FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Decisioneering, DATASKILL Partner on Web-based Risk Analysis Workbench Denver, CO, April 15, 2002 – Decisioneering, Inc. developer of the award-winning Crystal Ball® 2000 line of decision-analysis software, has announced the formation of a strategic partnership with DATASKILL, a California-based eBusiness solutions integrator. The companies have combined talents to develop a Web-based risk-modeling environment. The Stochastic Modeling Workbench (SMW) lets users create and modify their own models in a local browser while tapping the power of stochastic and risk-analysis routines on a corporate server. The SMW environment was initially developed to support insurance companies that needed to model risk and profitability across aggregated policies. This entails a complex interaction among liabilities, reserves, premiums, and other factors. For example, purchasing reinsurance contracts allows insurers to reduce their liability exposure and consequently their reserve requirements. Traditional reinsurance reviews consist of running many simulations across various scenarios and performing statistical analyses on the results. “The traditional approach suffers from needing to create a different model to analyze each aggregation of policies,” says DATASKILL president Nigel Hook. “Often the analysis teams are distributed across locations or consist of members from both a consulting and an insurance company, which makes it difficult to maintain proper versions of the model. Also, as the models grow more complex, their performance degrades and they become exponentially harder to maintain.” DATASKILL developed the Stochastic Modeling Workbench (SMW) as a solution accelerator to address these issues. The SMW allows clients to model business scenarios graphically and hierarchically, thus greatly reducing problems of maintaining an accurate model structure. Its architecture also leverages the open standards approach of web services to ensure a flexible, extensible solution. The SMW runs from a central server and is accessed via a Web browser using a secure HTTP connection. This allows analysts to share models remotely and coordinate efforts on a project without breaching any firewalls. Although it displays in a browser, SMW maintains a desktop application feel with pull-down menu support, drag-and-drop, and 3D graphics. Business logic is stored as XML, making it easy to maintain and modify while enabling future integration with applications that support XML such as Microsoft Excel. “Because the Stochastic Modeling Workbench uses Open Crystal Ball (TM) as its core risk-analysis software,” says Charles Von Thun, CEO of Decisioneering, “existing investments in desktop Crystal Ball and Microsoft Excel models can be leveraged. As Excel moves towards XML standards, a clear path exists between standalone desktop risk analysis, using Excel and Crystal Ball, and Web-centric distributed risk analysis, using the Stochastic Modeling Workbench and Open Crystal Ball.” Founded in 1986, Denver-based Decisioneering, Inc. provides software, training, and consulting that simplify risk analysis and improve decision-making, including the industry-leading risk analysis package, Crystal Ball 2000. For further information about the company, call 800-289-2550 or visit Decisioneering’s web site, http://www.crystalball.com. DATASKILL is a privately owned eBusiness solutions integrator established in 1981 that delivers Speed to Value (TM). DATASKILL solutions include database engineering, business process automation, web enablement and seamless integration of internal and external business systems. For further information about DATASKILL, visit their Web site at http://www.dataskill.com or contact them at 858-755-3800. # # # Contact: Jennifer Mogck Marketing Communications Manager Decisioneering, Inc. 800-289-2550 jmogck@decisioneering.com Chuck Lane Solutions Consultant DATASKILL 858-755-3800 chuck@dataskill.com