Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Cardinal Health Win Sterling Commerce/Healthcom Awards For Best Practices In E-Commerce.

Technology & Health Writers

COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 5, 2001

Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Companies Recognized

For Innovative E-Business Strategies

Aventis Pharmaceuticals and Cardinal Health have been selected as winners of the fourth annual Sterling Commerce/HEALTHCOM(R) Award for Best Practices in Electronic Commerce. The awards, designed to recognize the most successful applications of e-business technologies in the pharmaceuticals manufacturing and distribution industries, were presented at the recent annual meeting of the Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA) in Orlando, FL.

Aventis was honored for its "Customer Centric" Web site, an XML-based e-business hub designed to facilitate and automate transactions between the company and its suppliers, distributors, manufacturer customers and internal company employees. The Web site provides businesses within Aventis' supply chain real-time access to transaction information such as inventory management data and reports, order shipping status, product catalogs with pricing, product availability information, material data safety sheets, advanced shipping notices and proof of delivery documentation.

The Web site has allowed Aventis to eliminate most stock outages, helping to ensure that wholesalers do not run out of the company's products. The system also has allowed Aventis to more efficiently plan and manage operations by forecasting distributor needs and matching production to meet them.

Cardinal Health received the Sterling Commerce/HEALTHCOM(R) Award for Best Practices in Electronic Commerce in recognition of its Item Transportation Visibility (ITV) application, which was developed to serve the U.S. Department of Defense. ITV allows the Department of Defense to use Internet connections to monitor and track the location and status of any product order at any time, including specific details such as the items in a certain carton or tote, or the specific pallet that carton or tote is on. ITV was developed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense/Defense Logistics Agency, the Logistics Management Institute, U.S. Bank, Emery Worldwide and the Global Transportation Network.

Through ITV, the Department of Defense is able to fully control and manage the distribution of potentially critical pharmaceutical supplies. By working directly with the Department of Defense to meet its unique needs, Cardinal Health was able to ensure its continuing ability to meet the needs of a large customer. Additionally, the company will be able to adapt the ITV application to provide similar powerful monitoring capabilities to other customers.

"These awards are designed not only to honor notable e-business achievements in the pharmaceuticals industry, but also to inform others in the industry of the potential that e-business offers," said Ronald J. Streck, President and CEO of HDMA. "Both Cardinal Health and Aventis offer excellent examples of the power of e-business to increase efficiency, lower costs and better serve customers."

Sterling Commerce, a wholly owned subsidiary of SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC), is the e-business services infrastructure provider for HEALTHCOM, the business information and communication network of the HDMA.

"Sterling Commerce is proud to join HEALTHCOM in highlighting two exceptional e-business applications," said Mark Keiffer, Sterling Commerce president and CEO. "These two companies found themselves with different needs: Aventis needed to manage and serve a varied and complex supply chain, while Cardinal Health needed to provide the highest levels of service to a single, very important customer. Both applied e-business technologies in innovative ways to meet their specific needs."

About Sterling Commerce and SBC

Sterling Commerce, a wholly owned subsidiary of SBC Communications, Inc. (NYSE:SBC), is a worldwide leader in business-to-business integration -- providing a wide range of integration software, business enabling and online services for Global 5000 companies and their customers, suppliers and partners. With more than 25 years of experience in a vast range of industries, Sterling Commerce offers the expertise, as well as the breadth of integration software and services required to facilitate, manage and support the electronic exchange of information within a business, as well as with its diverse community. More than 50,000 companies throughout the world rely upon Sterling Commerce to overcome the business and technological complexities associated with integration to decrease costs, increase profit margins, achieve faster production cycles and improve customer satisfaction. For more information, visit http://www.sterlingcommerce.com.

SBC Communications Inc. (www.sbc.com) is a global communications leader. Through its subsidiaries' trusted brands - SBC Southwestern Bell, SBC Ameritech, SBC Pacific Bell, SBC Nevada Bell, SBC SNET and Sterling Commerce - and world-class network, SBC companies provide a full range of voice, data, networking and e-business services, including local and long-distance, high-speed Internet access and data transport, network integration, software and process integration, Web site and application hosting, e-marketplace development, paging and messaging, as well as directory advertising and publishing. America's leading provider of high-speed DSL Internet service, SBC companies currently have 61.3 million access lines nationwide. SBC has a 60 percent equity interest in Cingular Wireless, its joint venture with BellSouth, which serves more than 20 million wireless customers. Internationally, SBC has telecommunications investments in 28 countries and has annual revenues that rank it among the largest Fortune 500 companies.

About HDMA (www.healthcaredistribution.org) The Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA) is a leader in stimulating innovations that enhance the distributors' role in healthcare. Formerly the National Wholesale Druggists' Association (NWDA), HDMA secures safe and effective distribution of healthcare products, creates and exchanges industry knowledge affecting distribution management, and improves standards and business processes that influence healthcare commerce.

About HEALTHCOM (www.healthcom.com) HEALTHCOM(R) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Healthcare Distribution Management Association. It is the provider of industry-specific business information and communication networks used extensively by the healthcare industry.

SOURCE: Sterling Commerce