Insight Announces Upgrade To World's Preeminent Optimization Engine

X-System® Used By 40% of Fortune's Top 50 Companies

Manassas, VA. -- December 18, 2000 -- INSIGHT, Inc., the leading provider of optimization-based planning and scheduling systems for solving the most complex issues of the world's top companies, announces a new, enhanced release of its core optimization engine, the X-System®. The X-System delivers best-of-breed performance to top corporations, the military, and as a component in third-party software solutions. Clients, third-party software, and INSIGHT's consulting teams use the X-System to develop and implement optimal solutions across industries. Clients get the world's best solutions for global supply chain strategy, transportation planning, production planning, crew scheduling, portfolio optimization, and logistics.

INSIGHT's X-System is a proprietary software optimization engine, capable of solving the most complex business problems with real-world constraints; employing linear, non-linear and mixed-integer techniques. The X-System's typical application is an extremely large and complex resource allocation problem, which overwhelms other commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software packages. Unlike some methods, which yield sub-optimal solutions, the X-System, through industry-tailored problem-definition and true mathematical optimization, attains the global optimum the absolute best solution.

This optimization technology is integrated with user-friendly graphical interfaces, model generators, data management and documentation. These features increase the quality of decisions through better analysis that reduces uncertainty and minimizes risk.

Clients and software developers use INSIGHT to handle their constrained resource optimization problems by applying the X-System to their specific needs. Unlike software-only solutions, the ability to hire the experts speeds development and time to market, while lowering implementation risk. "INSIGHT's consulting team takes ownership of issues, applies best methods, and delivers profit and competitive advantage to top global firms," says Dick Powers, president of INSIGHT. "INSIGHT professionals work to understand issues in-depth, which enables the design of world-beating solutions that stand up to the harshest reality."

About INSIGHT, Inc.

INSIGHT software and consulting provide optimization-based planning and scheduling to solve the logistics and supply chain management issues of the world's top companies. INSIGHT solves these latest, critical and most complex issues for 40% of Fortune Magazine's top fifty firms. Clients often select INSIGHT when other solutions have failed. These clients rely on INSIGHT to gain the greatest competitive advantage from the best answer. Clients include BASF, BP/Amoco, Compaq, ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, PepsiCo, Perrier, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Toyota, and Ingram Books.

Using the X-System®, a proprietary optimization engine, INSIGHT provides a variety of planning and scheduling solutions. Examples include crew scheduling, transportation planning, production planning, and design of global supply chains. INSIGHT is a growing provider of optimization components, partnering with third-party software providers to deliver best-of-breed solutions. Call INSIGHT offices in Virginia at (703) 366-3061 or in Oregon at (541) 388-6998. On the Web, visit http:www.insight-mss.com.

For more information contact: Becky Boyd MediaFirst PR - Atlanta becky [at] mediafirst [dot] net +1 (770) 642-2080

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