LAS VEGAS, ASCENTIAL WORLD 2004, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Celequest Corporation today announced from Ascential World 2004, the global data integration conference, that it has entered into a technology and marketing partnership agreement with Ascential Software Corporation (Nasdaq: ASCL), the enterprise data integration leader, to provide a solution for complete business visibility across the enterprise. Celequest is a Silver sponsor and is exhibiting at the Ascential World 2004 Partner Pavilion.

The integration of the Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite(TM) and Celequest Activity Suite provides a service-based enterprise data integration framework with complex business analytics providing visibility into the most pressing business metrics of the enterprise. The two companies will also collaborate on future standards and continued product integration.

Ascential Software and Celequest have implemented an end-to-end Web services architecture under which Ascential Software makes integrated real- time data from any source accessible to the Celequest Activity Server. Celequest accepts data directly from Ascential RTI(TM) and provides continuous analysis, exception management and active metrics. The analysis is available to business users through Operational Dashboards, facilitating quick decision- making and reducing the latency from when a business event occurs to when action is taken.

"Our relationship with Celequest is an important part of our strategy to give customers the business information they require to improve operational performance and decision making across every critical business dimension," said Bob Zurek, vice president, advanced technologies and product management, Ascential Software. "Celequest is a leader in providing BAM technology for operational performance management, they are also an active innovator and we are pleased to be working closely with them."

"By partnering with Ascential Software we are integrating with the industry leading suite for integrating and managing data from a variety of data sources," said Diaz Nesamoney, founder and CEO of Celequest. "Together we give operational managers the ability to measure business performance on a continuous basis with faster, easier access to many heterogeneous data sources."

Celequest and Ascential Software have integrated their products to seamlessly deliver the most current information, complex analytics and intuitive self-service dashboards. Unlike traditional performance management software, this solution brings together event-driven BAM and dashboard technology with real-time integration using a web-services model.

The benefits of the joint solution include:

* Improve decision-making. Easier access, correlation and analysis of operational and historic data shortens business cycles and brings better information to decision-makers at all levels more efficiently. Operational dashboards enable better control and analysis of business critical information.

* Improve efficiency. Eliminate the need for extra data stores and infrastructure that must be established, updated, and maintained. Unify data provisioning and access to minimize learning curves and limit the need for scarce high-end technical skills. Make the best use of existing storage and bandwidth before adding more.

* Reduce complexity. Get data access, integration and analysis under control. Simplify overall data access for data integration initiatives. Avoid proliferating many different integration solutions that are costly to maintain and administer, cause extra work for data owners and application developers, and are difficult to adapt to future requirements. Together, Ascential and Celequest provide a single solution for complete data integration and analysis across the enterprise.

About Celequest

Celequest is the leading provider of operational performance management solutions. Celequest delivers actionable information with operational dashboards and event-driven analytics empowering executives to make decisions and take immediate action to improve their business operations. Critical application areas for the company's technology include demand visibility, inventory monitoring, real-time sales analysis, margin optimization and logistics monitoring, enabling faster response to a wide spectrum of critical business events. Celequest was recently awarded the prestigious eWEEK Excellence Award in the category of Business Management: Analytics & Reporting, was named one of Intelligent Enterprise's 2004 "Companies to Watch" and is a finalist for the Software & Information Industry Association's (SIIA) 19th Annual Codie Award. Celequest is a privately held company based in Redwood City, California. For more information about Celequest, please visit http://www.celequest.com.

About Ascential Software

Ascential Software Corporation (Nasdaq: ASCL) is the leader in enterprise data integration. Customers and partners worldwide use the Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite(TM) to confidently transform data into accurate, reliable and complete business information to improve operational performance and decision-making across every critical business dimension. Our comprehensive end-to-end solutions provide on demand data integration complemented by our professional services, industry expertise, and methodologies.

Ascential Software is headquartered in Westboro, Mass., and has more than 3,000 customers and partners globally across such industries as financial services and banking, insurance, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, telecommunications and government. For more information call 1-800-966-9875 (508-366.3888 if calling from outside the US or Canada) or visit the Ascential Software website at http://www.ascential.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events, and these statements are subject to important factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this release address a variety of subjects including, for example, the functionality, characteristics, quality and performance capabilities of Ascential Software's products and technology; results achievable and benefits attainable through deployment of Ascential Software's products and provision of services; the ability of Ascential Software's products and technology to shorten business cycles and brings better information to decision-makers at all levels more efficiently; the ability of Ascential Software's products and technology to minimize learning curves and limit the need for scarce high-end technical skills; reduction of cost of ownership; and increased return on IT investment. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements: the ability of Ascential Software to expand its market share; growth rates for the enterprise data integration software market; general business conditions in the software industry, the technology sector, and in the domestic and international economies; rapid technological change in the markets served by Ascential Software; dependence on international operations; global and geopolitical instability; and difficulties that Ascential Software may experience integrating technologies, operations and personnel of completed or future acquisitions. For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements, please refer to the filings made by Ascential Software with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Ascential Software disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements made herein to reflect any change in Ascential Software's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which such statements are based. Ascential Software is not responsible for statements attributed to third parties within this release or in any materials referenced herein.

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SOURCE Celequest Corporation

Web Site: http://www.ascentialsoftware.com

Colin Crook for Celequest
415-321-1887
ccrook@sparkpr.com

Chas Kielt for Ascential Software
508-599-7256
chas.kielt@ascential.com