Cranes Software acquires ETA

Cranes Software International Ltd has announced the acquisition of US based specialized auto consulting and product development firm, Engineering Technology Associates (ETA) through its subsidiary Cranes Software Inc.,

At a strategic level this initiative represents the Company's foray into the fast growing Chinese Auto market. ETA, a tier one vendor to the top three US car manufacturers was founded in 1983, and is headquartered in Troy Michigan. Their expertise lies at developing Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) centric products for auto safety, vibration, and noise testing, under simulated conditions. ETA caters to the growing safety needs of the auto industry and is recognized for its proven expertise in simulation testing. ETA products at bundled with LS Dyna, a leading global software provider in CAE space.

ETA's long standing relationships with the car manufacturers and their vendors have helped it develop products in specific areas as well as provide high end solutions. A core team of over 120 engineers provide high end consulting to several trans-national automakers and vehicle manufacturers in the US. It has an advanced design and product development centre in China and the Chinese operations are poised for growth in the next few years, in pace with rapid expansion of the Chinese auto industry. CSIL will synergize and expand the design and development efforts between the Bangalore and ETA-China operations with headquarters in Shanghai.

Discussing the value that Cranes will accrue through this acquisition, Asif Khader, Managing Director, of the Company said, "The acquisition of ETA has added tremendous boost to our product portfolio since we are one of the leading providers of CAE centric products ranging from Engineering Design to Product Development to Lifecycle Management, for the auto industry. This acquisition also gives Cranes access to the lucrative Asian markets and thereby expand the operations of the Chinese design centre by forming alliances with leading Asian car manufactures for end-to-end design and development specifications. Accordingly, Cranes will be able to leverage its core design testing, virtual simulation and product design skills across a broader range of engineering needs to serve the high growth oriented emerging Asian economies."

Key benefits of transaction

1. This acquisition will enable Cranes to expand distribution of its flagship NISA suite of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) products along with the products suite of ETA

2. Cranes will have access to the established Chinese design center, which will be expanded and leveraged to form alliances with leading Asian car manufacturers

3. Productize the systematic knowledge that ETA has acquired over the last twenty four years of consulting and design services at the development centre in India

4. Leverage the core design testing, virtual simulation and product design skills across a broader range of engineering needs that are fast emerging on the Indian landscape

5. Greater product support and resources, a broader range of products meet business needs, a commitment to innovation to meet next-generation technology needs available to customers
worldwide

Transaction Details

Cranes is acquiring ETA through its subsidiary in USA viz, Cranes Software Inc and will invest an amount of approximately Rs 720 million in this including to operationalise the expanded market reach by:

1. exploring cross-sell and up-sell opportunities by taking its existing range of products to ETA's client base.

2. helping promote the CAE business across the globe

Cranes Software launches MYSTAT 12

Cranes Software International Ltd has announced that the Company on January 03, 2008 has launched MYSTAT 12, a freely downloadable statistical analysis software package designed specifically for use by students and the teaching community.

MYSTAT 12 is a streamlined variation of the SYSTAT 12, designed specifically for educational use. It contains statistical and graphical features related to topics that are generally covered in undergraduate-level and beginning-graduate level statistics-related courses. By making MYSTAT freely available at www.systat.com/products/mystat, Cranes Software enables teachers and students to install the software on their personal and lab computers. The software can help students in virtually any course that involves quantitative analysis, including psychology, social sciences, biology, economics and market research.

Dr. Leland Wilkinson, Executive Vice President and inventor of the original SYSTAT product, said "With so many newly emerging applications for statistical analysis, there has never been a more important time to provide students and professors free access to the resources they need to promote research and prepare the next generation of the global work-force. Freely-available analytical tools like MYSTAT encourage discovery and support the free flow of information."

Wilkinson commented further that, "MYSTAT 12 includes a vast majority of the powerful statistic functionality found in the SYSTAT software package. We're pleased and proud to re-introduce this outstanding product, and we hope that it plays a key role in global academic achievement."

MYSTAT 12 comes with the entire set of SYSTAT 12 PDF user manuals, Comprehensive online help files, and several sample data files for practice. Additionally the two-volume MYSTAT workbook which is currently under development will supplement the course materials and encourage students to explore the software.

MYSTAT 12 has many of the core statistical functions available in the SYSTAT 12 product. It contains standard statistical and graphical functionality, as well as teaching aids such as Random Sampling and a Probability Calculator. It also includes advanced functions not normally found in introductory statistics packages, such as the Loglinear Model, as well as Logit, Probit, and Nonlinear Regression. MYSTAT 12 can accept, a maximum of 100 variables with no limit on the number of cases.

SYSTAT 12, the comprehensive statistical analysis package upon which MYSTAT 12 is based, is licensed by businesses, universities, and governmental institutions. Systat Software, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.

Cranes Software announces the release of the 64 bit NISA Version 15.5 on Microsoft® Windows

Cranes Software International Ltd on December 20, 2007, announced the release of NISA 64 bit version (NISA V15.5x64) on Microsoft® Windows. This version is targeted towards the enterprise customers enabling them to solve large size problems. This version also introduces the multicore / multi processor computing capability to NISA.

On this occasion, Dr. Ramdass Keshavamurthy, Vice President - Product development, commented "This is a significant upgrade release of NISA Version 15.0 targeted towards our enterprise customers. NISA Version 15.5x64 enables the users to solve much bigger problems since more memory can be addressed due to 64 bit address space. In addition, one salient feature of this release is the incorporation of the PARDISO solver from the Intel® Math Kernel Library which enables multicore, multiprocessor Cluster Computing capability in NISA. This would translate into our customers being able to solve complex STRUCTURAL and FLUID problems with million or more degrees of freedom significantly faster using multicore / multi processor machines."

Cranes Software International

Cranes Software International Ltd has informed that Fractal Analytics, a leading provider of predictive analytics and the Analytics Division of the Company, a global corporation offering scientific and engineering solutions have announced that they have partnered to develop Predicta, a Retail Risk Management Application for mortgages, credit cards, auto loans and personal loans. A joint IP Development Agreement has been agreed upon by Fractal and Cranes.

This partnership leverages Fractal's expertise and experience in the area of credit scoring and risk management and takes advantage of Cranes' Analytics Division's strengths in statistical software product development and distribution. The development team would be from Cranes Software and Fractal would bring in its domain expertise. Both parties would contribute IP to develop Predicta and the IP would be jointly owned on a revenue sharing arrangement.

Targeting the global market, Predicta would be primarily marketed by Cranes and Fractal and would look at leveraging the sales with its existing customers.

"Predicta is very relevant today, especially considering the requirements of BASEL II accord and the growing need for accurate assessment of credit risk and computing default probabilities. We are quite excited about partnering with Fractal who have a demonstrated leadership in this space", said Mohamed Asif, who heads the Banking and Financial Services Practice at the Analytics Division of Cranes Software International Ltd.