Actuate and Capgemini Bring Real-time Budget Management Reporting to Market

Breakthrough Approach to Distributing Accountability throughout the Organization Will Aid Sarbanes Oxley Compliance 

South San Francisco, Calif. and New York, NY – August 17, 2004 – Actuate Corporation (NASDAQ: ACTU), the world leader in Enterprise Reporting Applications, and Capgemini U.S. LLC one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, today announced that the companies will work together to co-develop the industry’s first real-time budget management reporting solution. Capgemini will provide domain expertise in financial management business processes.   Actuate will leverage its expertise in Enterprise Reporting Applications to empower everyone with budget responsibility throughout the enterprise to monitor and manage budgets more effectively, and as a result, speed period-end-closing and meet regulatory requirements such as the Sarbanes Oxley Act. 

Companies are under tremendous pressures today to transform their financial management processes to address increasing regulatory, competitive, investor and internal reporting demands, including meeting the requirements of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. A recent study showed that 67% of CFOs still need more than two days to disclose material changes to their financial condition, which may not be sufficient to meet the disclosure requirements of Section 409 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The same survey revealed that 63% of CFO’s are saddled with inadequate budgeting, forecasting and decision support IT systems. As a result of poor budget variance management systems and processes, analysts and cost center managers waste time and effort piecing together data to make usable information, costs occur before they can be identified and stopped, and decisions are made based on an incomplete operational picture. (Source:  “Finance Transformed: How Leading Companies Are Succeeding,” 2003 research study conducted by CFO Research Services in collaboration with Capgemini.)

“The ability to achieve real-time, comprehensive visibility into reliable earning and spending data is now a necessity for Global 9000 companies,” said Pete Cittadini, CEO of Actuate Corporation.  “Actuate will provide companies with complete visibility into their operations and the ability to distribute financial accountability deep within the organization. Businesses will be able to identify and prevent unnecessary expenditures, improve profitability and meet regulatory requirements with a single version of the truth.”

“Our research has shown that the majority of CFO’s view accurate revenue and earnings forecasting as a high priority in the present business climate,” said Joseph Rahaim, vice president of Capgemini.  “In most organizations, budgeting and the corresponding actual results are spread across separate systems with different reporting capabilities.  New budgeting processes and technology can enable greater information accuracy and can provide CFO’s and senior finance directors with more time to predict future events, act in advance, and adequately meet future demands.”

About Capgemini

Capgemini, one of the world's foremost providers of Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing services, has a unique way of working with its clients, which it calls the Collaborative Business Experience. Through commitment to mutual success and the achievement of tangible value, the company helps businesses implement growth strategies, leverage technology, and thrive through the power of collaboration. Capgemini employs approximately 55,000 people (as of January 1, 2004) and reported 2003 global revenues of 5.754 billion euros. More information about individual service lines, offices and research is available at www.capgemini.com.

Actuate - the people behind BIRT

Actuate founded and continues to co-lead the Eclipse BIRT open source project. BIRT is the premier development environment for Rich Information Applications that present structured data and content in compelling and interactive ways via the web on any device. Actuate and its people are dedicated to making BIRT the best environment for our customers to develop Web 2.0 applications that drive revenue through higher customer satisfaction/loyalty and improve operational performance. The people of Actuate continually participate in and provide resources for the vibrant open source community that has emerged around BIRT. Anybody can participate in the BIRT movement by visiting www.birt-exchange.com.

Actuate offers value-add BIRT products and services that speed the development process and bring additional functionality such as, interactivity, content transformation and enterprise scalability to BIRT-based Rich Information Applications. Actuate has over 4,500 customers globally in a diverse range of business areas including financial services and the public sector. Founded in 1993, Actuate is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices worldwide. Actuate is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol ACTU. For more information, visit the company's web site at www.actuate.com.

Copyright © 2010 Actuate Corporation. All rights reserved. Actuate and the Actuate logo are registered trademarks of Actuate Corporation and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other brands, names or trademarks mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners.