FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany, Nov. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Artificial Life
Deutschland AG, a subsidiary of Boston-based Artificial Life, Inc.
(Nasdaq: ALIF), has been on the German market for roughly six months and has
started a global e-commerce partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers
Unternehmensberatung GmbH Deutschland. The first joint product concentrates
on the interaction between ALife-PortfolioManager(TM) and OTMS (Order
Transportation and Management System).
Worldwide Marketing of e-Business Solutions Planned
In the future, e-business solutions are to be offered worldwide in
cooperative agreements with international partners such as
PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Our experience and technology are the ideal
complement to the extensive consulting services offered by
PricewaterhouseCoopers. With PricewaterhouseCoopers as a partner, we will
offer e-business products on a worldwide basis," said Eberhard Schoeneburg,
president and CEO of Artificial Life at a press conference in Frankfurt. In
the joint project, PricewaterhouseCoopers will be responsible for management
consultation while Artificial Life will provide the technology, the products
and implementation. In Germany, the company will concentrate on the
development of Internet solutions for banks and financial services providers
as well as the marketing of the products in the German-speaking area. "Since
we primarily want to appeal to financial services providers with our products,
we have chosen Frankfurt as our base in Germany," continued Schoeneburg.
Four Products In Use -- New Products Planned
Currently, Artificial Life has completed four products based on its
SmartEngine(TM) technology. This multi-use technology makes Internet software
robots (smart bots) capable of behaving intelligently and communicating with
Internet users in natural language. ALife-WebGuide(TM) resides on companies'
Web pages and helps the visitor with navigation. ALife-Messenger(TM) can be
used in e-mail customer service and support and automates replies to e-mail
messages. To support Internet direct marketing, the Boston-based company
developed ALife-Smart Text Analyzer(TM) which analyzes human-to-bot
communications. The newest product, ALife-PortfolioManager, assists financial
analysts in managing and optimizing portfolios. Three additional products
(Personal Tutor, Knowledge Manager and Call Center Agent) are currently being
developed.
Business Trend Exceedingly Positive
Since its market introduction on NASDAQ in December 1998, Artificial Life
has trended very strongly. In the meantime, Artificial Life has opened
offices in Boston, New York, St. Petersburg, Lucerne, and Frankfurt.
Corporate headquarters are located in Boston, research and development takes
place in St. Petersburg, and the international sales office is based in New
York.
In the last 12 months, the number of employees has soared from
approximately 13 to 250. In the third quarter results, the income from
licenses -- at roughly one million U.S. dollars for this quarter alone -- was
much higher than the revenues from services for the first time since the
initial public offering. "Artificial Life is a fast growing Internet
company," explained Schoeneburg. As far as the organization for the remainder
of the company, the bot technology is broken down into four solution areas:
bot-supported customer relationship management (eCRM), e-commerce,
Internet-based financial services applications, and knowledge management.
This differentiates these service areas and as a result of the customer
orientation developed in this manner, they can quickly position themselves in
the respective markets.
MobilCom Deutschland AG, an Artificial Life customer, has a bot named Kim
who assists interested persons with the purchase of mobile telephones.
Artificial Life is building Web sites, equipped with SmartEngine technology,
for Liechtenstein Global Trust (LGT). An additional Artificial Life project
has resulted in net-tissimo.com, the first bot-based e-commerce shopping
application in Switzerland, developed under a joint venture with Bon appetit.
Artificial Life Deutschland AG
The activities of the German subsidiary are concentrated on the marketing
of the products and the development of e-business applications based on ALife
products. "There is currently a great need for intelligent automated
solutions for new business models on the Internet," Uwe Noelke, senior vice
president for sales and marketing of Artificial Life Deutschland AG, described
the present market situation. "In order to satisfy demand, we will hire a
total of 80-100 new employees as Internet specialists, Java programmers,
banking consultants, project managers, technology consultants, and management
engineers by the end of the year 2000. In addition, we will enter into
cooperative agreements with new media agencies and OEM partners who will
integrate our software into their own products in order to improve their own
solutions," continued Noelke. OEM partners are software houses that offer
Internet applications or infrastructure software for the Internet.
Cooperation with PricewaterhouseCoopers
For PricewaterhouseCoopers Unternehmensberatung GmbH, the cooperation with
Artificial Life is the logical consequence of the consideration that the
widespread use of smart bots is automating the human -- e-business interface
and thus offers competitive advantages. "One goal of the global partnership
is the joint development and implementation of smart bot-based customer
solutions," said Dr. Kurt Glasner, member of management/e-business partner of
PricewaterhouseCoopers Unternehmensberatung GmbH Deutschland. Concomitant
with this step, PricewaterhouseCoopers has secured the right of use to all
Artificial Life products.
The first product under the cooperation is the interaction of
ALife-PortfolioManager and OTMS as a solution for financial services
providers. PortfolioManager manages the model portfolio and optimizes it with
regard to its risk/yield profile. The model portfolio is then handed over to
the OTMS Portfolio Management System where the optimized model portfolios are
used for compliance checks with individual customer portfolios or groups of
customer portfolios (automatic rebalancing).
PricewaterhouseCoopers Unternehmensberatung GmbH
PricewaterhouseCoopers Unternehmensberatung GmbH is one of the leading
management consulting firms in Germany. With approximately 1,800 employees,
it consults with business enterprises in all sectors as well as public and
private organizations in all issues relating to corporate strategy and
planning, reengineering, change management, and information technology.
Within the worldwide network of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the firm operates in
over 150 countries and in all important financial centers.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Unternehmensberatung is part of the PwC Deutsche
Revision group. With current revenues of roughly DM 1.8 billion, the group is
one of the leading firms in the areas of auditing, management consulting, tax
and legal consulting, corporate finance, and human resource consulting.
Artificial Life, Inc.
Founded in 1994, Artificial Life, Inc., develops and markets intelligent
software robots for the Internet. ALife technology is typically used in CRM
(customer relationship management, KM (knowledge management), e-commerce and
Internet-based financial services applications such as portfolio management.
Artificial Life is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. and
maintains subsidiaries in Germany, Switzerland, and Russia.
Additional information can be found on the World Wide Web at
www.artificial-life.com .
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Artificial Life, Inc.'s
business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that
involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and
uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained
in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual
Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year.
For further information please contact:
Rhonda Cook Public Relations Manager Artificial Life, Inc. U.S.A.Tel:
617-266-5542, Fax: 617-266-5779
E-mail: rhonda.cook@artificial-life.com
Uwe Noelke Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing Artificial Life
Deutschland AG Tel: +49-69-79-30-08-0 Fax: +49-69-79-30-08-33, E-mail:
uwe.noelke@artificial-life.com
Sandra Werning Trimedia Communications Deutschland GmbH Tel:
+49-69-9622-19-0, Fax: +49-69-9622-19-96, E-mail:
sandrawerning@fra.trimedia.de
SOURCE Artificial Life, Inc.
Web Site: www.artificial-life.com
