American general finance evansville

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 9, 2001

Application Rejuvenation to Result in Lower Total Cost of Ownership

for Consumer Finance Leader

SEAGULL (AEX: SEAGULL), a leading provider of e-business enabling software technology, today announced that American General Finance has selected the company's Web/Windows-to-host solutions to provide integrated, graphical access to its business-critical, loan processing applications for its branch office network.

SEAGULL's WinJa(TM)and J Walk(TM) solutions support American General Finance's commitment to quality customer service for more than two million American families by giving branch personnel a streamlined, easy-to-use graphical interface in a Windows-based PC environment, making branch personnel more efficient and speeding loan processing and approval.

American General Finance is a subsidiary of American General Corporation, one of the nation's largest diversified financial services organizations providing retirement services, investments, life insurance, and consumer loans to more than 12 million customers. Using SEAGULL technology, branch personnel from more than 1,300 branch offices will access business critical applications for loan application processing and all the customer service activities related to those loans, including home equity and revolving loans, through a more intuitive user interface. Even though there are several different applications running on the branch platform, the branch personnel will be presented with one seamless application interface, resulting in improved productivity, faster transaction processing time and increased accuracy.

The integrated application will dramatically reduce training time for new employees, which is essential to managing costs and maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.

"We evaluated several technologies and selected SEAGULL's solutions as the best fit for our needs," said Jerry Gilpin, senior vice president of information systems for American General Finance. "We are confident that with SEAGULL, our applications will yield a lower total cost of ownership through operational efficiencies, central management of software updates, and reduced training costs. In addition, this supports our ongoing objectives of continuous improvement to enable our employees to offer the highest level of customer service."

"Global 2000 organizations like American General Finance are looking for ways to reduce costs in the delivery of products and services, while improving responsiveness and the quality of customer interactions," said Kim Addington, senior vice president of marketing for SEAGULL. "We are delighted that American General Finance has selected SEAGULL as an integral part of their strategy for achieving these objectives."

Deployment to American General Finance branch offices is expected to be complete in Fall 2001.

About American General Finance

American General Finance, Inc. and its subsidiaries are engaged in the consumer finance and credit insurance business. The company, headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, has assets of $13.4 billion and operates over 1,300 offices in 42 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Products and services are provided to more than 2 million American families. The company offers direct consumer and home equity loans, retail sales financing, and other credit-related products. For more information, visit www.LoansFast.com.

About SEAGULL

SEAGULL's software technology opens mainframe and midrange applications for Web, wireless and Windows access and integrates e-business applications with the back office. Used in more than 7,000 organizations worldwide, including the government, finance, retail, healthcare, insurance and manufacturing industries, SEAGULL's solutions are designed for companies needing to rapidly integrate back-office business functionality with new e-business initiatives. The company, a global organization with headquarters in Atlanta and The Netherlands, is publicly traded on the Amsterdam Exchange under the symbol SEAGULL. For more information, visit www.seagullsw.com.

NOTE TO EDITORS: The correct usage of our company name is SEAGULL in all capital letters.

Forward Looking Information: All statements in this press release which address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future, including statements expressing general optimism about future operating results and non-historical information, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are, and will be, based on management's then-current views and assumptions regarding future events and operating performance. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not necessarily limited to management's ability to manage growth, and hire and retain qualified employees; unpredictable customer demand; intense competition; rapid technological change; unpredictable market acceptance of new products; and market instability and/or reduction in software purchasing caused by exceptional circumstances.