Thursday October 26, 9:14 am Eastern Time

FORTIS BANK Relies on Crystal's C-Merge for its Critical IT Consolidation

HERZLIA, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE) - Crystal Systems Solutions Ltd. (NASDAQ: CRYS - news)

FORTIS BANK is today the eighth largest bank in Europe and market leader in the Benelux with market capitalization of 42 billion euro, following a complex merger of five banks.

A major technical challenge for this merger was the consolidation of the varied IT systems. Crystal Systems Solutions' C-Merge has a key role in automatically advancing FORTIS mission critical systems to handle the new consolidated business and technological environments.

Based on FORTIS's requirements and in cooperation with DMR, which was chosen by FORTIS for Project Management, Crystal rapidly adjusted the appropriate tools from the C-Merge toolset, and provided it to FORTIS, along with analyst-friendly screens, support, documentation, and training. One especially technically challenging task was to fix the names that are interwoven within diverse software components and make them consistent. The usage of C-Merge tools by FORTIS resulted with a time saving of 90% compared with the time spent on manual work without C-Merge, and with an exceptionally greater level of accuracy.

"Crystal is very sensitive to FORTIS's needs to maintain the highest service levels to their clients parallel to the IT project, while performing a reliable and safe consolidation of the data processing systems of the merged Banks," says Dory Breiman, Crystal's Vice President for Technology. "With C-Merge, consolidation can be done automatically and on-site by the client. It is therefore cost effective, quick and low-risk. Large enterprises wishing to consolidate their computer operations and systems can see with the success of FORTIS the benefits of using C-Merge technology," added Mr. Breiman.

Alex Breesch, the Project Leader at FORTIS is enthusiastic about using C-Merge and Crystal's professional service: "By using Crystal's C-Merge tool, we were able to assist the developers in making the changes necessary to apply the new naming conventions. C-Merge has proven to be very powerful and flexible. We were also impressed by the way the Crystal people managed our requests by adjusting C-Merge to handle our specific needs."

About FORTIS

FORTIS is a major financial group in the Benelux countries. The eighth largest bank in Europe, with total assets of over 250 billion euro, was formed by merging General Bank Belgium, General Bank Netherlands, ASLK-CGER, Mees-Pierson, and VSB Bank into one. FORTIS also includes an extended insurance arm, thus offering a complete portfolio of banking, insurance and investment services in Benelux and other parts of Europe.

About DMR

DMR Consulting is a leading global provider of e-consulting services and business solutions to Fortune 1000 companies as well as to Internet start-ups. DMR consultants design, build and operate high-impact e-solutions that measurably enhance business performance. A strategic member of the Fujitsu family of companies, DMR Consulting employs over 9,000 highly trained professionals in 65 offices worldwide. DMR Consulting has 27 years of experience in managing large-scale systems development and e-integration projects, combined with expertise in management consulting and emerging technologies. To date, DMR Consulting has served thousands of businesses and public enterprises internationally.

With annual revenues of close to $US900 million for 2000, DMR Consulting is known for making IT investments pay off.

About Crystal Systems Solutions

Crystal Systems Solutions Ltd. (NASDAQ: CRYS - news) has been providing proprietary software technologies and services for Fortune 1000 companies since 1987. Crystal's solutions include e-business enabling for legacy systems, cross-platform migration and IT mergers and consolidations. Crystal supports its customers, both directly and via its partners, offering end-to-end solutions through consultancy, assistance and service in conjunction with its wide variety of proprietary software tools.

Crystal Systems Solutions is a member of the Formula Group (NASDAQ: FORTY - news). The Formula Group is an international information technology company principally engaged, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, in providing software consulting services developing proprietary software products, and providing computer-based solutions.

Certain statements contained in this release may be deemed forward-looking statements, with respect to plans, projections, or future performance of the Company, the occurrence of which involves certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual plans to differ materially from these statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: market demand for the Company's tools, successful implementation of the Company's tools, competitive factors, the ability to manage the Company's growth, the ability to recruit and retrain additional software personnel and the ability to develop new business lines. All names and trademarks are their owners' property.

Contact:
Crystal Systems Solutions
Iris Yahal
Tel: +972-9-9526103
Fax: +972-9-9526111