Baan and Hewlett-Packard Expand Strategic Relationship.

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 11, 1995--Baan Company and Hewlett-Packard Company today announced the expansion of their seven year relationship in technology and service.

This furthers Baan's long-standing commitment to providing joint HP customers with one of the industry's strongest solutions for multi-site, multi-national manufacturing. By expanding their relationship to a global level, HP recognizes Baan's leadership as a world-wide Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software provider.

"Baan prides itself on sharing HP's value of being customer-centric. With this new alliance status, we are positioned to deliver a higher degree of customer satisfaction through tighter technology links and streamlined pre- and post-sales requirements management," said M.R. Rangaswami, Baan's vice president of worldwide marketing. "Additionally, this relationship provides the synergy necessary to deliver a whole product -- including software applications -- to the manufacturing marketplace as well as key vertical markets."

Customers Worldwide Turn to Baan and HP

As manufacturers move to a global environment, information must be managed at a multi-site, multi-national level, and accommodate variables such as local languages, currencies, manufacturing practices, and financial requirements. Baan, through its TRITON family of client/server ERP applications, and HP have jointly supported hundreds of customers worldwide for the past seven years. Together, these companies enable customers to move from proprietary, host-based systems to a distributed, open systems architecture suitable for global business.

Nearly half of Baan's customers, including ABB, Boeing, Hitachi, Oki Manufacturing, Philips Medical Systems, Northern Telecom, and Snap-On Incorporated, rely jointly on Baan and HP for a flexible solution as their business needs change. With the new global partnering, the two companies will align themselves even more closely in terms of technology and marketing/customer satisfaction to insure customers' continued success.

Enhanced Technology Partnership

Baan's commitment to the HP platform is long-standing, as the company currently uses the HP 9000 for its own development environment. With the new global partnering, the two companies also will provide dedicated development teams to deliver optimum performance of Baan's ERP applications on the HP 9000 platform.

In addition to this, these development teams will also build tight integration between Baan's TRITON applications and HP's Service Guard software to ensure high availability of TRITON/HP 9000 for mission-critical environment. Additionally, the companies will jointly integrate between Baan applications and HP OpenView, a complete environment for application, system and network management which are essential for multi-site operations. New Levels of Commitment to Joint Customers

As global partners, Baan and HP are committed to delivering the most advanced pre- and post-sales services to enhance overall customer satisfaction. "HP is pleased to have Baan Company as one of HP's global partners," said Janice Chaffin, director of channels marketing at HP's General Systems Division. "Customers can avail themselves of the world-class consulting and support organizations of both companies, knowing they will get a complete solution."

The two companies will develop cooperative sales and marketing programs for strategic accounts as well as for key vertical markets. Additionally, customers will be able to leverage HP's Professional Services Organization, which provides consulting and services for information technology architecture, benchmarking, systems and network management, and customization of high-availability and other HP software solutions.

This complements Baan's current set of methodologies and services which insure speedy and successful implementations of the TRITON applications. As part of their commitment, Baan and HP have jointly established two Cooperative Technology Centers (CTCs) located in Europe and the United States. These centers will focus on providing pre- and post-sales support in simulating customers' implementation environment, and joint development projects.

About Baan Company

Baan Company is a leading provider of open, client/server-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for manufacturing, distribution, finance, service, project, and transportation. Designed to enable multi-national, multi-site organizations to maintain a competitive advantage in the management of critical business processes, Baan's TRITON family of applications and tools provides rapid implementation, flexibility to accommodate changing needs and technologies, and scalability to support on-going business performance improvements.

Baan and its partners provide implementation and customization services to more than 1,300 customers in more than 47 countries worldwide. The TRITON family supports multiple relational databases and is available in more than 20 languages. Founded in 1978, Baan operates from dual corporate headquarters in Ede, The Netherlands and Menlo Park, California, and has 1,300 employees worldwide. The company's shares are traded publicly on NASDAQ (BAANF) and in Europe on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (BAAN). Baan's World Wide Web address is http://www.baan.com.

About Hewlett Packard

Hewlett-Packard is the world's leading supplier of open enterprise computing and is the second-largest computer supplier in the United States, with computer revenue of $25.3 billion in its 1995 fiscal year. HP is a leading global manufacturer of computing communications and measurement products and services recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 102,3000 employees and had a revenue of $31.5 billion in its 1995 fiscal year.

CONTACT: Baan Company

Doug Sallen, 415/462-4949

or

Hewlett-Packard

Bart Coddington, 408/447-1129

or

Copithorne & Bellows (Baan):

Stephanie Bradley, Heather Staples, 415/284-5200