Real-Time Business Intelligence Takes Off at Forward Air With Appfluent TechnologyNation's Leading Air Forwarding Business Saves Hundreds of Thousands Of Dollars by Choosing Business Intelligence Infrastructure Provider to Enable Real-Time Data Reporting Across the Company ARLINGTON, Va., April 1, 2003 -- Appfluent Technology announced today that it has been selected by Forward Air, the nations' leading air freight logistics vendor (Nasdaq: FWRD), to provide infrastructure to enable real-time business intelligence (BI) corporate-wide. Appfluent Technology's flagship product, the Appfluent Accelerator, allowed Forward Air to get access to the timeliest information for reporting purposes without hurting the performance of critical online systems. The Accelerator also enabled the company to extend the life of its business intelligence hardware and software systems and defer purchases worth approximately $250,000 in upgrade costs. "In today's business environment, companies must be agile to compete successfully. This means ensuring people get the information they need to make sound decisions quickly," said Frank Gelbart, president and CEO of Appfluent Technology. "We are proud to be helping Forward Air realize the full promise of the real-time enterprise and solidify its industry leadership position." Glenn Adelaar, chief information officer, Forward Air said, "Pretty much everything we do is real-time. Forward Air tracks shipments from the time of tender through arrival at one of our 80 freight terminals across the U.S. and Canada. Timely shipment status reporting is critical to Forward Air and our customers. The Appfluent Accelerator lets us access the timely information we need without overburdening our key production systems with reporting requests. We believe that the Appfluent Accelerator allows us to extend our current solutions rather than invest in more costly alternatives. The Appfluent Accelerator is an intelligent, self-managing, dedicated reporting server. Its integrated software dynamically offloads BI-application queries from production databases while optimizing overall system performance. Unlike traditional approaches to reporting infrastructure, the Appfluent Accelerator is a cost-effective, low-overhead alternative that requires virtually no ongoing administration and management. Forward Air sought to support an Actuate Enterprise Reporting application running on an Oracle 8i production database. The company needed frequent and timely reporting on operational data from its freight tracking application for use by management and staff. In addition to the finance and management reports that are typical in most large organizations, Forward Air uses real- time data to manage key accounts and to measure the performance of its sales and operations groups. Forward Air also provides an online service to customers. "Fast Track" and "Forward Air Premier" allow customers to follow the progress of their freight shipments up to the minute. Within 10 days of deploying the Appfluent Accelerator, Forward Air experienced: * a 300 percent improvement in response time for report generation; * a 34 percent reduction in CPU utilization on its production OLTP database when reporting requests are generated; * improved performance of transaction and reporting systems; * extension of existing hardware and software investments; and * a deferral of $247,500 in upgrade costs. Adelaar concluded, "We looked at many options for offloading reporting traffic from our production database systems. But for the most part, it meant spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on hardware and software -- tough in these budget conscious times. The Appfluent Accelerator is a better alternative. It lets us put critical information in the hands of our managers without disrupting our operations or breaking the bank." About Appfluent Technology Appfluent Technology is the business intelligence infrastructure company. It provides Global 2000 companies unique tools, based on analytics and automation, to scale business intelligence systems to meet the growing need for timely information for decision support. Based in Arlington, Virginia, Appfluent Technology, formerly known as InfoCruiser, is privately held and venture backed. The company is committed to providing business users with the timeliest data for decision support and to reducing the cost and complexity of deploying and managing business intelligence systems. For more information on the company or its Accelerator product, visit http://www.appfluent.com. About Forward Air Forward Air operates what it believes is the largest and most comprehensive network of surface transportation of deferred airfreight. The company provides scheduled surface transportation through an expansive network of 80 terminals located on or near major airports in the United States and Canada. The company provides these services as a cost-effective alternative to air transportation of cargo that must be delivered at a specific time but is relatively less time-sensitive than traditional airfreight or when air transportation is not economical.
CONTACT: Sherrilynne Starkie, PR Director, of Appfluent Technology,
+1-703-284-0835, or sstarkie@appfluent.com.
SOURCE Appfluent Technology
Web Site: http://www.appfluent.com
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