Press Release

FLASHMAP WINS KEY SOFTWARE LICENSE FROM AMERICAN FINANCIAL

Insurance Industry Leader to Use Graphical, Interactive FlashAtlas® Product To Optimize, Streamline AFG's IT Assets Across 40 Independent Business Units

Newton, MA - (December 9, 2002) American Financial Group, Inc. (AFG) has selected Flashmap Systems® to provide a graphical portfolio management solution to optimize and manage AFG's information technologies (IT). Flashmap Systems' proprietary software, called FlashAtlas, offers IT professionals an interactive solution for maximizing the use of existing corporate technology and communicating standards across the enterprise.
 
AFG is an insurance holding company with about 50 U.S. insurance companies. Through the operations of Great American Insurance Group, AFG is an insurance industry leader in specialty property and casualty and private passenger automobile insurance. Many of its business units have their own IT needs and management. Craig Spencer, assistant VP of Strategic Technologies for AFG's IT Group, said "Managing technology as a portfolio is critical. FlashAtlas is the only product that meets our immediate needs and enables our long-term goals."
 
Jeff Tash, president and founder of Flashmap Systems noted, "We're excited to be selected by American Financial. In an economy where IT budgets are being slashed by 15 percent and more across Fortune 1,000 companies, AFG will rely on FlashAtlas as a keystone resource to leverage existing systems, maximize licensing, and eliminate costly redundancies."
 
For many IT managers in today's complex, merged and aggregated companies, it can be an onerous task to perform even a simple inventory of products. They can be hard pressed to predict how a new product will integrate in their IT environment. And, more importantly, they can't accurately predict if the removal of a product will end up causing unforeseen problems.
 
Craig Spencer agrees that it is often difficult to see the big picture and to communicate IT standards effectively. "Three years ago we began to tackle this challenge by designing and building our own IT repository to help identify and categorize technologies and products used by our group of insurance companies. We knew we wanted to move to a browser-based application. We thought we would ultimately have to custom build what Flashmap Systems provides today. Doing that would have taken time and would easily have cost us 300 percent more than the price of FlashAtlas."
 
FlashAtlas, was populated with all of AFG's legacy data in less than four days. Spencer said, "It's incredible that all our data has been migrated into FlashAtlas already. Flashmap's customer service is terrific. It's clearly a high priority for their company."
 
Spencer believes that AFG's investment in the use of FlashAtlas will pay for itself in a year. "Perhaps the most exciting thing going forward," he said, "is that, as potential uses for FlashAtlas suggest themselves, the timeframe for moving from concept to production will be measured in weeks, not months or years."