Torrent Systems and Fingerhut Named Finalists inIntelligent Enterprise Magazine's 1999...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 21, 1999--

Torrent Systems, Inc., announced today that it was named a finalist in Intelligence Enterprise magazine's prestigious RealWare Awards. The selection recognized the innovative and exceptional information technology (IT) solution built by

Fingerhut used Orchestrate to enable a mail stream optimization (MSO) program that would allow the company to process the massive amounts of data it needed to optimize customer selection over multiple catalogs rather than individual catalogs. With trillions of possible customer/catalog combinations, Fingerhut originally estimated that the system would take more than 20 days to complete processing--an unacceptable length of time for a company that mails more than one million catalogs every day. Using Orchestrate, Fingerhut was able to execute the MSO in parallel, cutting runtime to less than ten hours. As a result of the Orchestrate-enabled MSO, Fingerhut discovered methods for dramatically cutting its catalog distribution list without decreasing revenue. The company expects to see a multi-million dollar return on its investment this year.

This year's RealWare Awards had the largest response in terms of entries since the program started seven years ago. Judges focused on the use of software tools and algorithms to enable business users and analysts to make smarter decisions, learn about new business, supply chain, or market conditions as quickly as possible, and develop products and services based on a deeper knowledge of customers.

Allen Razdow, President of Torrent Systems, stated "Torrent is proud to be recognized as to be providing business value to customers like Fingerhut."

"Orchestrate was a critical piece of the MSO. Without Orchestrate, we could not have achieved our goal of optimizing our advertising efforts," said Fingerhut Group Manager for Corporate Research and Analysis Randy Erdahl. "As for future uses, we foresee other ways that we could reap benefits from this investment."

Winners will be announced August 3, 1999 at the Decision Processing '99 Conference produced by DCI and Database Associates, in San Jose, CA, as well as in "Intelligent Enterprise," and online at www.realwareawards.com.

About Torrent Systems, Inc.

Torrent Systems' flagship product, Orchestrate, is an integration and performance framework that enables enterprises to deploy business intelligence systems that can process massive amounts of data at the speed required in the Internet era. Unlike conventional systems implementation and integration techniques, Orchestrate combines powerful parallel processing technology and open APIs to help enterprises realize the highest possible processing performance, achieve point-and-click integration of best-of-breed applications, and shorten system deployment time. Today, Orchestrate users are deploying systems that integrate and scale the performance of the leading packages in use in data warehouses, including SAS, Harte-Hank's Relationship Builder direct marketing software, i.d.Centric's data quality applications, and more. Customers include Fingerhut Companies, Inc., Sears, Roebuck and Co., United Airlines Inc., and Wachovia Corp. For more information, visit Torrent's Web site at www.torrent.com.

About Fingerhut Companies, Inc.

Fingerhut Companies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Federated Department Stores, Inc. (NYSE:FD), is a leading database marketing company selling a broad range of products and services through the Internet, catalogs and direct marketing. The company owns Popular Club, a membership-based cataloger of general merchandise, Arizona Mail Order and Bedford Fair, catalog apparel companies, and Figi's, a food and gift catalog company. In addition, Fingerhut owns 40 percent of PC Flowers & Gifts, Inc. and equity position in The Zone Network, FreeShop.com, Roxy.com, Hand Technologies, and 1-800BIRTHDAY.com, leading Internet retailers. Based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, the company and its subsidiaries employ approximately 10,000 people. Fingerhut can be found on the Internet at www.fingerhut.com, www.andysgarage.com, www.andysauction.com, www.thehut.com, www.pcflowers.com, www.mountainzone.com, www.skiresorts.com, www.freeshop.com, www.roxy.com, www.pcscentral.com, www.satellite.com, www.handtech.com and www.1-800BIRTHDAY.com.

About the RealWare Awards

Introduced in 1993, the RealWare Awards have become a prestigious distinction for vendors and their customers alike. Past RealWare Awards winners include: BEA/WebLogic, Btrieve Technologies, Computer Associates International, Hewlett-Packard Network & Systems Management Division, Hyperion Solutions, IBM, Information Advantage, Magic Software, MicroStrategy, NCR, ParcPlace Systems, Prism Solutions, Servio Corporation, Software AG, Sybase, Texas Instruments, Uniface, Verity.

About "Intelligent Enterprise" Magazine

"Intelligent Enterprise" is a major business intelligence publication specializing in developing business-critical solutions such as decision support, data warehousing, ERP (enterprise resource planning), and e-commerce. These solutions form the backbone of corporate information supply chains that deliver information to business decision-makers. "Intelligent Enterprise" serves an audience of more than 100,000 IT and business leaders who create and manage the information supply chain. Qualified subscriptions are available at http://www.iemagazine.com/subs.shtml.

"Intelligent Enterprise" is a trademark of Miller Freeman, Inc. All Miller Freeman product, service and program names are trademarks of Miller Freeman.