FULCRUM ANNOUNCES SEARCHSERVER VERSION 3.0

SIGNIFICANT NEW FEATURES ENHANCE EASE-OF-USE, EFFECTIVENESS OF MARKET-
LEADING INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SOFTWARE

OTTAWA, CANADA, FEBRUARY 5, 1996 -- Fulcrum Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:
FULCF; TSE: FUL), the leading provider of information-retrieval software
for the client/server market, today announced a significant update to its
flagship product, Fulcrum SearchServer. Improvements include more
effective searching, enhanced support for an increased number of foreign
languages, access to a broader array of file formats, improved support for
word wheels, and a revised, modular approach to packaging and pricing that
will lower the cost of entry. The enhancements made to SearchServer, the
core of Fulcrum's product family, will also be seen in Fulcrum's other
products, like Fulcrum Surfboard, the search engine customized for
Internet deployment.

Most notable among the enhancements are new linguistic tools that provide
easier and more effective natural-language searching. The linguistic tools
-- based on Intelliscope technology licensed from Inso Corporation -- add
value to Fulcrum's exclusive Intuitive Searching feature, as well as to
the more standard Boolean searching, by extending the powerful statistical
analysis inherent in Fulcrum's product with thesaurus and word analysis
capabilities. For many users, this means that the results of searches will
better reflect the meaning of key words in their queries. Intuitive
Searching has been a popular feature of Fulcrum's software, because it
allows users to refine their searches by selecting a passage of text or a
complete document of interest and ask the search engine to retrieve "more
information like this."

"Intuitive Searching has always been an extremely valuable feature of
Fulcrum's software," said Terry Bergen, vice president of operations at
IHS Environmental Information, Inc. " Our users are not experts in how to
structure elaborate queries, and so it's important that Fulcrum
complements SearchServer's Boolean functionality with a sophisticated
natural-language feature; we want to give our customers the most powerful
searching available, but with a simple interface. We have already seen
that Intuitive Searching is a huge benefit in dealing with our users'
unanticipated queries against a large document database, by making it
simple for them to refine their searches to get something they can really
use. Fulcrum is now delivering enhancements that will make the next
version of our ENFLEX environmental regulatory database on CD-ROM even
more powerful, but it will be as easy-to-use as ever."

"Fulcrum's products are crucial in helping users drink from the fire hose
of information coming at them," said Linda Myers- Tierney, director of
Electronic Workplace Technologies for International Data Corporation.
"With the enhancements in version 3.0, and the expanded European language
support, Fulcrum is poised to maintain its global leadership in full-text
retrieval."

NEW FEATURES

ENHANCED EUROPEAN LANGUAGE SUPPORT -- SearchServer 3.0 also benefits from
enhanced support for an expanded set of European languages, and the new
linguistic tools will be available for multiple languages.

ADDITIONAL FILE FORMATS -- The new version of SearchServer also greatly
extends the broad array of file formats Fulcrum supports. SearchServer 3.0
supports over 60 file formats including Microsoft Office formats --
PowerPoint and Excel in addition to Word -popular text and database
formats, all the major word processing formats, Sybase and Oracle
databases, as well as any information store accessible through Microsoft's
Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standard. Support for Adobe PDF files
will be delivered in Q1 1996.

ENHANCED SUPPORT FOR "WORD WHEELS" -- In addition to the new linguistic
tools, SearchServer 3.0 gains enhanced support for "word wheels," a
feature that lets users scroll backwards and forwards through a complete
list of indexed words. With Version 3.0, separate word wheels can be
triggered for each pre-defined field, making it much easier for users to
identify relevant terms. In addition, users can manually browse a general
word wheel, so that they can get a sense of the scope of the database.

ADMINISTRATION TOOLS -- SearchServer 3.0 also includes SearchServer
Administrator, an administration tool that allows system administrators to
create and administer SearchServer tables and data repositories from a
central location, using a straightforward graphical interface. In
addition, Microsoft Windows NT administrators will have access to Service
Administrator, a tool that also that allows additional ease of
configuration for client/server installations.

In addition, Fulcrum has invested significant resources in performance
enhancements, and has focused significant development effort on optimizing
products for the Windows NT platform.

"Mainstream users need software like ours that can bridge the islands of
information that exist across an enterprise," said Peter Eddison,
Fulcrum's vice president of marketing. "Users want powerful and scalable
software, but it absolutely must be easy and intuitive to use, and it must
be simple and cost-effective to install and administer. SearchServer 3.0
meets these requirements."

PRICING, PLATFORMS, AND AVAILABILITY

Fulcrum also announced new modular pricing for the SearchServer 3.0 product
family, which goes into effect immediately, and is expected to lower the
cost of entry for a typical installation. Pricing and configuration
information is available upon request. Volume discounting is available.
SearchServer 3.0 is available immediately on Microsoft Windows 3.1,
Microsoft Windows NT, Sun Solaris, and, later in February, HP-UX.

THE SEARCHSERVER PRODUCT FAMILY

At the core of Fulcrum's product family is Fulcrum SearchServer, robust,
multi-platform indexing and retrieval software for the enterprise. While
invisible to the end user, compliance with de facto standards, like
Structured Query Language (SQL) and Microsoft Open Database Connectivity
(ODBC), means that SearchServer can be employed in information- retrieval
applications that combine seamlessly with customers' existing information
systems. As companion products, Fulcrum SearchBuilder toolkits integrate
with popular graphical tools -- like Visual Basic, Visual C++, and
PowerBuilder -- so that developers can work in familiar environments to
quickly and easily build information-retrieval applications that access
Fulcrum SearchServer.

ABOUT FULCRUM

FULCRUM provides information-retrieval software for the entire enterprise.
This software can be used on computer networks, on CD-ROMs and on Internet
and World Wide Web sites. Fulcrum counts major corporations and industry
leaders like Compaq, Microsoft, CompuServe, and Novell among its
customers. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Fulcrum has offices throughout
the United States and Europe. Fulcrum is publicly traded on the NASDAQ
National Market ("FULCF") and on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("FUL").

VISIT FULCRUM'S HOME PAGE ON THE WEB: HTTP://WWW.FULCRUM.COM

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Gillian Brouse, FULCRUM
(613) 238-1761
e-mail: pr@fulcrum.com

OR

Alana Gentle, ROURKE &AMP; CO.
(617) 267-0042
e-mail: agentle@rourke.com
 
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