Apriso and AeroScout Team Up to Create the First Global, Real-Time Wi-Fi-Based Location-Enabled Software for Manufacturing and Logistics Execution.

LONG BEACH, Calif. & SAN MATEO, Calif. -- Locations of Active RFID Tagged Assets, Inventory, and 802.11-Enabled Devices Will Drive Execution Processes

Apriso Corporation and AeroScout, Inc., formerly Bluesoft, announced today a partnership to bring the concept of real-time manufacturing and logistics information flow bringing RFID capabilities to a new level. By combining the Wi-Fi(TM) location-sensing capability provided by the AeroScout(TM) product suite with Apriso's FlexNet(TM) real-time, event-driven execution software, businesses can now optimize critical supply, manufacturing, and distribution processes for carrying out production, logistics, quality control, and maintenance tasks.

"RFID tags open up a world of possibilities for enterprises that creates value far beyond their use as simple barcode replacements," says Andris Berzins, VP marketing & business development at AeroScout, Inc. "The fact that a tagged item can now be continuously located in space enables the creation of a new class of 'location-aware,' real-time, operations execution systems. These new systems can continuously locate and track inventory and assets, providing new-found intelligence to significantly influence an enterprise's operational processes in real time." According to Berzins, the benefits include the elimination of bottlenecks, better asset utilization, accelerated inventory turnover and enhanced return on invested capital.

The strategic partnership between Apriso and AeroScout makes AeroScout's Wi-Fi(TM)-based real-time location capabilities available within Apriso's real-time, global executions platform. The joint solution will directly address many of the critical problems faced in production and inventory management environments. For example, companies will be able to keep track of crucial, constantly-moving assets such as forklift trucks and tools, where any delay can cause bottlenecks and inefficiencies, making task scheduling and delegation unmanageable. Additionally, companies can keep stock locations up-to-date and accurate without expensive searches and cycle counting processes.

"Real-time location data can enable enterprises to realize significant cost savings by ensuring continuous movement of inventory through manufacturing and distribution processes," says Nelson Nones, vice president and chief products officer at Apriso Corporation. "FlexNet has the unique ability to track the current and historical locations of 'mobile' resources such as people, equipment, and containers, built right into its fundamental architecture. In addition to geolocation by GPS and standard passive RFID methods, this partnership brings online AeroScout's AeroScout system that locates resources tagged with Wi-Fi based active RFID tags, as well as locates standard Wi-Fi devices, such as PDAs and PC terminals."

According to Nones, FlexNet translates site-specific x,y coordinates into geodetic coordinates that allow the location of resources to be determined both within a facility as well as on a global basis. "FlexNet is the world's first enterprise application software that was designed with location sensing in mind, and now with the integration of AeroScout, it is the first such application to support real-time location capability," he says.

Wi-Fi is a set of standards for wireless local area networks (LANs) based upon the IEEE 802.11 specification. Originally conceived for LANs, its use is rapidly expanding into other application areas, such as RFID tags and location sensing.

The AeroScout positioning applications program interface (API) will be fully supported in an upcoming FlexNet service release, available in the very near future.

About AeroScout

AeroScout provides enterprise visibility solutions that bridge the gap between Wi-Fi, RFID and GPS. AeroScout enables standards-based location and presence-based applications for indoor and outdoor environments where real-time visibility of assets and people is required to drive revenues or cut costs. AeroScout is a privately held company based in San Mateo, CA.

Additional AeroScout press background is available at www.aeroscout.com.

About Apriso Corporation

Apriso is the pioneer of a significant, new class of enterprise software that for the first time enables global corporations to define, operate, and monitor supply, production and distribution processes in real time, without limits. Using an event-driven, distributed services model, Apriso's software provides such fine-grained visibility and control of both execution processes and key performance indicators that it is an ideal platform for accomplishing the most pressing business initiatives of today: compliance, product genealogy, in-line production sequencing, real-time, RFID-based asset management, lean supply, successive refinement (kaizen), six-sigma quality levels, demand-driven supply (the "Dell" model), and the adaptive enterprise.

Apriso's software, known as FlexNet(R), integrates quickly, easily and naturally into an enterprise's existing software infrastructure, and effectively extends the scope of systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) into the furthest reaches of the extended production and supply network, as required. But unlike these systems, which are based upon a top-down, plan-driven operations orientation, Apriso's event-driven, process-based architecture accommodates any operational model that is based upon real-time collaboration between execution processes, real-time visibility into performance, or the requirement to define, refine, or immediately control workflows throughout the enterprise, and across borders.

Apriso was founded in 1992, and now operates in 11 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. World headquarters are in Long Beach, California. Apriso's rapidly-growing customer base of more than 140 customers and over 350 installations worldwide includes such high-profile, global companies as General Motors, Lear, Honeywell, Microsoft, Merck, Lockheed Martin, ITT, Baker Hughes, Halliburton, International Paper, Rubbermaid, Matsushita Avionics Systems, Saint-Gobain, Pechiney, and British American Tobacco. A complete customer list can be found at: http://www.apriso.com/en-us/customers/customer_list.html.

The company has received a total of $20.9 million in two rounds of venture funding. Investors include Wall Street Technology Partners LP, CMEA Ventures, LogiSpring Investment Fund, SAP Ventures, and Brentwood Venture Capital.

Additional AeroScout press background information is available at www.aeroscout.com. Additional Apriso press background information is available at www.roeder-johnson.com.

Editors' Note: "Wi-Fi" is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are owned by the companies referenced.