Aelita and RapidApp Help Migrate Clark/Bardes Consulting to Active Directory and Exchange 2000.

Business Editors

COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 2002

ZeroIMPACT Migration Yields Big Savings for Compensation and Benefits

Consulting Firm 

Aelita Software Corporation, a leading provider of enterprise management solutions for Windows-centric networks, announced today that RapidApp, a network systems consulting firm, used Aelita Controlled Migration Suite to manage the successful migration to Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange 2000 for Clark/Bardes Consulting. Clark/Bardes Consulting (NYSE:CBC) helps companies keep their best people through integrated compensation, benefits and organizational development solutions and is the largest publicly traded company of its kind.

"Our national consulting and services staff relies heavily on information technology to meet the requirements of our customers as efficiently as possible," said Mark Healy, chief technology officer at Clark/Bardes Consulting. "Unifying our environment enables us to create a more flexible, scalable IT infrastructure that can quickly accommodate change. Aelita's technology provided a clear cost-savings solution for our Windows 2000 and Exchange 2000 migration. RapidApp's knowledge and skills with the Aelita migration tools helped make those savings possible."

Since going public in 1998, Clark/Bardes Consulting acquired more than 15 companies, enhancing its breadth of services and solidifying its leadership position. The migration project enabled the company to consolidate the multiple, disparate Windows NT domains acquired into a single Windows 2000 domain. It also increased collaboration across the enterprise through the move to Exchange 2000.

"Clark/Bardes Consulting recognized the opportunity to leverage Active Directory, consolidate servers and streamline IT operations," said Glen Hampton, Chief Technology Officer with RapidApp. "We designed an environment that will minimize IT administration and provide support for future business applications based on Windows 2000 technologies. We selected Aelita's migration technologies based on the completeness of the pre-migration planning tools, the speed of the migration wizards, and the ZeroIMPACT approach to migration."

The migration was accomplished without disrupting users' access to network services and RapidApp estimates that Clark/Bardes Consulting saved approximately $200,000 in costs as a result of timesaving features in Aelita's migration technology.

Aelita pioneered ZeroIMPACT migration with Domain Migration Wizard, a powerful Windows 2000 and Active Directory migration solution. Aelita extended its ZeroIMPACT approach to Exchange 2000 with Exchange Migration Wizard.

Exchange Migration Wizard is the only solution that automatically migrates mailbox data and updates user profiles, decreasing administrator workload and reducing the man-hours required to complete the migration. It is also offers true coexistence between Exchange 2000 and Exchange 5.5, allowing native Exchange 2000 mode to be established at the beginning of the migration and providing users with greater collaboration throughout the process.

"Forward thinking organizations like Clark/Bardes Consulting are moving to a more cohesive IT infrastructure to reduce administration costs and enable increased collaboration and more efficient customer service," said Ratmir Timashev, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aelita Software. "Windows 2000 and Exchange 2000 provide the infrastructure and Aelita delivers the fastest, most secure, and most effective solutions for getting there."

About Clark/Bardes Consulting:

Founded in 1967, Clark/Bardes Consulting is a firm with expertise in compensation and benefit consulting, design, funding and plan administration. With more than 3,800 corporate, healthcare and banking clients, the company's primary purpose is helping companies keep their best people.

About RapidApp:

RapidApp is a specialized, IT solutions services firm that focuses on network and systems infrastructure deployment and migrations. RapidApp uses their RapidDeploy(TM) framework to help clients compress the time frames associated with deploying applications and their supporting infrastructure.

Specific areas of expertise include Active Directory design, planning, and migration; exchange migrations; large-scale server based computing deployments with both Microsoft Terminal Services and Citrix; and large-scale desktop deployments.

Although RapidApp is not a product reseller, Citrix Systems, Aelita Software and Softricity have awarded RapidApp with "Certified Consulting Partner" status. RapidApp is presently the first and only "Aelita Certified Consulting Partner", and one of only four "Citrix Certified Consulting Partners" in the world.

For more information please visit www.rapidapp.com , email [e-mail], or contact RapidApp at [phone].

About Aelita Software Corporation:

Aelita Software, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for software products, provides comprehensive Windows-centric enterprise management solutions that focus on migration and deployment, administration and provisioning, operations and security, and backup and recovery. Aelita solutions improve the usability and security of Windows 2000, Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange and .NET infrastructures, while also extending Windows-centric network management to multi-platform enterprises. Recent Aelita innovations include ZeroIMPACT(TM) Windows 2000 and Exchange 2000 migration, the first full-featured Active Directory recovery solution, and a new approach to operations and security management that is enabling network managers, security directors and CIOs to use operating and security data in new ways. Aelita Software is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio and can be reached at [phone]. For more information on Aelita, go to www.aelita.com or contact [e-mail].