ANSI Introduces National Resource for Global Standards.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 1997--A new World Wide Web-based service that will help U.S. business become more competitive by reducing duplication of effort and product development time, improving product quality and providing faster access to global market standards has been launched by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Called the NSSN: A Global Standards Network (formerly the National Standards Systems Network), the service (http://www.nssn.org) is a comprehensive source of information on U.S. and international standards from private sector organizations and federal government agencies, including military specifications (MILSPECS) and documents from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), as well as commercial standards from 25 of the most important standards developing organizations. Over 100,000 worldwide standards will be in the NSSN database by the end of the year.

ANSI President Sergio Mazza said the service allows the more than 10 million standards users worldwide to access a wide range of standards and related information from a single source. "By consolidating information on the world's industry, government and commercial standards, a user can search of hundreds of databases in a few minutes -- eliminating untold labor hours," he said. The U.S. market for standards and related information is approximately $180 million.

Studies performed at several corporations show significant time savings and productivity increases when employees can obtain standards information electronically. "This helps us to serve our customers better as we define, produce and support Boeing products worldwide," said Jane T. Wiegenstein, Manager, Product Standards, The Boeing Corporation (NYSE: BA), Seattle.

The NSSN service is the result of a partnership between ANSI and the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards & Technology. The initial funding was for over $4 million -- $2 million from the Technology Reinvestment Project, a multi-agency program run by the DoD's Advanced Research Project Agency, and more than $2 million from in-kind services from ANSI Federation members, which include companies and standards developers.

Mr. Mazza said the NSSN will benefit not only large businesses that spend millions of dollars annually to acquire external standards and maintain duplicate collection sites, but also smaller companies needing access to standards. "Small and medium-sized businesses want to remain competitive and expand their role as suppliers to large companies," he said. "This service will improve their capabilities and overall competitiveness -- not only as domestic suppliers, but as suppliers to a global market."

Development of the NSSN service also contributes to the goal of identifying and adopting non-government standards to replace MILSPECS with commercial buying practices.

"The Department of Defense is spending an increasing percentage of its procurement dollars in the commercial marketplace, so it's essential that commercial concerns have access to our military and federal specifications and standards," said Greg Saunders, Deputy Directory of Acquisition Practices, DoD. "The NSSN has our entire library of documents on-line, including about 30,000 MILSPECS. Although we have adopted more than 7,000 private sector standards already, NSSN will be an invaluable tool for identifying further potential replacements for our MILSPECS. It will be a tremendous aid as we try to adopt and use more commercial practices."

The NSSN will offer two initial services: NSSN Basic, a free service, which goes on-line today, allows users to search for standards by document number, keyword or standards developer; and NSSN Enhanced, which will be available in the second quarter of 1997 and will provide more detail about each standard, including an abstract, a list of equivalent standards and pricing. With both services, users can link directly to the World Wide Web home page of the standards developer or its designee to order a standard. NSSN Enhanced will also include an automatic alert to provide immediate notification of changes to the status of a standard as it progresses through development and maintenance cycles.

ANSI is a private, non-profit membership organization that coordinates the U.S. voluntary standards system, bringing together interests from the private and public sector to develop voluntary standards for a wide array of industries. ANSI is the official U.S. member to the world's leading standards bodies, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission via the U.S. National Committee. The Institute's membership includes more than 1,300 national and multinational companies, 35 government agencies, 20 institutions and 260 professional, technical, trade, labor and commercial organizations.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ABOUT THE NSSN:

"This introduction today marks another milestone in industries' leveraging of the Internet's ubiquitous fabric of connected and ever more capable computing systems. The NSSN will accelerate the flow of standards information needed to shorten product development schedules and lower product costs. It will especially help the ever increasing numbers of small- and medium-sized businesses who previously found searching for and locating appropriate standards documents costly and time-consuming."

George Spix, Chief Architect, Consumer Platforms

Division, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)

"United Technologies Corporation is a strategic user of domestic and international standards in support of varied product lines at Otis, Carrier, Pratt and Whitney, Hamilton Standard, Sikorsky and Automotive divisions. UTC is looking to the ANSI NSSN to help decrease product development time via on-line standards information and to facilitate the standards development process in key product areas. The Internet-based NSSN is a timely addition to the decision tools that companies can provide at the desktop."

Dr. Robert J. Hermann, Senior Vice President,

Science and Technology, United Technologies

Corporation (NYSE: UTX)

CONTACT: ANSI

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