Canon Revamps Global Product
Quality Analysis System with Informix Software's Red Brick Decision
Server
MENLO PARK, Calif.--March 27, 2001--
System Delivers Shared Use of Product Quality Information,
Supports Rapid Decision-Making In Marketing Strategies
Informix Software(R), the database company(TM), a subsidiary of
Informix(R) Corporation (Nasdaq:IFMX), today announced that Canon, a
leading provider of popular consumer products worldwide in the fields
of imaging and information, including cameras and lenses, printers,
scanners and video equipment, is relying on Informix Red Brick(R)
Decision Server(TM) to advance its ongoing product quality analysis
initiative.
"We're making sweeping reforms in market quality programs and
services across the whole corporation," says Osamu Sawamura, assistant
director of the Quality Planning Center at Canon. "We needed a way for
top management to be able to get a handle -- in real time -- on market
shifts in product quality, and a means for the quality management
staff on location to act rapidly in response."
Canon developed its comprehensive Field Information Tracking
System (FITS) to analyze market product quality information using Red
Brick. With Red Brick as its data mining solution and high-speed query
engine, FICS centrally manages data on defect and return rates for
consumer products shipped around the world, including the 1 million
product repairs that Canon completes annually. Product and marketing
departments are both able access information via the Internet with Red
Brick, enabling timely monitoring of market product quality. As a
result, market product quality analysis that once took days to
complete now takes only a few minutes.
"When new products go on the market, everyone is on tenterhooks --
everyone wants to see what's happening in real-time," said Brian
Staff, vice president of marketing at Informix Software. "Red Brick
answers that need by performing analysis every day -- or even every
hour."
Informix Red Brick Decision Server focuses on meeting specific
business needs, including fast load performance, high-capacity/high
performance query processing and efficient management of very large
databases. Unlike traditional OLTP databases, Informix Red Brick
Decision Server is a specialized database technology that has been
designed and optimized to meet the requirements of data marts and data
warehouses without the complexity and overhead that more traditional
database engines require.
About Informix Software
Informix Software, the database company, is a leading provider of
database-management systems for data warehousing, transaction
processing and e-business applications. With more than 100,000
customers worldwide, Informix Software delivers high-performance
database systems in markets including retail, financial services,
government, health care, manufacturing, media and publishing, and
telecommunications. For more information, visit the Informix Web site
at www.informix.com.
(c)2001 Informix Corporation. All rights reserved. The following
are trademarks of Informix Corporation or its affiliates, one or more
of which may be registered in the U.S. or other jurisdictions:
Informix(R), the database company(TM)and Informix Red Brick(R)Decision
Server(TM).
--30--rr/se*
CONTACT: McKenzie Kesselring Inc.
Jason Jepson, 503/225-0725
Jepson@mkinc.com
or
Informix Software
Sharon Thompson, 503/721-2385
sharon.thompson@informix.com