Atlas Commerce Selected for MaterialsXpress Private Trading Community Serving the Natural Gas Utility Industry; Piedmont Natural Gas Announces Participation in Materialsxpress.

Business/Technology Editors

MALVERN, Penn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 2, 2001

Atlas Commerce, a leading provider of private exchange software for strategic sourcing and multi-enterprise collaboration, today announced that the Atlas Commerce Metaprise (TM) PE Platform has been selected as the foundation for MaterialsXpress, a private trading community servicing natural gas utilities, their strategic trading partners, and utility-related service industries. The private trading community was formed earlier in the year as the result of discussions between Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) and TECO Energy (NYSE: TE). MaterialsXpress is designed to facilitate the strategic sourcing of goods and materials specific to the natural gas distribution industry, while enhancing the level of collaboration between existing trading partners within the community.

"The MaterialsXpress community will provide the natural gas utility industry with a more viable, more clearly focused alternative to the public marketplaces and exchanges currently being developed," said Ware F. Schiefer, President and CEO of Piedmont Natural Gas. "We believe this creates a win-win opportunity for our trading partners and furthers Piedmont's strategy of implementing internet technologies that result in operational efficiencies, improved customer services, and revenue opportunities," he added.

As a private trading community, MaterialsXpress will focus on providing members with the ability to manage and improve internal procurement processes and practices between trading partners, realizing better returns on investment and tangible value from participation. To enable this vision of community and collaboration, MaterialsXpress has selected the Atlas Commerce Metaprise PE Platform to provide the common platform and technical architecture through which community members will conduct business.

"With the private exchange community enabled by the Atlas Commerce Solution, MaterialsXpress will provide streamlined collaboration among trading partners, improvements in internal procurement processes, and better supply and demand visibility," stated Bob Bernstock, President and CEO of Atlas Commerce. "We provide MaterialsXpress the ability to model complex supply chain relationships and automate procurement processes, enabling members to streamline their business processes, thereby improving their bottom line results. We are pleased to have been selected by MaterialsXpress."

MaterialsXpress has also retained the services of Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC), to assist the private trading community in efforts to understand the business processes and to integrate members into the community. CSC has long been a market leader in implementing collaborative commerce solutions and is a consulting partner with Atlas Commerce.

Atlas Commerce, a leading provider of private exchange software for strategic sourcing and multi-enterprise collaboration, recently announced that it has secured a $10 million convertible note facility from Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE). Safeguard Scientifics is an early stage investor in the company.

Atlas Commerce has customers in the retail, consumer packaged goods, distribution, high tech, construction/engineering and utilities industries. Atlas Commerce recently announced the addition of the Valvoline Company, a division of Ashland, Inc. (NYSE:ASH) to its customer list. Valvoline will use the Atlas Solution to conduct on-line collaboration and supply chain visibility planning with both suppliers and buyers of the Valvoline product offerings.

About Piedmont Natural Gas

Piedmont Natural Gas is an energy and services company primarily engaged in the transportation, distribution and sale of natural gas to over 700,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The Charlotte-based company is the second- largest natural gas utility in the Southeast. An unregulated subsidiary of the Company is an equity participant in a venture that markets natural gas to an additional 570,000 customers in Georgia, the first state in the venture's eight-state region to deregulate retail natural gas service. Another unregulated subsidiary is an equity participant in Heritage Propane Partners, L.P., the nation's fourth-largest propane distributor serving more than 500,000 customers in twenty-eight states.

About Atlas Commerce

Atlas Commerce is the pioneer in providing private exchange software for strategic sourcing. Atlas Commerce Metaprise (TM) PE Platform enables companies to share business processes both inside and outside the corporation in real time through a private exchange, resulting in improved operational efficiencies. Complementing the patent-pending private exchange platform is the MetaSource(TM) Application for strategic sourcing. With MetaSource, companies plan, execute and manage complex supplier relationships, delivering reduced costs and bottom line results in less than 90 days. Atlas Commerce provides solutions to market- leading customers in manufacturing, distribution and retail. Customers include Valvoline, Hewlett-Packard, TradeMC (a joint venture between IBM and Fluor Corporation), Joy Mining, a leading global retailer and others. The Atlas Commerce technology partners include BEA Systems (Nasdaq: BEAS) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT); and consulting partners CSC and Deloitte Consulting. For more information, visit www.atlascommerce.com.