StatView

StatView, is the award-winning statistical analysis and graphics program
that allows users to work through every phase of a project from data
collection through the presentation of results in one package. StatView
provides an integrated analysis and graphics environment in which users can
combine live tables and graphs with drawn objects, graphics and text to
create an entire presentation. StatView is used by more than 75,000
customers worldwide and has won numerous industry awards.

About Abacus Concepts Inc.

Founded in 1984, Abacus Concepts Inc. is a leading developer of statistical
software for desktop computers. The company's mission is to enable anyone,
not just experts, to perform data analysis and present the results. Abacus
Concepts markets its products world wide through distributors and
publishing partners. Its flagship product, StatView, is also available in
French, German and Japanese. Additional information is available on the
World Wide Web at http://www.abacus.com.

About Sagent Technology Inc.

Sagent Technology was founded in June 1995 to bring business information
closer to decision-makers and make it quicker and easier to use and share.
Sagent Technology provides integrated data mart tools for populating data
marts -- or functional data warehouses -- and giving end users intuitive
access to the data.

The company was co-founded by Ken Gardner and John Zicker, both formerly
with ReportSmith Inc., and its marketing efforts are headed by Perry
Mizota, formerly vice president of marketing at Business Objects Inc.
Sagent has strategic partnership agreements with Oracle, Microsoft, Prism
Solutions and Ralph Kimball Associates. Sagent is funded by Crosspoint
Venture Partners, El Dorado Ventures, Greylock Limited Partnerships and
U.S. Venture Partners.

Note to editors: Sagent's web site is located at: www.sagenttech.com

Sagent, Information Studio and Flashcube are trademarks of Sagent
Technology Inc. Seagate and Seagate Technology are registered trademarks of
Seagate Technology Inc. Seagate Software is a trademark of Seagate
Technology Inc. Seagate Crystal Reports and Seagate Crystal Info are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Seagate Technology Inc. or one of
its subsidiaries. StatView is a registered trademark of Abacus Concepts
Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their
respective owners.

CONTACT: Sagent Technology Inc. | Perry Mizota, 415/496-3109 |
[email protected] | or | Evans Communications | Lisa Sheeran,
415/648-0347 | [email protected]
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[First! for the Web]

Sagent Offers One-Stop Data Shopping

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Date: Wednesday, May 14, 1997
Source: PC Week
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PC Week via Individual Inc. : Review

Sagent Data Mart Solution 2.0 earns a PC Week Labs Analyst's Choice award
as a complete, integrated product that will allow companies to quickly
implement powerful departmental data marts.

Data Mart competes against IBM's Visual Warehouse and Informatica Corp.'s
PowerMart in the data movement and management arena. However, neither
Visual Warehouse nor PowerMart has the end-user analysis or Web link
components included in Data Mart. Sagent Technology Inc.'s product is also
easier to install and use than either PowerMart or Visual Warehouse, and
its graphical interface is one of the best we've seen.

Priced similarly to its competitors, the $65,000 Sagent package includes
data mart design and management tools, source data extraction and
transformation tools, and 20 sets of end-user data analysis tools. All of
the above, plus a Web link component to provide access for an unlimited
number of Web browser users, sells for $105,000.

We installed Sagent Data Mart on a 90MHz Pentium-based server with 32MB of
RAM running Windows NT 4.0. Data Mart's server components require Windows
NT Server; the client components run on Windows NT or Windows 95. As a
ROLAP (relational online analytical processing) product, Data Mart requires
a relational database; we used Microsoft Corp.'s SQL Server 6.5.

Data Mart provides support for metadata repositories as well as target data
marts through native driver support for Microsoft's SQL Server, Oracle
databases and Sybase Inc.'s SQL Server. The product also supports Red Brick
Warehouse, DB2 and Informix Software Inc. systems, but only as a target
data mart, not as a metadata repository.

Prior to the installation of Sagent Data Mart, we had to create SQL Server
devices and databases for the repository. Once this was accomplished, the
installation ran quickly and smoothly.

Through its Admin feature, Data Mart provides flexible management options,
including user accounts, several types of user groups and a variety of user
roles. We easily added and modified accounts and set access levels for all
data mart features.

