New York City. May 19, 2005

Siderean Software, Inc., a pioneer in next-generation information search and aggregation technology, has announced the general availability of its Seamark Navigation Server -- the first turn-key, enterprise-class navigation capability that permits users to "search the way they think" using a natural, intuitive process. The new system enables enterprise IT personnel to implement -- often in a few minutes or hours -- compelling business applications that feature an aggregated, single point of access to widely-varying, distributed sources information, and a means for knowledge workers and other end users to pinpoint precisely the information they are seeking, in a few, quick steps. This announcement is being made this week at the Enterprise Search Summit taking place in New York City.

"Aggregating information from numerous sources to achieve a single, unified view of critical business processes -- such as a consolidated view of a customer that spans accounting, sales, support, and marketing -- has never been more important, or complex," says Bradley P. Allen, chief technology officer and founder of Siderean Software. "Siderean has developed a single, turn-key application that can -- with minimal setup -- access and consolidate data sets and live data feeds from virtually anywhere into a cohesive, organized whole, and then provide end users with the capability to navigate that information with unprecedented speed and efficiency -- many times faster than using even the best of the brute-force, keyword search tools available today. That application is Seamark."

Pinpoint Data, Pinpoint Navigation

Seamark provides IT personnel and information architects the means to pinpoint specific information by easily integrating various data sources (both structured and unstructured from both inside and outside the enterprise) as a new, dynamic data collection that can be browsed, searched, or queried. It then generates, literally with the click of a mouse, an immediately browsable application that enables users to pinpoint information within that collection that they seek to satisfy their business needs. The Web-ready, Seamark-generated application can be used "as is"; refined as necessary for look, feel or function; incorporated into a Web page; or linked to other applications as a Web service.

In a Seamark-generated application, users discover information with "pinpoint navigation" -- a next generation "search and discovery" technique that differs considerably from the linear, keyword search processes used by Google and others. Rather than deluging the user with page after page of keyword-driven lists -- which may or may not contain the information being sought -- users are presented an intuitive set of categories that represent different views -- or organizations -- of the data in the collection. Selecting the category that is most relevant to the information sought, the user can iteratively drill down into increasing levels of refinement -- usually in only a few clicks -- and be left with the precise information being sought -- if it exists -- or a minimal investment in time, if it does not. Also known as "faceted navigation", the technique enables users typically to converge on "answers" in a fraction of time as is necessary when using keyword search. "It's like finding an ethnic restaurant by pinpointing 'restaurant', 'ethnic', 'Moroccan', and 'Fifth Avenue' in a 15-second look at the Manhattan Yellow Pages, versus searching page by page through the White Pages for a week," said Allen.

Search the Way You Think

What makes pinpoint navigation so effective is that it permits users to search the way they think. "Humans are brilliant in sifting through massive amounts of information with great intuitive leaps if the information is organized into familiar groupings," says Allen. "The problem today, with the exponential explosion in accessible data, is that generating that organization and coding it into a business software application is a profoundly expensive and difficult task. And sadly, once created, it becomes obsolete nearly at once, as the underlying data grows and changes. Seamark overcomes this problem with Siderean's unique, 'dynamic discovery' process."

Dynamic Discovery, Dynamic Application

What Seamark does is systematically examine the various data sources to which it is introduced, discovers both the explicit and implicit structure or organization in the data, produces a "metadata" description of its content and characteristics, and then, as described above, automatically generates a browsable, prototype application based upon that description. And as the underlying data changes and grows, the choices presented users change with it. For example, a Seamark application that includes an RSS data feed as one of the data sources could not only alert the user that new information has become available, but that new categories of information are available, as well. "Not only can enterprises envision and define entirely new, strategic business applications based upon previously unavailable, aggregated sources of data, but the generated applications -- and the information they present -- are completely dynamic," said Allen.

