United States Department of Agriculture Adopts ProClarity Analytics Platform to Streamline Operations and Inspection ProcessProClarity's Advanced Analytics Enable USDA to Increase Efficiency and Uniformity of Inspections and Accountability Among Inspectors and Managers Boise, IDAHO, February 11, 2003 - ProClarity Corporation, a leading provider of innovative analytic solutions for the enterprise, today announced the deployment of the ProClarity® Analytics Platform within the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Used across the entire organization as part of its Performance Based Inspection System, ProClarity allows users with varying computer skills to access and analyze critical information that would otherwise be unavailable on a timely basis. FSIS's use of ProClarity empowers managers to view, download and conduct analysis on data pertaining to inspections to provide a complete snapshot of over 6,500 meat, poultry, and egg processing plants throughout the country. The ability to quickly analyze pertinent data has become an invaluable component in the highly mobile FSIS workforce's ability to improve the efficiency and uniformity of inspections. "It was critical that we met the needs of all of our various users by providing a solution that is easy to learn and deploy while taking advantage of FSIS's existing resources," said Peter Kuhmerker, the director of Field Automation and Information Management Division in FSIS, USDA. "ProClarity's open platform allows the USDA to build and deliver multiple applications to the individual user. And because of its adaptability, users only need to learn ProClarity once to fully take advantage of the technology and analytical capabilities -- a huge cost and time savings for deploying this solution out into the field. During the evaluation period, ProClarity's unique visualization and information delivery were critical factors in allowing us to graphically display and analyze what data is relevant in order to manage our inspection program." Originally scoped to be a 25-user solution, the project quickly gained momentum after a demonstration at a national event and is now being used by senior management, 15 district managers, and their staffs within the FSIS. ProClarity's analytic offering provides access to a collection of more than 30 million reports and inspections and will soon be expanded to over 170 inspection circuit supervisors. Hosted atop a Sybase database and aggregated by Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, the data is updated on a weekly basis and parsed out into localized cubes for the individual inspection circuits. ProClarity's architecture allows information, regardless of location, to be quickly accessible to circuit supervisors for downloading and viewing at their convenience. The ability to view and manipulate the data on their own schedule enables managers to be more efficient, provide a higher level of service and manage inspection activities in their geographic area. ProClarity also enables management to spot and analyze trends for immediate action. With ProClarity, the FSIS has also been able to reduce reporting time from several weeks to literally a five minute process that produces a targeted report for the user's unique needs. After an extensive evaluation, in which the FSIS reviewed several analytic solutions, ProClarity's open analytic platform proved to be the most powerful technology for delivering multiple applications with minimal training, to meet the unique needs of individual users and leverage existing data systems. "The USDA is committed to excellence in the safety and standards that the United States Government has implemented to ensure that citizens are provided with the highest level of product available," said Dave Hallmen, vice president of worldwide operations at ProClarity. "The USDA's adoption of ProClarity provides them with a powerful platform for delivering multiple applications for accessing and analyzing pertinent and timely information, with limited resource and training expenditures. ProClarity's graphical and intuitive user interface brings the data to life and allows users to gain a complete understanding of issues and trends that are impacting the facilities in order to improve inspection efficiency and uniformity," continued Hallmen. The Food Safety and Inspection Service The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the public health agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged, as required by the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspection Act, and the Egg Products Inspection Act. About ProClarity Corporation ProClarity Corporation is an award-winning provider of enterprise analytic solutions. Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Boise, Idaho, ProClarity develops tailored analytic solutions that drive success by enabling enterprise organizations to derive the maximum business advantage from their valuable data capital. ProClarity analytics help such leading enterprise companies as AT&T, Allstate, CompUSA, Ericsson, GE Capital, HP, Level 3 Communications, Nordstrom, Pennzoil QuakerState, Pfizer, Roche and Verizon measure, predict and optimize business performance by facilitating more collaborative work processes and ensuring decision makers make more accurate decisions. Platform OEM customers include ABC Technologies, Changepoint, Epicor, FRx Software, Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions, Infinium, Manhattan Associates and WebTrends. For more information visit the web site at www.proclarity.com.
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Angie O'Hara
Public Relations Manager
ProClarity Corporation
(208) 344-1630 xt.2133
aohara@proclarity.com
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