Matisse Software Announces Strategic Partnership With Ascentn

San Francisco, CA - May 27, 2004 – Matisse Software today announced a new strategic partnership with Ascentn. Both Ascentn and Matisse serve enterprise customers with products that strategically complement each other and are both aimed at Microsoft .NET environments.

The Ascentn AgilePoint BPMS (Business Process Management System) suite enables business to implement process-based applications and integrations that power end-to-end business operations and respond to market changes at the business level using reusable functions built by IT. It integrates the activities of employees, customers, partners, and systems into unified processes and helps achieve cross-functional and cross-organizational business integration in a cost effective and manageable manner.

Matisse 7, the ultimate database for .NET, is an innovative Post-Relational SQL database for .NET environments that natively supports Objects and XML. Matisse greatly simplifies the architecture of applications by removing the need for an Object-Relational mapping layer and the severe limitations that come with it. This feature alone cuts the length of the application code by 30% to 50%, thus paying off in terms of faster time-to-market due to shorter database development cycles, lower TCO due to lower maintenance requirements, and higher overall database performance.

As part of the agreement, the two companies will conduct joint marketing and promotional activities and will also collaborate on joint sales opportunities.

“Our customers are rethinking their business processes and are developing new applications that often require a new database management system. They will definitely benefit from the ability to handle objects efficiently with a post-relational database such as Matisse,” said Jesse Shiah, CEO of Ascentn. “Combined with our AgilePoint BPMS suite, Matisse will help them deploy their applications a lot faster.”

“We are very pleased to work with Ascentn,” said Didier Cabannes, CEO of Matisse Software, “Like us they are focused on making their customers more productive. The AgilePoint BPMS suite brings a lot of value to many of our customers in allowing them to streamline their business processes. It is based on the latest .NET technology and therefore integrates particularly well with Matisse.”

About Matisse Software
Matisse Software, Inc. delivers database software and services to companies that need to rapidly, and cost effectively, develop and deploy scalable applications and services. Matisse, the company's flagship product, is the first ever SQL-Object programmable data server on the market. Matisse has enabled developers across the world to implement applications and services that require high performance on complex data that goes beyond the modeling capabilities of legacy relational databases. The Matisse database has been powering mission critical systems including nuclear power plants and pharmaceutical plants for over a decade. Matisse Software Inc. is a privately held company. For more information visit www.matisse.com.

About Ascentn
Ascentn is a leading Business Process Management System (BPMS) provider created by a team of driven people and industry veterans who strive to incorporate the principles of relentless innovation for the benefit of its customers. Ascentn’s solutions help enterprises integrate the activities of employees, customers, partners, and systems into unified processes and achieve cross-functional and cross-organizational business integration in a cost effectiven and manageable manner. Its solutions also enable both information worker and developer to effectively collaborate and continuously improve integration and process efficiency through rapid modeling, simulation, execution, and optimization of business processes. Our mission is to help companies of any size attain and sustain operational success through process excellence. AgilePoint BPMS redefines the boundary of enterprise class BPM performance and affordability. So even medium enterprises can now quickly reward themselves with quantifiable BPM benefits. To learn more, please visit http://www.ascentn.com/ or call +1-650-968-6789.

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Matisse Software, Inc. Press Contact
Claude Ezran
cezran@matisse.com
www.matisse.com