Turnkey Implementation

The enterprise information architect will find Seamark easy to integrate into the corporate data infrastructure, as it provides open-standards-based interfaces to data sources -- including data feeds -- that include JDBC (Java Database Connectivity), RDF/XML (Resource Description Format in Extensible Markup Language), RSS (Rich Site Summary -- the emerging Web news syndication standard) and more.

Seamark uses a Web-services model which permits fast, easy integration with other enterprise applications, and is highly scaleable. Client interfaces include RSS, SOAP, and ASP/JSP. It is offered as a standalone platform under Linux, Windows and Solaris.

Representative Applications

Siderean's Seamark technology is being used heavily in a growing number of both internal enterprise and public applications where fast, pinpoint access to information is key. Some representative implementations, which immediately demonstrate the benefits of Siderean's approach, include the "Resource Connection" (http://resource.smartdesktop.org/rescon/) by the Indiana Humanities Council, "Vacation Search" (http://www.beachhouse.com/advsearch/search.asp) from Beachhouse.com, and the Environmental Health News archives from Environmental Health Services (http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/archives.jsp), among others.

"Each of these pinpoint navigation applications allows you to search the way you think," comments Allen, "and the power of this approach becomes immediately obvious upon use. But what is particularly exciting is that Seamark provides exactly what industry analyst IDC says IT managers and enterprise data administrators have been looking for -- a single point of access to multiple sources of structured and unstructured information ('Who is Buying Content Management and Search and Retrieval Software, and Why', IDC #31921, September 2004). It also eliminates what is in essence is a 'Hobson's Choice' for IT managers."

That Hobson's choice, explained Allen, is: "Do I send vast amounts of my resources into a development black hole to devise and maintain custom knowledge management applications, or do I let my constituents waste their own resources, over and over, by endlessly crawling through page after page of classical keyword-driven search results in search of business intelligence?"

Now, they need to do neither. Seamark offers a packaged, turn-key solution that is as fast and easy to use as a well-designed, custom knowledge management application while at the same time providing the low lifecycle costs, scalability, and the relative simplicity of a classical search engine. "IDC said that 'software vendors that can integrate unstructured and structured corporate information into a single access point...will offer a compelling product'," stated Allen. "With its next-generation, pinpoint navigation capability that offer users the fewest clicks to 'aha!', and turn-key, 'zero to implementation' in minutes to hours, we believe that Seamark is that product."

Additional information about Siderean's Seamark Navigation Server is available online at http://www.siderean.com/products.html.

About Siderean

Siderean Software, Inc. is the world's first company to introduce turn-key, enterprise-class navigation software that permits you to "search the way you think". Siderean's breakthrough technology automatically organizes any kind of digital information -- whether structured or unstructured, wherever it resides -- into intuitive groupings that permit users to rapidly grasp the scope of what's available and to pinpoint precisely what they require -- a process that is proving to be substantially faster, more effective, and more precise than existing knowledge management or search solutions.

Siderean's next-generation Seamark software, built on open standards, is easy to implement into existing portals, browser and custom applications -- often in a matter of hours -- and automatically provides turn-key interfaces for use by both information architects and end users.

Siderean's software can be seen in operation at several high-profile sites on the Internet, and is installed for internal use at a growing number of enterprises. Its technology, for which several patents have been filed, benefits from the company's mission to achieve the proper balance between man and machine in organizing information, and the vital role of human intuition. The company, based in El Segundo, California, has raised $6 million from Clearstone Ventures, Innocal, and Red Rock Ventures. For more information, visit www.siderean.com.

Company's Award-Winning Product Manages Complex IT Infrastructures from End-to-End to Predict and Prevent Problems

At Gartner ITxpo, Integrien Corporation, the leader in integrity management, today launched by announcing a $6.5 million Series A round of venture capital funding. The investment was lead by Clearstone Venture Partners with additional participation by Tech Coast Angels and other investors. The funding will be used to rapidly expand operations and establish Integrien's position as a leading provider of integrity management solutions for enterprise systems.