We also used the Admin feature to configure the Data Collection Agent,
which provides a multitier architecture of clients, agents and database
servers. Client requests are processed by the Data Collection Agent, which
in turn interacts with the database server, with agents set up as NT
services.

This architecture allows for impressive ROLAP performance: The conversion
of relational data for multidimensional analysis is handled by the agent on
the server, reducing network traffic and workload at the client
workstation.

The Design Studio component allowed us to create both a physical database
schema and a logical view of the metadata for the data mart. Once we
provided the server and database name for our source data, Design Studio
provided us with a list of available tables from the source database.
Selecting tables, columns and joins to create the new schemata was a
painless point-and-click process.

Data Mart is designed to work with the popular star schema model used in
most data marts (star schemata allow relational databases to do
multidimensional analyses). Two nifty features that are variations on this
theme in Design Studio are the time dimension generator, which
automatically creates time dimension tables, and the StarView Editor, which
creates aggregate tables to enhance query performance.

We also used Design Studio to create Data Flow Plans to populate our data
mart from source data. Data Flow Plans consist of SQL queries to retrieve
source data; transforms to manipulate the retrieved data; and target
tables, or sinks, to store or present the new formatted data. We were able
to easily create SQL query sources by dragging and dropping table and
column names from Data Mart's accessible parts bin into the workspace, as
well as quickly set up transformations and sinks.

Data Mart also includes VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) to create
custom transforms for scrubbing and manipulating source data. We could
create VBA programs to process and alter source records one at a time and
to prompt for user input when plans are executed.

Data Mart's crosstab is a top-notch multidimensional analysis tool. We
could easily pivot data by dragging headers between the X and Y axes, and
Data Mart quickly refreshed the crosstab view afterward. Plus and minus
signs indicated our ability to drill down or up through the data.

Data Flow Plans also can broadcast results to multiple users. Data Mart's
publish-and-subscribe broadcasting, along with automatic scheduling of plan
execution, make Data Mart a powerful workgroup solution.

John Shumate manages enterprise configurations for a major government
agency and is at [email protected].

<<PC Week -- 05-12-97>>
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[First! for the Web]

Sagent selected for Microsoft Alliance for Data Warehousing; program
ensures compatibility with Microsoft Data Warehousing offerings

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Date: Wednesday, May 28, 1997
Source: Business Wire
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PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via Individual Inc. -- Sagent Technology
Inc. today announced it has joined Microsoft's Alliance for Data
Warehousing.

The program is aimed at simplifying the implementation of data warehousing
solutions using Microsoft SQL Server. Membership in the alliance will help
ensure compatibility between the Sagent Data Mart Solution and Microsoft
BackOffice, as well as future Microsoft data warehousing offerings.

The Sagent Data Mart Solution is the industry's first integrated solution
for building and accessing data marts. From its original design, the
solution has been architected to take full advantage of Microsoft
technologies such as Windows 95, Windows NT, and the Component Object Model
(COM).

"Our solution was built from the ground up to support Microsoft
technologies, and our inclusion in this alliance will enable us to continue
our commitment," according to Perry Mizota, vice president of marketing for
Sagent Technology. "By establishing this alliance, Microsoft and its
alliance members are ensuring that customers' information needs can be met
without concern for interoperability issues."

"With its integrated approa About Sagent Technology Inc.

Sagent Technology was founded in June, 1995 to bring business information
closer to decision-makers and make it quicker and easier ting efforts are
headed by Perry Mizota, formerly vice president of marketing at Business
Objects Inc. Sagent has strategic partnership agreements with Oracle,
Microsoft, Prism Solutions and Ralph Kimball Associates. Sagent is funded
by Crosspoint Venture Partners, El Dorado Ventures, Greylock Limited
Partnerships and U.S. Venture Partners.

Note to editors: Sagents web site is located at: http://www.sagenttech.com
. Sagent is a trademark of Sagent Technology, Inc. All other trademarks are
the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Sagent Technology | Perry Mizota, 415/496-3109 |
[email protected] | 62; Boston 617-236-4266 or | 800-225-2030; SF
415-986-4422 or 800-227-0845; LA 310-820-9473 | Today's News On The Net -
Business Wire's full file on the Internet | with Hyperlinks to your home
page. | URL: http://www.businesswire.com | 
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