Aspire.net Chooses Response Networks' ResponseCenter to Gurantee Delivery of Critical Customer Applications.

Business/Technology Editors

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 18, 2002

Managed Service Provider for Legal Community Relies on ResponseCenter

to Measure Performance of Standard and Proprietary Applications

Using Agents Throughout Network

Response Networks, Inc., the Service Level Authority(SM), today announced that Aspire.net Managed Systems Inc. has chosen the ResponseCenter 3.0 service level management solution to guarantee the effective operation and delivery of mission-critical business applications for their customers. Aspire.net is a managed service provider for law firms and corporate legal departments, delivering a wide range of applications and technology services that allow users to produce, maintain, collaborate and share work.

"Thousands of legal professionals rely on us to provide the applications and services they need to operate their businesses at optimal efficiency, and so we must do everything we can to ensure a non-disruptive work flow," said Sam Collier, president, Aspire.net. "ResponseCenter 3.0 is proven to deliver near perfect availability and help us not only achieve service level delivery requirements, but substantially exceed them. By using ResponseCenter to monitor service levels, Aspire.net can provide its customers and end users with unmatched performance, reliability and accountability."

ResponseCenter is a versatile, scalable and easy-to-use service level accountability solution that allows companies to obtain a complete understanding of end-to-end application performance, and accurately monitor, validate and verify service level commitments for internal applications and outsourced services. It has the flexibility to run as a single machine "out-of-the-box" solution, or to scale to multiple monitoring agents running many thousands of monitors in multiple locations, using industrial-strength database capabilities to securely store historic performance data by location and organization. The newest version includes more than 70 monitors, enhanced diagnostic capabilities, the ability to automatically generate and distribute reports, and the ability to set thresholds on any metric.

ResponseCenter provides an end-user perspective by monitoring services from lightweight software agents that can run from a single machine or be distributed virtually anywhere. In Aspire's case, the agents are located on devices at various important points in the network topology between the end-user, including the customer premises, and the source application servers. This allows Aspire.net to measure the performance of various services from different perspectives and can provide actionable information targeting specific segments of its application delivery architecture. Additional features of the implementation include the ability to conduct application performance testing, and a notification system that alerts end-users in real-time of any application performance problems.

"Aspire.net's implementation demonstrates their commitment to exceeding their service level guarantees," said Phil Hollows, vice president of product marketing for Response Networks. "By placing agents throughout the network, including on their customer's premises, and utilizing ResponseCenter's unique custom monitoring capabilities, Aspire.net demonstrates their innovative approach to performance management and Response Networks' continued leadership position in this marketplace. With ResponseCenter in place, Aspire.net's customers and the ultimate end-users - the legal professionals who use their applications - have the peace of mind that comes with knowing the tools and technologies they need to get their jobs done will be there when they need them, operating at full strength."

About Aspire.net Managed Systems Inc.

Aspire.net Managed Systems Inc. enables the professional services firm to realize increased IT functionality through a new model of outsourcing. Delivering a specialized portfolio of managed technology services, Aspire.net allows firms to rationalize the management and costs for on-going technology functions in demanding, high service-level knowledge worker environments such as law firms and corporate legal departments. Founded by Union Square Technology Group LLC, a long-standing provider of technology solutions for law and related professional services organizations, Aspire.net has a dedicated engineering and support staff operating 24/7/365 in New York City, Boston and Washington, DC. For more information, call 212-253-3535 or visit www.aspire.net.

About Response Networks

Response Networks, the Service Level Authority(SM), provides proactive service level management software and services that help corporations and service providers monitor, enforce and improve internal and external service level performance, quality and commitments. The Discovery Channel, Ideal Technology Solutions, First Tennessee Bank, and Intraware are among the companies benefiting from the award-winning technology. Partners of the private, venture-backed company include Cisco Systems Inc., KPMG Consulting and Sun Microsystems. Response Networks is headquartered in Alexandria, Va., and North Andover, Mass., and has both a direct sales force and distributors throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia. For more information, call 800-677-7638 or visit www.responsenetworks.com.

Response Networks, ResponseCenter and Pulsar xSP are trademarks or registered trademarks of Response Networks, Inc. All other products and company names are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.