BrassRing Honored with Sears 'Partners in Progress' Award; Award recognizes outstanding contribution to Sears' business objectives.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 14, 2004

During a special ceremony yesterday at the Sears, Roebuck and Co. headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, BrassRing was presented with the Sears 'Partners in Progress' Award. A leading provider of talent management solutions, BrassRing was acknowledged for its "exemplary performance" in 2003, and for its efforts to "advance the companies' mutual commitment to become truly customer-driven."

BrassRing was one of a few select companies, chosen from among more than 10,000 suppliers, to receive the award. BrassRing was also nominated as one of four finalists for Sears' Non-merchandise Services Group Supplier of the Year Award.

"Through our Partners in Progress program, Sears has the opportunity to recognize the suppliers who are the most significant contributors to the achievement of our business goals," said Scott Dever, vice president, Sears Procurement. "One of those goals is to build positive, lasting relationships with our customers."

Bill Donahue, director, Sears Recruitment, noted, "BrassRing has demonstrated the highest level of commitment, quality and leadership, and we are pleased to recognize them in this way."

Since implementing BrassRing's Enterprise application, Sears has achieved unprecedented efficiency in its recruitment and talent management processes. Through the use of BrassRing Enterprise, Sears has gained visibility into important metrics such as speed-to-hire, and has used metrics reports in support of an initiative to increase hiring efficiency. As a result, Sears' recruitment and staffing team has made improvements to requisition management and talent pool development. In addition, Sears is able to monitor and track user logins and recruiting activity and create productivity improvements based on the insight they gain.

Established more than 20 years ago, the prestigious 'Partners in Progress' Award is presented annually to a select group of supplier companies that provide Sears, Roebuck and Co. with quality products and services that make significant contributions to the growth of Sears' businesses, and assist Sears in creating new ways to better serve its customers. The winners are chosen from nominations submitted by Sears' purchasing team.

"It is extremely gratifying to be acknowledged by Sears in this way, and to know that our technology has impacted their business and customers," said Deb Besemer, President and CEO of BrassRing. "Sears and BrassRing have been working together for nearly three years. It is wonderful to see that our joint efforts have truly created business results for Sears. This acknowledgement indicates the success of BrassRing's efforts to develop innovative technologies that deliver tangible ROI."

About BrassRing

BrassRing delivers talent management solutions that help companies engage people. The company offers clients a custom blend of recruitment software, talent consulting, and recruitment process management. The world's most diverse and successful organizations rely on BrassRing's expertise to achieve competitive advantage through talent. Investors in BrassRing LLC and its affiliates include The Washington Post Company, Tribune Company, Gannett Co., Inc., and Accel Partners. BrassRing has earned a number of prestigious industry awards, including CAREERXROADS' 2002 Best of the Best, Weddle's User's Choice Awards for 2002 and 2003, and a 2003 Human Resource Technology Excellence Award.

Additionally, the company led the ratings in CareerBuilder's 2003 Recruitment Technology Resource Guide, won first place at the 2002 Electronic Recruiting Shootout at HR Executive's HR Technology Conference and was named first in Customer Satisfaction in HR.com's 2003 Buyer's Guide. BrassRing has offices in North America and Europe. www.brassring.com. BrassRing is a registered trademark of BrassRing, LLC.

About Sears

Sears, Roebuck and Co. is a leading broadline retailer providing merchandise and related services. With revenues in 2003 of $41.1 billion, the company offers its wide range of home merchandise, apparel and automotive products and services through more than 2,300 Sears-branded and affiliated stores in the U.S. and Canada, which includes approximately 870 full-line and 1,100 specialty stores in the U.S. Sears also offers a variety of merchandise and services through sears.com, landsend.com, and specialty catalogs. Sears is the only retailer where consumers can find each of the Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard and Land's End brands together - among the most trusted and preferred brands in the U.S. The company is the largest provider of product repair services with more than 14 million services calls made annually.