CENTRA 2000 PDM Implementation Saving Time and Money for US Army Communications-Electronics Command.

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 18, 1999--

Time to Access Drawings and Other Technical Documents Reduced by

85 Percent With Auto-trol's CENTRA 2000 PDM System

Auto-trol Technology today announced the successful implementation of a production CENTRA 2000(TM) PDM system for the US Army CECOM in Ft. Monmouth, NJ. Unlike the Army's previous, non-standardized system, the new CENTRA 2000 system permits any authorized user in the Army or supplier organization to access the data simply by using a web browser. Under the previous system, it would take an average of 30 minutes for an engineer to access a drawing and recreate all the interdrawing dependencies. With the CENTRA 2000 PDM system, this can be accomplished in five minutes, saving an average of two hours per day per engineer. At a cost of less than $700,000, including software and professional services, the implementation is expected to have a quick payback.

Key to the success of this project was the conversion of CECOM's 10 million-item database to the new CENTRA 2000 system. Auto-trol's Product Integration and Consulting group developed a phased approach and implemented a series of routines to accomplish this task. The Army's CENTRA 2000 system is interfaced to JEDMICS, the DoD's (Dept. of Defense) standard drawing repository, and to JCALS, the DoD's standard infrastructure.

CECOM provides communications, command, control, computer, intelligence, and electronic warfare and sensors products and services to America's soldiers. Their mission is to research, develop, acquire, and sustain technologically superior and integrated systems in support of field operations. In this role, CECOM is responsible for the management of product definition and configuration management data for over 100 weapons systems throughout the life cycle of each system. Auto-trol's CENTRA 2000 provides CECOM with a configuration management system able to control product information for thousands of components and parts -- currently 1.4 million drawings -- developed by several hundred DoD contractors. Initially this stored information will be available to 100 CECOM users and another 100 Web clients. In the future, CECOM plans to use the CENTRA 2000 PDM system to distribute technical manuals and download technical data packages to potential vendors over the Web.

"As the system integrator for CECOM's PDM implementation, SIGNAL worked closely with our customer to investigate commercially available PDM products," said Philip Jones, Program Director for SIGNAL Corporation. Mr. Jones continues, "After extensive research, we narrowed the field to three vendors. As it was hard to separate the claims and truly understand the differences, we attended each of the vendors' standard training classes. After careful consideration, we selected Auto-trol's CENTRA 2000 product. Throughout the process, SIGNAL and Auto-trol engineers and systems administrators have been an effective team providing CECOM with a robust solution to their engineering data management requirements."

"We had not converted a database quite as large as CECOM's before, but we were confident that CENTRA 2000 and our Product Integration and Consulting group were up to the challenge. We devised a phased approach for this task and worked with CECOM until we achieved success," says Patricia Yurek, CENTRA 2000 Product Marketing Manager. Ms. Yurek continues, "We believe in the CENTRA 2000 product, and in the people and processes we have in place to implement it successfully."

SIGNAL Corporation, founded in 1987, is a diversified high-technology services company headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, with 50 field offices nationwide. SIGNAL is a leader in providing information technology and engineering and management services to federal and commercial customers. SIGNAL is an ISO 9001 registered company. Information about SIGNAL can be found at www.signalcorp.com.

Auto-trol Technology Corporation is a major global developer and integrator of documentation, information, and process management systems for discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, and other contemporary businesses worldwide. Based in Denver, Colorado, Auto-trol employs professionals in offices throughout the world and has installed systems for thousands of customers in both the US and international markets. Auto-trol is a full-service provider, supplying software, integration and consulting services, training, and software support.

Information about Auto-trol Technology and its products and services can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.auto-trol.com. Information about the CENTRA 2000 product line can be found at www.centra2000.com.

CENTRA 2000 is a trademark of Centra 2000, Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Auto-trol Technology Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.