ARI Announces Upgrade to Garden-point; Upgrade Makes European Lawn & Garden Portal More Robust.

MILWAUKEE -- ARI (OTCBB:ARIS), a leading provider of electronic catalogs and related technology and services to increase sales and profits for dealers in the manufactured equipment markets, announced today the successful upgrade of Garden-point.com(TM), ARI's Lawn and Garden Industry portal with electronic parts catalog and online ordering software used by dealers, distributors and manufacturers in Europe.

The Garden-point portal was originally deployed in 2001. The new release improves the user interface, upgrades the catalog to EMPARTweb(TM) 4.10 and adds new features and enhanced functionality. In addition, a number of customizations that were originally developed to support manufacturer-specific requirements for purchase orders and warranty claims have been incorporated into the base code, making future upgrades more efficient. The new release includes enhancements to both the EMPARTweb catalog and the e-Commerce software used to create and send purchase orders and warranty claims.

The EMPARTweb catalog now includes faster access to the search function and user preference controls. In addition, management and display of supersession and prior part information -- considered to be a critical feature by a majority of customers surveyed -- was also improved. Searches may be begun at either the part level or the model level and then refined to allow the user to find the right component even with incomplete information.

The source code has been repartitioned to allow for more efficient upgrades to the catalog product and to make it easier to add customer-specific logic for Purchase Orders and Warranty Claims.

"ARI's Garden-point e-Business solution is a recognized standard in the European Lawn and Garden Industry," said John Bray, vice president, business development for ARI. "Garden-point provides dealers with a user-friendly environment that makes it easy for them to find and order the correct part the first time, allowing dealers to improve service, increase productivity and decrease costs," added Bray. "We are confident that dealers using the upgraded version of Garden-point.com will find the software faster and more reliable." According to Bray, Garden-point is used by dealers to create and send warranty claims and purchase orders to Textron UK, Textron US, Hayter, Allen Power and Universal Engine Power. In addition, Briggs and Stratton, Kohler-Europe and Tecumseh Europe use Garden-point to allow their dealers to view their parts catalogs.

"We have made significant investments in enhancements and refinements to Garden-point as well as in upgrading the hardware," said Brian E. Dearing, chairman and chief executive officer of ARI. "We did this to provide users with a more robust system as well as to ensure the stability, speed and recovery capabilities of Garden-point."

Dearing indicated that ARI's solution suite benefits dealers, distributors and manufacturers. "Regardless of a dealer's size or business volume, ARI provides an excellent solution. For dealers whose business requires continuous access to catalog information, PartSmart(TM) best meets their needs. For dealers who require less frequent access, our Web-based catalog provides an alternative solution," said Dearing. "And all dealers can benefit from the usage of ARI's electronic marketplace for ordering which is compatible with both PartSmart and EMPARTweb."

About ARI

ARI is a leading provider of electronic parts catalogs and related technology and services to increase sales and profits for dealers in the manufactured equipment markets. ARI currently provides approximately 78 parts catalogs (many of which contain multiple lines of equipment) for approximately 65 equipment manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe. More than 88,000 catalog subscriptions are provided through ARI to more than 28,000 dealers and distributors in more than 120 countries in a dozen segments of the worldwide equipment market including outdoor power, power sports, ag equipment, recreation vehicle, floor maintenance, auto and truck parts aftermarket, marine and construction. The Company builds and supports a full suite of multi-media electronic catalog publishing and viewing software for the Web or CD and provides expert catalog publishing and consulting services. ARI also provides dealer marketing services, including technology-enabled direct mail and a template-based dealer website service that makes it quick and easy for an equipment dealer to have a professional and attractive website. In addition, ARI e-Catalog systems support a variety of electronic pathways for parts orders, warranty claims and other transactions between manufacturers and their networks of sales and service points. ARI currently operates three offices in the United States and one in Europe and has sales and service agents in Australia, England and France providing marketing and support of its products and services.