The company offers a proven product for managing complex, distributed IT infrastructures holistically in a way that lets IT operations predict and prevent problems. As distributed architectures fragment even more with new service oriented architectures, the number of interdependent elements to manage has put most IT operations groups in fire-fighting mode. Enterprises are vulnerable because the evolution of IT management solutions has not kept up with the geometric increase of IT complexity and business reliance on technology.

Integrien's strategy is to introduce comprehensive integrity management products to address the new class of IT vulnerabilities associated with increasing system complexity and granular interdependencies in mixed technology information systems. The company's integrity management product, Integrien Alive, directly attacks the problem by allowing IT operations to holistically manage an entire IT infrastructure, equally across all functional stacks. The product automatically discovers the entire IT infrastructure and associated components, integrates data gathering with a special focus on the interrelated elements that make up transactions, and uses advanced analytics to understand what is normal for the infrastructure at any given point in time.

"After spending two years building our extremely powerful product, and proving its value with established customers, I am gratified to launch the company with the backing of a winning team of investors and advisors," said Al Eisaian, CEO and cofounder of Integrien. "We believe we have a tremendous market opportunity because existing management solutions don't solve the big problem: providing a holistic view of the complex interdependent elements of distributed systems together with the ability to predict and prevent slow transactions and IT-dependent business service outages regardless of the cause. Alive is the first solution that assures the integrity of a company's enterprise system."

"Too often IT complexity causes fragility that interrupts or slows business operations, and IT organizations are frustrated because of it. The result is a tremendous market need for integrity management solutions," said Phil Ressler, vice president of Clearstone Venture Partners. "Integrien's Alive means IT organizations can report 'business as normal' every day and understand how to make a company's business processes more efficient and dependable. With market-leading innovations that are uniquely informative, and easy to buy, install and use, we believe Integrien will succeed."

"Integrien already has proven the significant need of its product by the impact it has made with customers like Baxter Healthcare and Alcatel," said Jim Armstrong, managing director of Clearstone Venture Partners. "Most organizations find great value just from the ability to see their entire infrastructure in one view. That's amplified by the strategic impact and positive ROI that comes from Integrien's ability to take IT organizations out of fire-fighting mode. We think Integrien will become an important vendor to enterprises everywhere."

"Burgeoning complexity within application hosting ecosystems has forced systems managers into react-only mode, rather than being able to maintain critical performance levels through anticipating problems and heading them off," said Dana Gardner, senior analyst at Yankee Group. "Integrien's Alive provides a significant step toward offering the prioritized information and actionable visibility that IT operations mangers need - without degrading systems in the process. Such higher levels of intelligent diagnostic insight - the core of integrity management - allow operators to quickly triage problems, to move to auto-response capabilities for solutions, and provide constant pro-active performance tuning benefits across widely distributed systems."

Integrien is led by cofounders CEO Al Eisaian and CTO Dr. Mazda Marvasti, PhD., successful entrepreneurs who were instrumental in growing LowerMyBills.com from startup to profitability in 16 months. The Integrien management team also includes several seasoned executives who come from some of the technology industry's leading companies, including EDS, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Data Systems, Novadigm, Oracle and Tivoli.

About Integrien

Integrien Corporation is the leading provider of integrity management solutions. Integrien's products and services allow enterprise IT organizations to predict, prevent and heal problems in technology-based business systems. As a result, Integrien customers experience higher-quality business operations that are more efficient, continuously available and far easier to maintain. Integrien Alive(TM) Transaction Integrity Manager holistically maps a real-time view of the end-to-end health of mission critical business transactions through complex IT ecosystems. Alive warns of looming system constraints before they threaten business performance, pinpoints failures, deduces causes, and recommends best practice responses to return systems to full operating integrity.



CONTACT: Integrien Kevin Strehlo, 650-207-5047 kevin.strehlo@integrien.com or Lois Paul & Partners Ted Weismann, 781-782-5779 ted_weismann@lpp.com