Akibia Invests in Customer Satisfaction with the Omega Management Group; 97% Consider Akibia Their Preferred IT Services Vendor; 71% Say Akibia is ''Best-in-Class''.

Business Editors

WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 2003

Akibia Infrastructure Management Services, a leading worldwide provider of customized and integrated support solutions for UNIX, Linux and Windows environments, has partnered with the Omega Management Group Corporation in a comprehensive program designed to measure customer satisfaction, enhance service delivery and ultimately engender client loyalty. The initial results of the multi-year program show that 97% of those clients surveyed consider Akibia their preferred vendor for IT services, while 71% regard Akibia as "Best-in-Class." Further, 100% of those surveyed indicated they would continue to do business with Akibia for many years as well as recommend Akibia to colleagues and friends.

The initiative consists of surveys and interviews conducted at a variety of levels throughout the customer's organization, from high-level business managers to technical end-users who open support calls through Akibia's 7x24 help desk. Omega asks Akibia's customers to evaluate and quantify performance metrics in areas including responsiveness, technical expertise and overall solution quality. Additional information captured describes the attributes, qualities and characteristics of a service provider valued most by Akibia's customers.

"While many companies are cutting back their spending in areas such as customer satisfaction, Akibia recognizes these initiatives can serve as a way to improve our service delivery," explains Tom Tucker, Akibia President and CFO. "Therefore, we have partnered with Omega as part of an extensive program to obtain actionable customer feedback in order to improve our processes, reduce costs to our clients as well as strengthen and grow client relationships."

Results of the program are communicated throughout Akibia's sales and operations management in an effort to facilitate communication within business units, identify potential areas for improvement and take corrective measures where applicable. Participating customers will be able to review results through their sales contacts and via a dedicated web page.

"Constant feedback is important in managing the experience and should be obtained as soon after the experience as possible." says Gartner Vice President Joel Wecksell. "Almost every enterprise collects feedback in some form. However, most (70%) do not use it to improve, and almost none (5%) inform their customers that their feedback was what caused the enterprise to make changes."

Over the past fiscal year, Akibia has increased its already significant investments in process improvement initiatives, from logistics to teambuilding to employee retention, as part of its core "Think Like a Customer" service philosophy. A new business group, Strategic Enterprise Development, has been formed within Akibia to manage the customer satisfaction program, as part of its mission to align global business systems and processes with strategic direction and vision.

About Akibia Infrastructure Management Services

Akibia Infrastructure Management Services provides customized and integrated support solutions for complex UNIX, Linux and Windows environments. Founded as Polaris Service in 1988, Akibia delivers data center support, desktop management and network and security solutions to leading companies worldwide. The company also offers operations support, IT education and infrastructure consulting services. Akibia partners with its customers, combining people, processes and infrastructure, to deliver cost-effective support solutions, designed to meet each customer's specific needs. Headquartered in Massachusetts, Akibia Infrastructure Management Services is a division of Akibia, Inc., an IT services company, and has offices throughout the United States and Europe. For more information, please call (866) 4-AKIBIA (425-4242) or visit us on the web at www.akibia.com.

About the Omega Management Group Corporation

Since 1984, Omega has been a leader in providing customer satisfaction and retention programs by successfully partnering with clients to achieve the goal of World Class Customer Organization. Based in Chelmsford, Mass., Omega is grounded in the service side of a wide cross section of industries. Its mission is to provide organizations with a competitive advantage by delivering customer intelligence data that increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. For more information, visit www.omegascoreboard.com.