Boots Selects TradeStone's PLM for Retail to Support Sourcing and Brand Expansion.

TradeStone to Reduce Time and Cost to Market by Improving Collaboration for Product Development across Multiple Continents

GLOUCESTER, Mass. -- TradeStone Software, the leader in delivering the Unified Buying Process[TM] through domestic and international sourcing, product lifecycle management and order management, today announced that Boots The Chemists, a division of Alliance Boots, Europe's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty group, has purchased the TradeStone Suite to unify its Asian sourcing process and improve collaboration between divisions, suppliers and transportation providers.

Boots sourcing, distribution and retail operations are spread across Europe, Asia and the United States, creating significant disparities in languages, time zones, currencies and processes. To realize the company's vision of seamless collaboration between all members of the sourcing process, Boots needed to overhaul the existing Asian sourcing management system, which is primarily based on Microsoft Office applications such as Excel and an old legacy AS400. The current primarily paper-based system makes information-sharing a tedious and time-intensive process. Reports can only be updated by one person at a time and then shared via email, a process complicated further by the variations in time zones.

To meet these needs, Boots selected TradeStone Suite, a Web-based application designed to unify the entire buying process. With the TradeStone Suite, manufacturers, suppliers and merchants work together for product development, planning refinement, order management, quality assurance, logistics and finance. The software automatically normalizes the three impediments to global commerce: language, time and currency. TradeStone allows for multiple stakeholders to input data simultaneously and access information in real-time regardless of location. Additionally, all communications are date/time stamped and viewable through a collaboration history on the order, creating an audit trail while eliminating the need for paper. And the TradeStone Suite will layer across existing IT investments, such as SAP, MFG/PRO and other homegrown systems, eliminating the need to rip-and-replace these systems.

"Boots is an international organization with outlets across Europe and Asia. Now, through the merger with Alliance Unichem, the enlarged group is primed to expand into new geographic markets," said John Rignall, Business Systems director for Boots The Chemist. "Our need for a sourcing solution that can unify processes between suppliers, retailers and freight service providers across the Far East is paramount to our success. After an exhaustive search, we selected the TradeStone Suite because of its ability to bring every stakeholder onto one easy to use system regardless of language barriers, time differences and processes variations."

"For almost ten years, Boots has been recognized as the most trusted brand in the UK. As they focused on expansion of their sourcing operation around the world, they sought a technology infrastructure that could support their ability to continue delivering the high standard of quality that customers associate with the Boots name," said Sue Welch, CEO for TradeStone Software. "TradeStone's Unified Buying Process helps improve their internal sourcing practices and external collaboration with overseas suppliers to ensure that very complex levels of product specification are developed, defined, communicated, monitored and measured consistently. Alliance Boots will have an end-to-end global sourcing, PLM and order management solution that enables them to improve profitability while expanding the Boots brand into new markets."

About Alliance Boots

Alliance Boots is a leading international pharmacy-led health and beauty group which operates in both wholesale and retail.

It has a wholesale and distribution network serving over 125,000 pharmacies, hospitals and health centres via 380 depots in 14 countries. Pharmaceutical wholesaling businesses are in the Czech Republic, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain and the UK. Associate pharmaceutical wholesaling interests are in Egypt, Germany, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland and Turkey.

In retail, Alliance Boots has a network of approximately 3,000 outlets in seven countries, of which over 2,700 have pharmacies. Retail healthcare outlets are in Republic of Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Thailand and the UK. Associate retail healthcare outlets are in Italy and Switzerland.

Formed on 31 July 2006, Alliance Boots is listed on the London Stock Exchange and employs around 100,000 people.

About TradeStone Software, Inc.

TradeStone Software enables retailers and manufacturers to plan, design, collaborate on and purchase goods from across the world as easily as from across the street. TradeStone's Unified Buying Engine uses Web services technology to layer across an organization's existing infrastructure while its modular software fills in buying process gaps to provide a single view, access and interaction across the entire procurement process. The first and only complete solution for global sourcing, product lifecycle management, and unified order management, TradeStone's intuitive, "No Training" technology helps people throughout the supply chain to collaborate globally, enabling users to focus on speeding innovative products to market. Marquee customers include American Eagle Outfitters, The Children's Place, Deutsche Woolworth, Ocean State Job Lot, Pacific Alliance and Federated Department Stores. TradeStone Software is based in Gloucester, Mass. and can be found on the Web at www.TradeStoneSoftware.com.