Agile Software Appears on Caspar Weinberger's World Business Review TV Series; Discusses the Web-Enabled Supply Chain.

Business & Entertainment Editors/High-Tech Writers

BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2000

Multi-Media Productions (USA), Inc. is proud to announce the appearance of Brian D. Stolle, chairman, president and CEO of Agile Software Corporation (Nasdaq:AGIL), on World Business Review. The weekly television series focuses on business and technology, and is hosted by Caspar Weinberger, chairman of Forbes magazine and Secretary of Defense during the Reagan administration. Joining the discussion as industry expert is Dan Miklovic, vice president of Collaborative Commerce at the Gartner Group, and director emeritus of the Industrial Computing Society. The topic of the panel discussion is "The E Supply Chain."

"Agile Software was selected to appear on the program because it provides Internet-based solutions that are enabling real-time collaboration and communication among manufacturers and their supply chain partners. This has far-reaching implications for industrial productivity," said Barry Reuben, the show's senior coordinating producer.

Supply chain management has made a number of strides in recent years as manufacturers and other industry participants have come to terms with the Internet. The e-supply chain, however, remains somewhat clumsy, involving a disparate field of companies of different sizes, from different locations around the world, running incompatible systems. In order to fully reap the rewards of the Internet-enabled supply chain, manufacturing companies must implement reliable, cross-platform solutions that allow them to interactively communicate with their supply chain partners. These systems must be scalable and easy to implement and manage so as not to exhaust IT resources.

Agile Software Corporation addresses this need by enabling discrete electronics manufacturers and EMS (electronics manufacturing service) providers to include their supply chain partners in their product releases and change processes. Members of the supply chain and the manufacturer are therefore able to exchange new or changing information concerning the manufacture, source or supply of products and the electronic procurement of production materials.

Agile solutions offer scalability, easy implementation, and compatibility across diverse information technology platforms, and do not require large investments in infrastructure.

Stolle appears on the program to discuss the virtual manufacturing model as well as the challenges currently facing high-tech manufacturers. He also shares Agile software's e-commerce strategy.

Stolle said Agile conducted a study among its customer base and found that on average, they modify their products 650 times a week. This means that customers are having to coordinate that many changes across 70 partners in order to deliver their products to the local electronics store. "What used to happen is people used to get on planes and try and coordinate and make things happen, and that is obviously not efficient when you've got product life cycles that can be weeks now," said Stolle. He added, "That can really be a challenge and you don't want people spending time on planes instead of building product."

Industry expert, Miklovic, said supply chain partners have a number of factors to reconcile. "You have to deal with things like part substitution, because of unavailability of certain parts, customization for color, individualization like labeling and other things," said Miklovic. He added, "This is what the e-commerce of business-to-consumer stuff has brought us, everybody wanting it their way, but behind that, there's this business-to-business e-commerce that's happening."

Agile Anywhere(TM) is a complete suite of product change collaboration solutions that totally automate the management of product information and engineering change orders (ECOs) across the e-supply chain. Agile Anywhere manages all product information, as well as the entire life cycle of a product, with all information and services available through Agile e-hubs. Agile Anywhere solutions include the Agile Product Definition Server, Agile Product Change Server, Agile AML (Approved Manufacturer List) Server, Agile iCM (Internet Content Manager , and Agile ChangeCast.

Agile Buyer(TM) is an Internet-based secure supplier extranet solution for sourcing and procurement of direct (production) materials. Agile Buyer encompasses all direct materials and all members of a supply chain in a single Internet-based environment, automating RFQ Preparation and Dissemination, Buying Decision Support, Purchase Orders, Commodity and Contract Management, and Supplier Performance Management.

World Business Review currently airs on PBS The Business Channel, CNBC as paid programming, and in prime business time slots in numerous Public Television markets, including San Francisco, New York, Denver and Miami. The weekly series can also be viewed on TWA, United Airlines or from any desktop computer via AENTV.

World Business Review has been developed into curriculum for college and university level courses, and is being used in a variety of business and technology courses or within the School of Business libraries at Carnegie Mellon University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, DePaul University, Georgetown University, University of Florida, City University of Hong Kong, among other distinguished institutions of higher education.

Individual videotapes or continuing education systems (provided by Indiana State University) are available by calling 1-800-WBR-1032 or by visiting www.wbrtv.com, which showcases featured topics, companies and their solutions.