OLIFE SPECIFICATION TAKES HOLD

Data-Integration Capabilities Spur Industry Adoption; Standards Body to
Take Specification Forward; OLE to Become Basis for Additional Standards

REDMOND, WASH. - MAY 13, 1996 - OLifE from Microsoft Corp. has secured a
position as the pre-eminent specification for data integration in the
life-insurance industry, garnering praise from established ISVs, support
from leading insurance companies, and adoption by one of the industry's
most important standards bodies.

"We're delighted to see this rising tide of support for OLifE at the
corporate and ISV levels," said Bill Hartnett, worldwide
insurance-industry manager at Microsoft. "Such widespread acceptance can
only make corporate migration plans easier and create even better sales
opportunities for technology providers."

Based on OLE 2.0, OLifE is a life-insurance-specific, object-based
specification that lets applications share information. In so doing, it
eliminates one of the thorniest problems in the insurance industry: data
integration. No longer do agents have to re-enter critical customer
information when switching among applications; any solution written to the
OLifE specification can communicate with any other, freeing companies to
select best-of-breed tools. Moreover, OLifE lets these tools use existing
files; companies do not have to create new data models or change existing
databases.

"The key to OLifE is that it is an open, freely available specification
developed with broad industry support," Hartnett said. "Object technology
used to be mainly the domain of large companies, but OLifE levels the
playing field."

"OLifE is a terrific solution for long-term, maintainable data
integration," said Morgan Underwood, vice president of product development
for E-Z Data Inc., a developer of client data systems. "It removes the
limitations and costs inherent in proprietary, single-vendor integration
schemes.

"We have nearly 25,000 corporate users," Underwood continued. "All of them
want the flexibility to choose best-of-breed components when building an
integrated-agent desktop. With OLifE, it no longer takes a multiyear plan
to achieve that integration."

"Our clients have been trying for decades to achieve data integration among
applications," said Geoffrey Preston, executive vice president of ECTA
Corp., which will deploy two OLifE-compatible illustration packages next
month. "The OLifE specification finally addresses that problem."

OLifE provides reusable code and interfaces to streamline product
development and help ensure consistency among applications. Companies can
also test OLifE objects individually, improving software reliability and
reducing - if not eliminating - the need for vendor- specific code.

"When a company selects an OLifE-compliant product, it doesn't have to
worry about software compatibility," Hartnett said. "OLifE removes a
significant barrier to solution adoption and expands the markets for ISV
products that add value."

Daniel Smith, president of Benefit Technology Inc., agreed. "We're
predicting many strategic alliances among vendors to develop total
solutions," said Smith, whose firm develops illustration software for half
the top-20 life-insurance companies in the country. "This process will
dramatically increase the quality of the applications available to home
offices and their agents."

Microsoft originally developed OLifE in concert with the Solutions for Life
Insurance Enterprise Computing (SLIEC) alliance, an industry consortium
that included Andersen Consulting, E-Z Data, FDP, Lincoln National, and
Sterling Wentworth Corp. Now, Microsoft is talking with the Agency Company
Organization for Research and Development (ACORD), an industry-standards
group, about assuming management of the specification.

"Microsoft played a pivotal role in getting OLifE to where it is today,"
said Philip Harker, senior vice president of Sterling Wentworth Corp.
"ACORD is the perfect organization - a not-for-profit, standards-setting
body - to position and control the specification in the future."

In addition to future OLifE specifications, ACORD is drafting another
OLE-based standard. Known as AL4, the specification will turn many
insurance forms into reusable OLE objects and standardize and streamline
the exchange of data between insurance agencies and companies.

OLifE is currently supported on the MicrosoftR WindowsR family of operating
systems and the AppleR MacintoshR platform. Future software components
based on OLifE will also be able to interoperate across all major versions
of the UNIXR, VMS&#153; and MVS operating systems.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in
software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of
products and services for business and personal use, each designed with
the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take
advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

FOR ONLINE INFORMATION:

Microsoft insurance industry home page:
HTTP://WWW.MICROSOFT.COM/INDUSTRY/INS/
 
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