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ALIS INTEGRATES THE IBM WEBSPHERE TRANSLATION SERVER INTO GIST-IN-TIMETM ONLINE SOLUTION FOR B2B EXCHANGES

B2B exchanges will gain the largest number of Asian language pairs on the Internet

MONTREAL, Canada, August 13, 2001 - Alis Technologies Inc., a world leader in language management solutions, announced today that it will incorporate the IBM WebSphere Translation Server into Gist-In-Time's server farm delivering on-line language comprehension solutions to B2B exchanges.

Alis will integrate the IBM WebSphere Translation Server into the Alis server farm that provides Internet clients with Gist-In-Time, the on-line language comprehension solution. The Gist-In-Time server farm is currently used by clients like Netscape (Netscape 6.1 browser), Sympatico-Lycos (the largest French consumer portal in North America), Copernic.com (the search tools suite Copernic 2001 with over 15 million users worldwide) and BellZinc (Canada's largest B2B destination for small and medium size business), and gives visitors and users "gists" of Web pages. A gist allows users to comprehend electronic documents such as Web pages in their preferred language in just seconds.

The IBM WebSphere Translation Server will provide Alis' Gist-In-Time Internet solution with the following language pairs: English to/from Italian, English to German, English to Japanese, English to Simplified Chinese, English to Traditional Chinese and English to Korean, making Alis the Internet's largest provider of Asian language pairs.

The agreement is an extension of a relationship announced in March when Alis announced that it was offering the IBM WebSphere Translation Server to large corporations (Global 2000) wishing to store the solutions on their own servers. The IBM WebSphere Translation Server offers real-time automated translation for 12 language pairs and a module that lets organizations build specialized dictionaries.

Based on its best-of-breed strategy for building on-line solutions, Alis formed this agreement with IBM to continuously grow and improve its on-line offering with special focus on the new and evolving B2B exchanges market. Sites such as BellZinc.ca offer many opportunities for Alis Technologies and IBM to break language barriers and facilitate e-commerce, especially for American and European companies looking to do more business with Asia.

"Alis' solution, which incorporates the IBM WebSphere Translation Sever, allows end-users to get quick, convenient multilingual translations making their content available to a much wider audience," says Nigel Beck, Director, IBM Voice Systems. "Because Alis is a true one-stop-shop for language management solutions, they can also help us bring to our customers additional and complementary solutions such as Web site localization and professional translation. This can help companies dramatically increase their reach in an increasingly global business environment."


"Alis Technologies' and IBM's relationship dates back to 1998, and since then we have worked very hard together to deliver the on-line comprehension solutions that our mutual clients need," states Claude Lemay, CEO of Alis Technologies Inc. "This latest agreement consolidates our position as a dynamic and important IBM Business Partner, an integrator of the IBM WebSphere Translation Server solution and a leader in on-line language services for B2B exchanges. When you consider the size of the Asian and European markets and the fact that 75% of Internet content is in English, there is clearly a need to facilitate e-commerce with on-line language comprehension solutions like Gist-In-Time."

Alis Technologies and IBM will demonstrate how BellZinc uses the Gist-In-Time and WebSphere Translation Server solutions at the IBM Websphere Translation Server display (#650) during Solutions 2001, the IBM Technical Developer Conference. The event will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from August 13-16, 2001.

Gist-In-Time's complete line of language pairs now includes: English to/from French, English to/from Spanish, English to/from Italian, English to/from Portuguese, English to/from German, English to/from Japanese, English to/from Traditional Chinese, English to/from Simplified Chinese, French to/from Russian, French to/from German, and English to Korean (in Q4, 2001).

Designed for business customers and running on NT, AIX and Solaris, the IBM Websphere Translation Server can translate up to 500 words per second (speeds may vary based on processor speed and system configuration).

Gist-In-Time™ is a registered trademark of Alis Technologies Inc.

About Alis Technologies

Created in 1981, Alis Technologies Inc. is a world leader in language management solutions. From consulting services to localization, from human translation to automated translation (gisting), Alis is a true One Stop Shop for language management solutions. Alis helps global companies and international organizations communicate more efficiently with business partners, customers, employees, suppliers, investors and distributors around the world by providing unique enterprise-wide and web-based solutions for removing language barriers. Alis has offices in five countries with its head office located at 100 Alexis Nihon Blvd., Suite 600, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H4M 2P2; phone: (514) 747-2547; 1-800-529-2547; fax (514) 747-2561

Gist-In-Time ® is a registered trademark of Alis Technologies Inc.

About IBM Voice Systems

With over 40 years of delivering voice solutions and over 150 voice technology patents, IBM (NYSE: IBM) is the global leader in providing access to data through end-to-end voice integrated solutions that enable organizational effectiveness for e-business development. For more information about IBM Voice Systems, visit http://www.ibm.com/software/voice.

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Contact :

NATIONAL Public Relations
Daniel Brennan
dbrennan@national.ca
Off: (514) 843-2325

Alis Technologies Inc.
Thierry Gauthier
Senior Director,
Marketing and Communications
tgauthier@alis.com
Off: (514) 747-2547, ext. 227
Cell: (514) 212-0005

IBM Voice Systems
Geraldine Kan
Public Relations
gkan@us.ibm.com
Off: (914) 766-1715
Cell: 1-917-478-5148