Insightful Corporation Releases S-PLUS® 8 Enterprise Developer

New release of statistical data analysis and predictive analytics platform provides greater programming efficiency, versatility and comprehensive graphics

SEATTLE - May 21, 2007 -

Insightful Corporation (NASDAQ: IFUL), a leading provider of predictive analytics and reporting solutions, announced today the immediate availability of S-PLUS® 8 Enterprise Developer, the latest major release of Insightful’s software platform for statistical data analysis and predictive analytics.

S-PLUS 8 Enterprise Developer provides statisticians and developers with enhanced programming efficiencies, versatility, comprehensive graphics production and advanced statistical methods, all of which increase programmers’ ability to anticipate and plan for change. With S-PLUS 8 Enterprise Developer, IT organizations can speed their deployment of advanced, integration-friendly analytical solutions. S-PLUS 8 Enterprise Developer also provides users with the visualization and reporting tools necessary to communicate results to technical and non-technical audiences, delivering the knowledge to act on critical decision points.

“S-PLUS provides me with the tools necessary to work faster and more flexibly with clinical data,” said Harry Southworth, statistical science director for AstraZeneca, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. “The superior quality of the graphs has made it easier for me to communicate across a broad audience including statisticians, drug safety personnel and physicians.”

KEY FEATURES IN S-PLUS 8.0

* Workbench: This feature, originally introduced in S-PLUS 7, has been further enhanced in the 8 release. Programmers can speed the development of applications for competitive advantage by using the new debugger and profiler. The interactive debugger allows users to quickly debug S-PLUS code from within the S-PLUS workbench. The workbench has modern debugging tools including step debugging and breakpoints. The profiler provides an environment for writing and developing functions in S-PLUS that allow profiling of time and memory allocation within S-PLUS tasks. The user can now optimize the code’s execution by evaluating where bottlenecks exist.
* Graphics enhancements: S-PLUS is already a leading platform for graphics creation and delivery. In version 8, Insightful has included a larger and normalized color palette as well as providing simplified code to deliver complex graphs and charts. Whether a developer is creating graphics for submission to the FDA or distribution to a group of portfolio managers at an investment bank, S-PLUS 8 Enterprise Developer makes this task easier and more time efficient.
* S-PLUS Package System: With already 25 published packages available, S-PLUS 8 Enterprise Developer provides a convenient framework for creating and distributing libraries for S-PLUS and for converting packages written in R (S-PLUS’s open-source cousin) for use in S-PLUS.
* S language extensions: Over one hundred new functions have been added in order to support the graphics enhancements, the S-PLUS Package System and to augment compatibility with R. Types of functions that have been added include math, character, file manipulation and string manipulation.

S-PLUS 8 ENTERPRISE DEVELOPER: COMPREHENSIVE RESPONSE TO USERS’ NEEDS

S-PLUS 8 Enterprise Developer was put through a lengthy beta testing period to provide for the most comprehensive response to testers’ comments as well as thorough testing of new features and functions. Customers have responded enthusiastically to the new release.

Knut Wittkowski, director, Biostatistics/Epidemiology/Research Design Center for Clinical and Translational Science at Rockefeller University Hospital said, “S-PLUS 8 excels in the documentation of the algorithms being used and the addition of the Eclipse Workbench facilitates the implementation of novel results from statistical research.”

“The S-PLUS Package System in version 8 provides tools to develop S-PLUS packages easily and in a routinely automated way that should facilitate ready cross-talk with the R system and user,” said Brad Biggerstaff, mathematical statistician for the Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I was able to build a package from existing code in a very reasonable time, and the documentation of this task was understandable and complete.”

AVAILABILITY/PLATFORMS

S-PLUS 8 is available today for Microsoft Windows®, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® and Sun Solaris® operating systems.

“We are very pleased to announce the release of S-PLUS 8 Enterprise Developer, our most comprehensive development environment for statistical data analysis and predictive analytics,” said Jeff Coombs, CEO of Insightful. “S-PLUS 8 enables the rapid development of applications based on predictive analytic modeling and their delivery to a much broader set of users across the enterprise.”

Statistical analysis software