BTS Wins ''Supplier Excellence'' Award from Texas Instruments; BTS Becomes One of Only 27 Winners from List of Over 22,000 TI Suppliers.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 19, 2004

BTS USA, the leading global provider of simulations for business strategy implementation, today announced that Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) has singled out the company for one of its yearly supplier excellence awards, based on its outstanding performance for the company.

The TI supplier excellence award was created to recognize extremely high standards of vendor performance; less than 0.5% of suppliers are ever nominated for the award over the course of their relationship with the company. BTS was honored for work in delivering simulation courses that helped TI implement important strategy and customer loyalty initiatives.

"BTS is a powerful strategic thought partner for TI. Their innovative team helped us develop and deliver a powerful customer loyalty course. The course has been conducted extensively in the Americas, in Europe, and in Asia and is resulting in higher participant satisfaction than any course TI has previously crafted. BTS' execution has been exceptional. I would be hard pressed to identify another supplier of their caliber," noted Jeffrey S. McCreary, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, Texas Instruments.

The BTS-TI relationship began in 1999 when BTS developed and implemented TI's Strategy Bootcamp Workshop, aimed to enable the top 240 most senior managers to understand the challenges TI was facing and how their business decisions will impact TI's strategic success. In 2002, BTS developed and implemented the Customer Loyalty Bootcamp for TI's top 300 executives. The Customer Loyalty simulation experience was designed to raise awareness around the criticality of customer-centric thinking. This program was developed for an additional 2,000 TI managers worldwide and a version was even developed to run with the top management of one of TI's biggest customers.

"It's an honor to be one of only 27 companies from a list of over 22,000 suppliers to receive one of TI's coveted supplier awards," said Henrik Ekelund, president and CEO of BTS USA, Inc. "A powerful program like TI's Customer Loyalty Bootcamp demonstrates that strategically designed training can really make a difference in the bottom line."

TI established its Supplier Excellence Awards in 1983 as a way to honor businesses that had provided exemplary service. The awards are a key vehicle for communicating the standards the company expects of its suppliers. The businesses are evaluated on six criteria: cost, environmental responsibility, technology, responsiveness, assurance of supply and quality.

About BTS

BTS USA, Inc. (www.bts.com) is an international training and consulting company in the field of business acumen. BTS uses tailor-made business simulations to support company managers in implementing change and improving profitability. BTS trains the entire organization to analyze and to make decisions centered on the factors that promote growth and profitability. This generates increased emphasis on profitability and market focus, and supports day-to-day decision-making, which in turn leads to tangible, sustainable improvements in profits. Headquartered in Stamford, Conn., BTS USA provides services to dozens of Fortune 1000 customers such as Aetna, Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, Cingular Wireless, Federated Department Stores, Inc., Humana Inc., and Weyerhaeuser Company, among others.