Ricoh Corporation Selects Sybase as Strategic Client/Server Supplier

LEADING PROVIDER OF DOCUMENT SYSTEMS RELIES ON SYBASE TO ENABLE RAPID
BUSINESS CHANGE

Emeryville, CA, August 8, 1995 -- Sybase, Inc., The Enterprise
Client/Server Company, today announced that Ricoh Corporation, a leading
supplier of copiers, facsimiles and multifunctional document systems, has
standardized on SYBASE technology in its migration from the mainframe to
enterprise client/server systems. Ricoh, which has over 60 locations
throughout the United States and annual sales of nearly $1 billion, is
migrating to a client/server environment in order to better react to rapid
business change. Sybase's database, tools, and interoperability products
are all in use in Ricoh's migration to new client/server systems,
including SQL Server 10, Enterprise CONNECT, SQL Server Monitor, and
PowerBuilder.

"Our mainframe environment was costly and inflexible. Even the simplest
business change could become an expensive and cumbersome challenge.
Because of today's shortened business and technology cycles, Ricoh
realized that to remain competitive we needed to make a major shift from
the mainframe to client/server," said Joseph Vallorosi, Vice President of
Management Information Systems at Ricoh Corporation. "By allowing us to
leverage our legacy data, Sybase's technology enables us to take advantage
of the benefits and flexibility of client/server while reducing our
migration risks. Sybase was the only vendor with both a complete vision
and product suite from tools with PowerBuilder to connectivity with
Enterprise CONNECT to the database with SQL Server 10."

CLIENT/SERVER FLEXIBILITY -- LEVERAGING MAINFRAME DATA

Ricoh's goal is to move all of its applications off the mainframe to a
complete client/server system over a five year period. During this
migration time, valuable data will continue to reside on the mainframe and
will be brought into the client/server environment and utilized via SYBASE
Enterprise CONNECT products.

Throughout its enterprise, from Ricoh's executive office to its field
sales, users needed greater flexibility in accessing and manipulating
critical company data. Ricoh found that the customer sales and billing
information stored on its mainframe in DB2 and VSAM was inaccessible to
users. Prior to client/server and the development of an Information Access
Strategy that facilitates the access o f all information directly by
authorized employees who require it to do their jobs, Ricoh's MIS
department would print pre-determined, structured reports off the
mainframe on customer and sales information. The sales and marketing
administration staff would often re-key this information into spreadsheets
to produce desired reports. This type of redundant effort was time
consuming and costly as well as inconsistent because of re-keying errors.
Today, Sybase's Enterprise CONNECT products, which include OmniSQL Server,
Open Client for CICS, and Open Server for CICS, provide Ricoh's end-users
direct access to specific information and the ability to use the tools
they want to produce reports quickly and easily.

"We are pleased that Ricoh, a market leader, has selected SYBASE. Companies
like Ricoh are realizing that integrating mainframe data and applications,
which are often comprised of millions of lines of code, with relational
databases is an easy and incremental way to exploit the flexibility and
cost-effectiveness of client/server systems," said Berl Hartman, Vice
President of Strategic Marketing, Sybase, Inc. "Sybase is the leader in
mainframe interoperability. Our Enterprise CONNECT family of products
features a range of APIs and gateway products that support the diverse
mainframe interoperability requirements companies face as they extend
their client/server architecture across the enterprise."

CUSTOMER SERVICE APPLICATION

Ricoh is running SYBASE across the enterprise, including its "Hot-line"
application for the Customer Service Group. This application supports help
desk technicians handling customer service calls. The goal of this
application is to provide greater customer service by shortening the
customers' hold time, getting information to the customer as quickly and
efficiently as possible, and empowering the technician with the
information to better perform his or her job. Ricoh purchased Powerhelp, a
software product from Astea International, which was built using
PowerBuilder, a Windows development tool from Powersoft, a Sybase
subsidiary, and utilizes Business Objects, a business intelligent,
decision support solution, accessing SYBASE SQL Server 10 on a HP 9000.
Ricoh plans to extend this application to a wide-area-network enabling up
to 100 field agents to access the system from any location.

"Providing better, faster, more efficient service to our customers is
crucial to our business. Our goal was to give our "hot-line" technicians
the tools that would enable them to dramatically increase their
productivity, " commented Vallorosi. "With Ricoh's new Customer Service
application, all the data is accessible from the technician's desktop.
From one PC, the technician can navigate through manuals, do customer name
searches, check prior actions, receive technical briefs, even run a video
to see the repair procedures in question, and then fax out any information
the caller may request. Our facsimile group was able to reduce it's staff
level, while maintaining a speed of answer of just 20 seconds and reducing
maximum hold time by 21%." Ricoh Corporation

A 33-year old U.S. company with headquarters in West Caldwell, NJ, Ricoh
Corporation is a diversified office equipment and electronics manufacturer
with sales of almost $1 billion annually. Ricoh is a pioneer in the
development of computer-connected and digital multifunctional document
systems, a leader in the fast-growing color copier market and a supplier
of black & white copiers and facsimile machines. The company also markets
scanners, printers and optical and magnetic storage devices, as well as
photographic equipment.

Ricoh Corporation has over 60 locations throughout the United States with
1400 employees. The parent company, Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, is one of
the world's three largest manufactures of copiers and facsimile machines.
Ricoh Company, Ltd. is ranked among the world's top 200 industrial
corporations by Fortune magazine, with worldwide sales of nearly $10
billion.

SYBASE, INC.

Sybase, Inc. is a worldwide leader in client/server software. Sybase, and
its wholly owned subsidiary Powersoft Corporation, are focused on four
major market segments: mass deployment, on-line transaction processing,
data warehousing and electronic commerce. Sybase's software products --
database, middleware and tools -- provide customers with desktop to
enterprise solutions. The company's mission is to provide its customers
with an open, adaptable information systems architecture that enables them
to develop and deliver complete information systems solutions to
facilitate rapid business change. Headquartered in Emeryville, CA, Sybase
is the sixth largest independent software company in the world.

Sybase Inc
6475 Christie Ave
Emeryville, CA 04608
510-596-3500;  Fax: 510-658-9441
 
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