ATLANTA, July 9, 1998 -- – Equifax today announced its acquisition of The Decisioneering Group Inc., a Phoenix-based transformation "think-tank" and recognized leader in knowledge engineering and strategic consulting solutions. The company has worked with many Fortune 500 global corporations.

"We’ve transformed Equifax from a data company, on demand, to a total solution, value-added enterprise – driven totally by our passion to meet and exceed customer expectations around the globe," said Thomas F. Chapman, president and CEO of Equifax.

Thomas J. Blischok, chairman and CEO of The Decisioneering Group, joins Equifax as executive vice president of the Company’s knowledge-engineering unit. He will report to Mr. Chapman. Mr. Blischok is recognized as one of the pre-eminent thought leaders and futurists in the transformation of industries with the use of enabling technologies.

"Thom Blischok possesses some extremely unique talents and he’s a true visionary, particularly in applying decision support technology," said Paul Dehnert, CEO of Knowledge Discovery One, a software company in Austin, Texas, providing advanced next-generation decision support software and consulting to the retail industry. "The Decisioneering Group has the ability to provide great value to organizations that want to understand their customers and the profitability of their business in a better way."

The Equifax business unit formed with the acquisition of The Decisioneering Group creates, offers and delivers world-class, strategic-level business and decision analytics across the banking, retail, telecommunications, utilities, insurance, transportation industries and government. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

This acquisition brings knowledge-based decision solutions to enterprises by "mining" a wide range of information on consumers, distribution channels and products to better define lifecycles and predict relationship opportunities. This helps enterprises that want to target the right programs to deliver the products and services consumers want when they want them. These capabilities create the fundamental knowledge for Equifax clients, allowing them to better understand and even anticipate their customers’ needs.

The potential cost savings of enhanced decision analytics is significant. For example, figures show that currently 30% of every marketing dollar is under-utilized, according to The Decisioneering Group studies.

"There are two areas where we will help our customers most," Mr. Blischok said. "The first is the evolution of time series marketing analytics, and the other is making the most of maximizing the customer relationship through loyalty engineering."

Traditionally companies have viewed customers, products and channels at one point in time and asked: "How much did a customer buy from us last month?" Mr. Blischok says a company should look at a broader timeframe – 18 to 36 months – and shape a long-term integrated view of its products, distribution channels and customers. By doing that, an organization will recognize the best ongoing opportunities for growth.

"Another area is to capitalize upon every single point of contact between an enterprise and its customers with the objective of engineering a relationship of true and lasting loyalty," he said.

"The new relationship between The Decisioneering Group and Equifax will provide retailers and other businesses with the information they need to be successful in the future," said Robert J. Verdisco, president of International Mass Retailers Association. "No longer can retailers afford to be product-focused, they must be customer-focused. This relationship will give mass retailers analytic tools to tailor individual customer solutions and build customer loyalty."

The Decisioneering Group helps corporations position themselves for the future by using enabling technologies as a competitive differentiator. Founded in 1996, The Decisioneering Group has extensive experience in designing and developing very large scale database solutions capable of helping corporations gain insight into their customers and understand them as never before.

Equifax's worldwide knowledge-based information, transaction processing, consulting and software businesses are designed to bring buyers and sellers together, thus changing the shape of global commerce. Equifax serves the banking, financial, retail, credit card, telecommunications/utilities, automotive, health care industries and government. It is a leading supplier of business information solutions in Canada, the UK and Latin America. Equifax operates in 17 countries with sales in more than 40 countries. Founded in 1899 in Atlanta, Equifax today has 10,000 employees around the world. Revenues for the 12 months ended March 31, 1998, were more than $1.4 billion.

Statements in this press release that relate to future plans, objectives, expectations, performance, events and the like are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Future events, risks and uncertainties, individually or in the aggregate, could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Those factors could include worldwide and U.S. economic conditions, changes in demand for the company’s products and services, risks associated with the integration of acquisitions and other investments, and other factors discussed in the "forward-looking information" section in the management’s discussion and analysis included in the company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1997.