Andersen Consulting Opens Business Launch Centre in Texas; Partners John Romanow and Mitch Cline Will Lead Texas Centre with Offices in Dallas, Austin, and Houston.

Business Editors

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 20, 2000

Andersen Consulting, which will be renamed Accenture on 01/01/01, today unveiled its Business Launch Centre in Texas -- the newest addition to the firm's global network of eBusiness production facilities.

The Centre is headquartered at the Infomart, the premier high-technology campus of downtown Dallas, with offices in Austin and Houston. It provides initially-funded technology startups and spin-offs with the management, marketing, finance, administration and technology expertise necessary to scale rapidly and become viable businesses. The Centre is already working with several high tech startups, including Separateaccounts.com and RocketLogix. John Romanow, a partner with Andersen Consulting's Communications practice, and Mitch Cline, a partner in the firm's Electronics and High Tech practice, will lead the Centre.

"Dallas, Austin and Houston are three of the fastest growing high tech markets in the nation," said Romanow. "For companies in the post-incubation period, there is a tremendous need for access to technology skills and experienced management to speed time to market. Our teams are delivering established resources within a creative, entrepreneurial atmosphere, to give start-ups the ability to scale quickly and dramatically boost chances for achieving sustainable success."

The Texas Business Launch Centre provides emerging companies in the region's technology community with an entry point to Andersen Consulting's global network, relationships and alliances, as well as the firm's deep industry knowledge, experience, and proprietary tools and architecture.

Andersen Consulting's Texas Business Launch Centre has worked closely and successfully with a number of clients, including separateaccounts.com and RocketLogix. Separateaccounts.com is a financial services company that provides the infrastructure necessary for banks and brokers to enter the rapidly growing separate account segment of the money management industry. RocketLogix is a designer and manufacturer of remotely manageable ultra high-density server appliances.

"The Andersen Consulting Business Launch Centre in Texas has helped us progress rapidly - from providing us with access to a comprehensive set of hardware, software and technical support to building a complete business and technical architecture and developing our professional alliances," said Kevin Freeman, co-CEO of separateaccounts.com. "The Centre helped us scale quickly by building a sophisticated customer care capability and an infrastructure to support transactions among our network of e-brokerage firms, money managers, and clients."

The Business Launch Centres are also establishing Andersen Consulting's role in the new economy. By taking a significant portion of its fees in the form of equity, Andersen Consulting becomes a strategic investor in many of the companies that the firm works with in the Centres.

"In addition to providing us with enhanced incentives and aligning our interests very closely with those of the companies we work with, the equity arrangement allows the startup to manage its cash flow at a time it needs it most," said Cline.

Andersen Consulting's eCommerce professionals and partners will work closely with Business Launch Centre clients to help quickly ramp-up their operations and help create new capabilities necessary to be an enduring revenue generator. The Texas Business Launch Centre will provide clients with access to:

- Andersen Consulting's full range of assets including intellectual property
and proprietary eCommerce tools and architecture (electronic interfaces,
shopping bots, search engines, etc.).

- Andersen Consulting's global consulting presence (resources, talent and
contacts).

- Real-time solutions (through Andersen Consulting's global knowledge capital)
to the challenges that commonly impede and delay start-ups and Internet
spin-offs.

- eCommerce professionals ready to serve as key strategic, technology, and
marketing counselors or as an off-the-shelf senior management team.

- Deep understanding of a range of industries through supply-chain, CRM and
other management consulting experience.

- Andersen Consulting's relationships with the world's largest traditional
businesses (providing a channel for start-ups to demonstrate their
products/services to potential customers).

- Globally recognized credibility through linkage with Andersen Consulting's
brand name.

For RocketLogix, the Andersen Consulting Texas Business Launch Centre developed a `Launch Blueprint', or comprehensive plan, that provides the framework for developing the processes needed to support the company's product launch. In addition, the Centre provided the technology to support data and customer management, and the organizational requirements for growing the RocketLogix team with the appropriately skilled resources as required by its projected sales and product growth.

"We chose to work with Andersen Consulting because the key to maintaining our lead in this market is to remain on the leading edge of the technology applicable to our business and to execute with precision," said John Cracken, Chairman and CEO of RocketLogix, "Through the services provided by the Business Launch Centre, we have been able to focus upon our design and development effort, forming early customer relations and working with our venture partners, while the Business Launch Centre has formulated for us a Blueprint that addresses every important issue on the road to our product launch."

About the Andersen Consulting Business Launch Centre in Texas:

Building on Andersen Consulting's proven track record as a leader in eCommerce, the Texas Business Launch Centre can help to reduce dramatically the time it takes an eBusiness to go from initially-funded start-up to revenue-producing business. Unlike an incubator, which typically works with businesses from the conceptual stage through their first 60 to 120 days, the Texas Business Launch Centre will work with initially funded electronic businesses that already have a nucleus of management and financial support.

The Texas Business Launch Centre is part of the firm's global network of 25 Centres. In addition to Texas, the Andersen Consulting Business Launch Centres are located in: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dublin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, London, Madrid, Milan, New York, Oslo, Silicon Valley, Paris, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto and Washington, D.C.

Contact: Tom LeBleu, [e-mail], or Elizabeth Andrion, [e-mail] for information about the Texas Business Launch Centre or any of its client companies.

About Andersen Consulting

On January 1, 2001, Andersen Consulting, the $8.9 billion global management and technology consulting organization, will change its name to Accenture (pronounced: ak-SEN-chure, similar to "adventure" and stressing "accent" + "future"). The firm is reinventing itself to become the market maker, architect and builder of the new economy, bringing innovations to improve the way the world works and lives. More than 65,000 people in 48 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. Andersen Consulting's home page address is http://www.ac.com.

Renamed. Redefined. Reborn. 01/01/01

About separateaccounts.com:

Separateaccounts.com is the pure-play, global leader in providing the infrastructure for online-brokers, banks, and professional money managers to offer separate accounts to their clients. Via proprietary technology, separateaccounts.com offers private investors seamless online access to world-class, professional money management, immediate account access, customized solutions, and elite customer service. The separate account industry now manages over $425 billion and is growing in excess of 30% per year. Similar to mutual funds, separate accounts offer professional money management, diversification, and convenience. Unlike mutual funds, however, separate accounts can be custom-tailored to meet client needs and reduce tax burdens. By using separateaccounts.com's infrastructure online-brokers and banks can lower the minimums required and the cost of separate account services substantially enabling them to better compete in the marketplace. In addition, professional money managers now have a plug-and-play solution for reaching millions of wealthy, Internet-savvy investors with this proven investment method Contact: Jim Griffith, [e-mail], for information.

About RocketLogix:

RocketLogix is a new server appliance company introducing in Q1 2001 its first in a series of remotely manageable rack mounted server appliances target at the Internet space and offering a dramatic (1) increase in processing, storage and network interface density per cubic foot and (2) decrease in total cost of ownership, including power consumption per cubic foot. RocketLogix has not yet made any public statements regarding its upcoming product offerings, but intends to launch its first appliance in Q1 2001.