Accenture to Develop 'FIRST,' Enabling U.S. Air Force to Soar Into Realm of Real-time Integrated Financial Management.

Business Editors

DAYTON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 30, 2001

Accenture today announced it has won a six-year contract valued at more than $33 million to develop and install the U.S. Air Force's first fully integrated financial information system.

The new system, which will be called the Financial Information Resource System (FIRST), is expected to create efficiencies by introducing a seamless flow of budget-related information among all Air Force installations worldwide.

"We're looking forward to working with Accenture on FIRST, which will replace three existing budget systems at Air Force headquarters, bases and major commands worldwide," said Jerry Duke, FIRST Program Manager of the U.S. Air Force's Materiel Systems Group's Financial Information Systems SPO which extended the contract to Accenture. "As a result of FIRST, we expect to realize improved productivity and significantly increased financial analysis and decision support capabilities."

Based upon best available commercial practices and state-of-the-art management tools for business planning, decision support and process management, FIRST will offer a shared data environment with increased financial visibility, including full budget visibility and audit trails on all financial processes. With these new robust resource management tools, the U.S. Air Force anticipates improved cost modeling capabilities that will facilitate better estimates of manpower and flying hours, inflation and base operating support costs for multiple budget scenarios.

The new system also will provide a single, Air Force-wide standard for:

- Budget formulation,

- Budget execution,

- The acquisition and reporting of accounting information,

- Funds management, and

- "What-if" scenario interactive costing.

All transactions will be processed on a real-time or near real-time basis - providing more timely information to budget staff and creating less dependence upon end-of-month accounting reports.

"Consequently, Air Force personnel will no longer have to start from scratch, learning new systems for managing financial data whenever they transfer between Air Force installations," said Accenture Partner James Trowhill. "As a result, all military branches will benefit from a shorter budget cycle and greater financial confidence."

Added Eric Stange, who leads Accenture's Defense practice: "To help the Air Force achieve these benefits, Accenture is bringing cross-industry expertise and best-proven solutions to the development of FIRST, much as it has for the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency Business Systems Modernization project." He calls this a "hallmark" of Accenture's global Defense practice.

Powering FIRST will be Teradata - state-of-the-art data warehousing technology from NCR Corporation for managing large volumes of financial data - coupled with software from industry leaders such as IBM and SeeBeyond.

"NCR is pleased to play a role in this project, which will give the U.S. Air Force the same planning, programming and budgeting capabilities that many leading Fortune 500 companies already enjoy," said Steve Millard, vice president, strategic partnerships for NCR's Teradata Division. "For the first time, Air Force budgeters stationed all over the world will use a single, flexible, standardized system to manage tens of thousands of daily financial transactions."

In addition to tapping Accenture's strategic vendor alliances with NCR and SeeBeyond to serve the U.S. Air Force, the Accenture team will be assisted by subcontractors American Management Systems, Inc. (AMS), ATS, LOGTEC, AF Kelley, RGII, Peerless Technologies Corporation and SRA.

"With the completion of FIRST, Air Force personnel will be able to access the information they need - when they need it - wherever they are in the world," said Dave Donovan, director of Federal Sales for SeeBeyond. "By eliminating redundant information entry, data conversion and system incompatibilities, the Air Force will enjoy greater operational efficiencies resulting in improved financial analysis and decision support."

About Accenture

Accenture, a global management and technology consulting organization, is reinventing itself to become the market-maker, architect and builder of the new marketplace. The firm delivers innovations to improve the way the world works and lives. More than 70,000 people in 46 countries deliver a wide range of specialized capabilities and solutions to clients across all industries. Under its strategy, the firm is building a network of businesses to meet the full range of client needs - consulting, technology, outsourcing, alliances and venture capital. Accenture's home page address is www.accenture.com.

About NCR Corporation

NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a leader in providing Relationship Technology(TM) solutions to customers worldwide in the retail, financial, communications, manufacturing, travel and transportation, and insurance markets. NCR's Relationship Technology solutions include privacy-enabled Teradata(R) warehouses and customer relationship management (CRM) applications, store automation and automated teller machines (ATMs). The company's business solutions are built on the foundation of its long-established industry knowledge and consulting expertise, value-adding software, global customer support services, a complete line of consumable and media products, and leading edge hardware technology. NCR employs 31,900 in 130 countries, and is a component stock of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. More information about NCR and its solutions may be found at www.ncr.com.

About SeeBeyond

As the leading global provider of eBI(TM) solutions, SeeBeyond (Nasdaq: SBYN) enables the seamless flow of information within and among enterprises in real time. The SeeBeyond eBI Suite offers a rapidly deployable and infinitely scalable infrastructure for application integration, business-to-business connectivity and business processes optimization. SeeBeyond has more than 1,400 customers worldwide, including ABB, ABN Amro, Barnes & Noble.com, Bausch & Lomb, BHP, Daimler-Chrysler, DuPont, Florida Power & Light, Fluor Daniel, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Pfizer and Sprint.

SeeBeyond has global headquarters in Monrovia, Calif. and sales and marketing headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif. For more information, please visit www.seebeyond.com.

eBI is a trademark of SeeBeyond Technology Corporation. All other trade names are the property of their respective owners.