Appian Communications Expands Service Management Partnerships; Partners Simplify Integration of Robust Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH Services into Carrier OSS Environments.

Business/Technology Editors

ACTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 2002

Appian Communications(TM), the first to enable delivery of carrier-class Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH services, today announced the addition of five leading vendors to its service management partners initiative to help carriers lower the cost and simplify the integration of new, high-value Ethernet services into their Operational Support Systems (OSS). The new partnerships respond to requests from carriers looking to incorporate Appian's Optical Services Activation Platform(TM) (OSAP(TM)) and AppianVista(TM) Services and Element Manager into their existing back-office systems. In addition, the company announced completion of development and interoperability testing with the Netcool(R) suite based on its existing relationship with Micromuse (Nasdaq: MUSE), the leader in service and business assurance software.

The new partnerships, which comprise joint marketing, cooperative development, and/or interoperability verification, include:

-- Clear, the leader in performance and Service Level Agreement (SLA)
management for transport and optical networks;

-- Concord Communications (Nasdaq: CCRD), the market leader in automating
technology management of the Internet infrastructure;

-- Granite Systems, the leader in service resource management;

-- MegaSys Computer Technologies, the leading provider of SONET/TDM
configuration and fault management solutions; and

-- TeleGea, a leading vendor for automating service fulfillment.

Development and interoperability testing have been completed between Appian's products and the eHealth(TM) Suite from Concord Communications and the Telenium(R) Global NMS solution from MegaSys Computer Technologies. Integration work is underway with the Clearview(TM) product suite from Clear, the Xpercom(R) product suite from Granite Systems, and the Emporium Enterprise suite from TeleGea.

"Carriers are migrating their legacy, voice-optimized OSS environments to include new packet services that promise huge operational savings," said Anand Parikh, co-founder and vice president of business development and product management at Appian. "They are asking both their equipment and management vendors to simplify and reduce the cost of this migration. They are also seeking support for new value-added options, like time-of-day bandwidth provisioning, which were not previously available. Partnerships are essential to this process, and we're delighted to be working with these leading suppliers of OSS software, each of whom offers distinct advantages to carriers adding next-generation Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH services to their network."

By partnering with fault, inventory, performance, service assurance, and customer management vendors whose expertise spans traditional voice to next-generation data systems, Appian is helping carriers more easily integrate new, cost-saving features, such as dynamic service activation, into their legacy and next-generation OSS environments. To simplify and accelerate the development of partner integration modules, Appian makes available both the AppianVista Integration Tool Kit -- which includes standards-based CORBA and XML APIs - and SNMP and TL-1 interfaces on the OSAP.

Partner Quotes

"Service assurance is becoming mission-critical as businesses demand bandwidth availability and service level guarantees out of their Ethernet services," said Tom Richards, president and CEO of Clear. "It is important that hardware and software leaders such as Clear and Appian jointly develop solutions for carriers - allowing lower cost deployments and providing ongoing network management tools to minimize operational costs."

"Demand for enhanced Ethernet services is growing rapidly, and QoS is a key factor in enabling carriers to verify that services are meeting service level agreements," said Kevin Conklin, EVP of Business Development at Concord. "Certifying Appian as eHealth(TM) Ready allows eHealth, in combination with Appian's OSAP, to help service providers ensure that customers are receiving the quality of service they are paying for by validating that the bandwidth and class of service guarantees are achieved."

"Service Resource Management systems such as Xpercom are a new generation of inventory OSS designed to transform data into useful information by automating key planning and provisioning functions that formerly involved multiple manual handoffs in engineering centers," said Dr. Mark Mortensen, vice president of marketing at Granite Systems. "With the integration of Xpercom with Appian's OSAP, carriers deploying Ethernet and TDM services can dramatically reduce costs by accurately tracking inventory and plan for increases in capacity."

"Established carriers looking to add next-generation metropolitan solutions into their existing network infrastructure must be able to integrate with existing fault management, performance management and configuration management capabilities," said Dave Woronuk, President and CEO at MegaSys. "Integration between the Telenium suite and Appian's OSAP ensures on-going seamless operation as carriers deploy new Ethernet services and legacy TDM services over SONET/SDH infrastructure."

"The new optical services network is profitable only if it is stable and manageable," said Jim Frey, Micromuse's Vice President, Strategic Marketing. "We're pleased to be working with Appian to help service providers obtain the comprehensive, useable service and network availability views and management information they need to control and readily expand their deployment of complex, multi-layered services such as Ethernet over optical."

"Our customers are looking to equipment vendors to provide automated service fulfillment capabilities that make it easier for their end customers to order and manage new services," said Steven Domenikos, CEO at TeleGea. "By integrating our Emporium Enterprise suite with Appian's OSAP, we're enabling carriers to reduce service delivery costs and accelerate service deployment as they introduce differentiated Ethernet services."

About Appian Communications

Appian is removing the final metro area bottleneck to new optical service revenues. Designed to enable growth in carrier revenue and profitability, the Appian solution combines the low cost and simplicity of Ethernet with the resilience and scale of established SDH/SONET networks to enable carrier-class Ethernet services that include secure Ethernet Private Lines, explicit rate Virtual Private Lines, and burstable Internet Access. With its integrated TDM service support, the Optical Services Activation Platform(TM) (OSAP(TM)) is a best-of-breed solution that simplifies the migration from today's rigid, circuit-optimized voice and private line offerings to these next-generation service offers. Appian products are currently shipping to emerging and established providers, including NTT Communications, around the world. For more information please visit www.appiancom.com.

Appian Communications, etc. are trademarks of Appian Communications, Inc. All other company, product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.