For Immediate Release

Contact:
Steve Sears
Product Marketing Manager
ssears@franz.com
510-452-2000 x.154

Franz Inc. and PEPITe Jointly Announce a New Business Partnership to Market PEPITo Data Mining Solutions

Oakland, CA , July 1, 2006: Franz Inc. and PEPITe S.A. today announced their business partnership to jointly market PEPITe's flagship data mining solution, PEPITo. Data mining is increasingly playing a key role in the enterprise decision process because of today's competitive necessity to respond to changing market conditions quickly and correctly. PEPITo brings unique capabilities to meet today's data mining needs.

PEPITo offers all the standard data mining techniques including machine learning and statistical analyses, all organized in the form of a toolbox. A toolbox approach is significant for data mining applications because of their iterative and exploratory nature. Rarely can a data-mining question be sufficiently and precisely stated so that one will know a priori which data mining technique is most effective and what models (feature set and parameters) are most relevant. Typically, users employ one technique to study the data, estimate the model and derive some conclusions, then examine the problem from another angle with a different tool and model using knowledge learned from prior trials. This process iterates until one has a satisfactory interpretation.

The PEPITo tool box includes a powerful and fully programmable scripting language with direct access to all the data mining functions. This enables users to easily prototype and explore different data models and to combine, modify and adapt the tools according to the problem at hand during this iterative process. Additionally, PEPITo is integrated with an object database, AllegroCache; knowledge gained during one data mining step can simply be stored and reused in subsequent processes. For presentation of analysis results, PEPITo offers a complete suite of graphs, charts, trees and tables. An easy-to-use GUI is also provided for simple data mining problems without any programming.

PEPITo has been deployed to optimize many complex manufacturing operations in the production of steel, pulp and paper, glass, energy, etc. For example, Arcelor and ALCOA use it to improve the yield and quality of their processes; and Hydro Quebec uses it to optimize energy production.

"Franz, being the core technology provider to PEPITe, is very excited about the opportunity to market such an exceptional data mining product", says Sheng-Chuan Wu, Vice President of Franz Inc. "We are very happy that Franz will help bring the benefit of PEPITo's unique solution to more customers especially in the Asian market", says Philippe Mack, the managing director of PEPITe.

Franz Inc., based in Oakland, California, is the leading vendor of dynamic object-oriented development tools featuring Allegro Common Lisp, CLOS and AllegroCache OODB. Franz has a long association with AI and machine learning technology, the cornerstones of modern data mining techniques. Founded in 1984 and privately held, Franz Inc. has demonstrated consistent growth and profitability since its inception. To learn more about Franz and its products, contact Sheng-Chuan Wu at +1 (510) 452-2000, extension 170 or email: info@franz.com.

PEPITe spun off from the University of Liege in Belgium in 2002. Both the PEPIToΠproduct and the founding team came from the university's Machine Learning Laboratory. PEPITo brings together more than 15 years of research and development in applied data mining technology. It is a key component in many scientific applications and industrial developments. To learn more about PEPITe and its products contact Philippe Mack at +32 (0) 4 225 58 10 or email: info@pepite.be.