Blazent Partners with Federal Solutions Group to Bring ''Earned Value Management'' to Governmental I.T. Projects.

WASHINGTON & SAN MATEO, Calif. -- OMB Mandate Broadens Requirements from Internal Government Use to Vendors and Contractors

Blazent, the enterprise software vendor that has pioneered "a new math for I.T.," and the Federal Solutions Group (FSG) announced today that they have partnered to deliver software and technical support for information technology (I.T.) projects that must be administered under the "Earned Value Management" (EVM) model. The U.S. Government's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as part of the President's Management Agenda Expanded Electronic Government (E-Gov) Initiative, has recently mandated the use of earned value management by departments and agencies aspiring to the highest or "green" level of performance.

"Earned value management is a project management control system that provides an objective assessment of the true financial, technical, and, operational progress of complex I.T. projects," said Don Begley, president of FSG. "Now, with the OMB's recent mandate, vendors and contractors for I.T. projects who wish to achieve the highest performance status will have to demonstrate the use of EVM for planning and project management. Blazent's software can automate the financial analysis of I.T. investments, and is ideal to produce real-time intelligence for EVM-managed I.T.-centric projects."

According to Begley, EVM was first described in connection with the Minuteman missile development in the early 1960's, and has gained such momentum in the ensuing years that its use is virtually de facto for government projects in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Sweden, and other countries. "Now, with the importance of the Internet and information technology to E-government initiatives combined with the complexity this adds to federal I.T. projects, earned value management is an absolute must for I.T. projects," said Begley.

EVM is designed to ensure the highest levels of cost, technical, and schedule performance in major projects. To be in compliance with the latest mandate, those bidding on and responsible for major information technology projects now will have to demonstrate that they can continuously provide -- over the life of the project -- a sophisticated set of data and analyses designed to assure and reveal actual performance. Because of the limitations in the bulk of today's I.T. management tools, this is a difficult, if not impossible, task -- "until Blazent," said Begley.

According to Begley, Blazent I.T. Intelligence Software provides a multidimensional, analytical software foundation that uniquely permits I.T. professionals to conceptualize, optimize, and manage multi-billion dollar, global I.T. operations that are increasingly the norm in today's real-time, international business environment. "This is the first software that, from the ground up, was designed to provide the level of real-time, rich, and complex data in the I.T. realm that earned value management demands," he asserted.

EVM Intelligence for I.T.

Blazent and FSG will collaborate on delivering the popular Blazent suite of IT intelligence applications to inform EVM processes for managers of federally-funded I.T. projects. Blazent software will enable managers of EVM-focused agencies to visualize their current I.T. infrastructure, analyze it in financial and strategic terms, provide direction for managing their operational tools, and then measure the actual results of I.T. projects on the I.T. infrastructure.

For example, Blazent software can analyze all installed software to identify which programs have been distributed more broadly than their software licenses allow, and conversely to identify which software licenses are too broad for the actual number of software programs being used. Resolution of these two variations help agencies avoid millions of dollars in non-compliance fines and/or overpayment for actual value received. Furthermore, once these issues have been discovered, Blazent software can identify the specific locations, workgroups, and individual personal computers or servers that hold the software implementations in question. Once the agency managers have addressed the problems, Blazent software will measure the effectiveness of the changes and locate any systems that might have been missed.

"Blazent software and services have already helped solve a host of the same kinds of issues at major organizations around the world," said Gary Oliver, Blazent president and CEO. "As I.T. becomes an increasingly critical driver in most major programs, a clear understanding of the costs, benefits, and tradeoffs must be continuously available as programs evolve and are implemented. Blazent is committed to being the leading I.T. intelligence software provider for government entities, systems integrators, and major corporations around the world."

Blazent joins other companies like Salesforce.com and Google in working with FSG to bring important technology solutions to government organizations.

About Federal Solutions Group

Federal Solutions Group (FSG) is a federal sales and marketing channel firm that provides strategic management consulting, business development, sales management, government executive outreach and recruiting services for select companies that want to maximize their presence in the federal, state, local and international government I.T. sectors.

FSG is anchored by seasoned federal sales professionals who, altogether, have more than 100 years of success selling technology solutions to the U.S. government and military. FSG's record in identifying the right federal channels for emerging technology solutions underscores it's unique understanding of the challenges and issues driving federal I.T. decision makers today.

About Blazent

Blazent is the pioneer of a "new math" for I.T., a sophisticated analytical foundation that gives Global 2000-class I.T. organizations an unprecedented ability to conceptualize, manage, and optimize I.T. in the 21st century enterprise. Against a backdrop of I.T. as an increasingly complex ecosystem with far reaching strategic implications for business, Blazent is the first business-intelligence software to be truly rationalized to the dynamic, multi-dimensional complexity of the I.T. equation today.

The company's first product, Blazent I.T. Intelligence, provides decision makers with a closed-loop I.T. optimization process that combines real-time visibility into all relevant variables, broad-based analytics and decisioning support, actionable directives, and continuous performance measurements. The result is that CIOs can quickly optimize their entire I.T. operation to meet widespread, changing business demands, and can operate with unparalleled efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, I.T. Intelligence integrates easily with and can substantially magnify the benefits of an I.T. organization's pre-existing tools. This has the impact of immediately lifting the veil of complexity from an I.T. operation, rather than adding to it.

Blazent's software has been designed for the most complex I.T. deployments typical of global enterprises, and Blazent's customers include a growing list of high-profile companies including Andrew Corporation, EFW, New York Life, Qwest Communications, RR Donnelley & Sons, Warner Bros, and others. Blazent is located in San Mateo, California. Investors include Bain Capital, Benchmark Capital, Dali Hook Partners, Pequot Ventures and StarVest Partners. Additional information is available online at www.Blazent.com.

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Additional background information is available at www.roeder-johnson.com.