"The Business Engine Network for Aerospace and Defense" Unveiled At Company's Annual User Group Conference.

Business/High-Tech Editors

SAN FRANCISCO & ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 2000

Customers and Partners Enthusiastically Welcome Advanced Business

Engine Prototype, Combining Professional Service Automation,

Collaborative Commerce and Earned Value Management 

Business Engine, a leading provider of professional service automation and collaborative commerce solutions for global organizations and their network of service providers, recently unveiled The Business Engine Network(TM) for Aerospace and Defense (A&D). The announcement of this specialized application of the advanced Business Engine Network prototype was made at the company's 23rd MPM User Group (MUG) 2000 Meeting before hundreds of excited and applauding users, customers and Business Engine officers.

"Shaping the Future", the theme for Business Engine's five-day training and user conference, was attended by more than 40 aerospace- and defense-related companies -- the majority of the company's user community -- including such notables as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, ITT Industries, TRW and General Dynamics.

According to Bob Hobday, Manager of Engineering Planning and Control, of ITT Gilfillan, "As an aerospace and defense professional who first attended MUG some 10 years ago, I have seen a distinct evolution in Business Engine's A&D product line. There is a clear shift from a government reporting environment to a weekly management assessment and control tool. A Web-based tool capitalizes on the global Web infrastructure permitting the type of multi-location, international business prevalent today. I am pleased to see Business Engine stepping up to this kind of environment with The Business Engine Network for A&D, and delivering true weekly earned value information."

The Business Engine Network solution for Aerospace and Defense now has the functionality to be the program management tool used across programs and the company for managing all aspects of the program lifecycle. A powerful solution, this innovative browser-based prototype incorporates earned value management and cost/schedule reporting with the impressive management and collaboration infrastructure of The Business Engine Network, resulting in mission-critical software to the company's aerospace and defense contracting customers.

"MUG 2000 marked a tremendous milestone in the evolution of our user attendance, traditional product line and installed customer base," said John O'Neil, chairman and chief executive of Business Engine. "We enjoyed a record crowd. The excitement generated among our long-time loyal customers throughout the weeklong event culminated in our joint commitment to introduce The Business Engine Network for A&D. The aerospace and defense sector is clearly an important and valued segment of our business."

New Features of The Business Engine Network for A&D Highlighted at MUG 2000:

The Business Engine Network for Aerospace and Defense -- the first program management software capable of running over a personal computer and introduced to manage complex programs -- was first released in 1986 and has enjoyed the leading market position ever since. The following greatly enhances and extends this industry-standard product line to include:

Database support: Oracle and SQL Server are the target database standards. The SQL database will provide the scalability necessary in today's changing program management environment. All projects will be stored in one database providing cross-project capabilities that did not exist before in previous versions of the product.

Browser-based: Supports Internet Explorer and Netscape. Deployment of the application becomes easy. Now you can be anywhere and access the information from the Web.

Weekly earned value: A key enhancement is the support of weekly earned value and other performance metrics that will be necessary additions to The Business Engine Network for A&D. The enhanced solution will supply a three-month window of weekly earned value data, allowing managers to status and track throughout the course of a month and take corrective action before the next accounting period begins. Users will now have the opportunity to update and status information on a weekly basis, and The Business Engine Network for A&D will display the information via a Weekly Earned Value Channel.

Multi-project rollups: This will enable program managers to track all of the projects under a certain program at the program level -- a powerful new tool for program management.

Collaborative components: The Business Engine Network for A&D will take the product line from being a mission-critical reporting tool to a key program management applicaiton by giving all users of the product the ability to make fact-based decisions.

About Business Engine

Since 1987, Business Engine has been delivering professional service automation and collaborative commerce solutions to project-driven Fortune 1000 companies throughout North America and Europe. Global 2000 banking, pharmaceutical, and other IT and R&D organizations are using Business Engine's flagship product, The Business Engine Network(TM), to improve the effective management of their complex projects and initiatives, and the utilization of their internal and external resources. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Business Engine has offices throughout the United States and, overseas, in Belgium, England and India. Key investors in Business Engine include Broadview Capital Partners, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Oak Investment Partners and DB Capital. Privately held, Business Engine employs a full-time global work force of some 200 people. For more information on Business Engine and The Business Engine Network, please call 1-800-235-4142 in the United States, 415-616-4000 outside the United States, or visit the company's Web site at www.businessengine.com.

The Business Engine Network is a trademark and Business Engine is a registered trademark of Business Engine Software Corporation. All other products and services referenced herein are trademarks of their respective companies.