Fortis For Informix Powers Billion Dollar Argentine Bank

Branford CT, USA – February 23, 1999

Westbrook Technologies™ , a leading developer and pioneer in document management software, and Informix® Corporation (NASDAQ: IFMX), the technology leader in enterprise database-powered solutions, today announced that Banco Hipotecario S.A., one of Argentina's leading mortgage banks has selected Westbrook's powerful Fortis™ , client/server document management system and Informix Dynamic Server™, the high-performance database engine, as the database solution to power bank operations. The combined solution now offered by Westbrook is called Fortis for Informix.

By combining the power of feature-rich Fortis document management with Banco Hipotecario's day-to-day operations on the Informix Dynamic Server, the bank is turning more than 30 million paper documents into electronic images that will ultimately accelerate customer service delivery and in-house data processing.

Westbrook incorporated Informix as a database backend option in the Fortis product suite at the request of Banco Hipotecario SA, which had already deployed Informix Dynamic Server across the enterprise to manage over 120 million records. As a result, Fortis for Informix is now available to all Fortis customers as a selected database engine for users requiring an enterprise wide, high-performance document management system.

"Informix strongly supports the new addition to the Fortis suite as an outstanding solution for enterprise environments running their mission-critical applications. We believe that Banco Hipotecario made the best choice for bank customers in selecting Fortis applications coupled with the Informix Dynamic Server to accelerate business growth and increase efficiencies," said Leonardo Gannio, Informix country manager in Argentina.

Banco Hipotecario's Dilemma

Banco Hipotecario SA in Buenos Aires was facing a massive paper problem. They had so many loan documents, the walls were literally starting to collapse under them.

To deal with the immediate issue, the bank put special structural supports in place to keep the building erect. They then turned to File Solution SA, a Westbrook Business Partner in Buenos Aires, to identify a scalable document management solution that could solve their paper problem and interface effectively with the bank's existing database platform.

Banco Hipotecario SA's overwhelming paper weight stemmed from its long-standing reputation as Argentina's largest mortgage bank. They have assets totaling $4.67 billion in addition to a 41.6 percent s hare of the entire mortgage market. With its 1,570 employees in 24 branch offices, the technology req uired to manage the phenomenal growth of its file base had to have superior performance and advanced scalability. Fortis and Informix proved to be the perfect match.

The Solution

"We felt that the powerful combination of Fortis for document imaging with our proven Informix database was the ideal solution to electronically manage this volume of documents with a rapid speed of delivery we required ," said Carlos Freitas, Banco Hipotecario's Executive Archive Chief. The project was spearheaded with support from the bank's Project Managers Gabriel Guralnik, José Campins and Liliana Albarracín.

With the new Fortis for Informix system in place, File Solution SA currently has two eight-hour shifts of 15 workers preparing and scanning an average of 100,000 images (or 5-7 GB) into the system each day. The backlog is extensive: They intend to convert 250,000 records—which each contain about 120-140 pages of information—into electronic images that will then be used to instantly retrieve information for customer inquiries or internal communications at the desktop.

File Solutions SA also has a dedicated document preparation group and a QA team in place that inspect every document after it has been indexed. The documents are stored using KOM Networks' optical software, OptiStorm on a Plasmon Jukebox. The paper documents are scanned using six Kodak 3500 Duplex scanners. Both products are certified to work with Westbrook's client/server suite.

File Solutions SA has written several DDE applications to aid and accelerate the capture process. One of the applications presets the scanner for a particular type of document. The user hits a "one-click" menu to simplify the scanner setting process.

"Uniting Fortis and Informix gives Banco Hipotecario ultimate scalability with a powerful, feature-rich backend. We have a database that delivers enterprise-powered performance with client/server document management software that will bring a greater level of organization, productivity and efficiency throughout the institution," said Juan del Rio, Banco Hipotecario's System Manager.

Creating Fortis For Informix

"We knew adding Informix as a database option to Fortis was the right choice because the product and company are an industry-recognized leader in database technology," said Steve Luster, Westbrook Technologies' Director of Marketing. "By unifying the power of Fortis with Informix, we can offer organizations with a large volume of documents the ability to make faster, more informed business decisions using a high-performance database engine."

Before designating Informix as a certified Fortis option, Westbrook staff subjected the database product to rigorous compatibility testing at its corporate headquarters. A 60- day The certification process ensued, which included development support and extensive quality assurance testing by in Westbrook's QA Department. As a result the customer's demand for a compatible, robust database was met with Informix's unmatched performance and advanced reliability. .

The complex process was under severe time constraints to meet the customer's demand. QA analysts were able to complete the process within 60 days.

"Our QA Department was able to move through the process quickly because the database was reliable. Testing was also simplified by the user-friendly graphical interface and immediate assistance of Informix support staff," said Luster.

About KOM Networks

KOM Networks is a world leading provider of flexible, secure data archiving and storage management software. Over 10,000 of the world's leading corporations have recognized KOM Networks as the most logical, unobtrusive and secure way to store, access and protect their data. KOM is enabling enterprises large and small a cost effective way to improve productivity and meet compliance requirements without altering their network infrastructure or daily business routines. The industry pioneer holds vital industry patents for electronic file lifecycle management, virtual file management and eWORM fixed content hard disk archiving. Find out how KOM Networks can help you implement a comprehensive information lifecycle solution to optimize your existing storage environment and meet your compliance requirements.

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About Westbrook Technologies

Founded in 1984, Westbrook Technologies, is a leader in document management and COLD (Electronic Report Management) software. Drawing on its experience and expertise in scanning and imaging technology, Westbrook introduced its award-winning File Magic series in 1990.

The company introduced Fortis, an ODBC compliant 32-bit client/server document management software suite in April 1997. Today its products are in use at over 12,000 customer sites in 32 countries. Westbrook's products are exclusively sold through an international network of authorized resellers who offer education, customization, services and support.

Westbrook's corporate headquarters is located in Branford, CT with additional offices in Sunnyvale, CA; Irvine, CA, Dallas, TX, Chicago, Ill, Atlanta, GA and Washington, DC.

About Informix

Informix Corporation, based in Menlo Park, California, provides innovative database products that assist the world's major corporations to attain competitive advantage. Informix is widely recognized as the technology leader for corporate computing environments ranging from small workgroups to very large parallel processing applications. Informix's database server, application development tools, superior customer service, and strong partnerships enable the company to be at the forefront of major information technology solution areas including data warehousing, high performance OLTP, and Web/E-commerce.