CSC teams with Peritus to address the year 2000 challenge; also introduces its Catalyst2000 compliance methodology.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 3, 1996--Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE:CSC) Wednesday announced two significant developments in its practice dedicated to helping companies prepare their information systems for the new millennium.

They are:

* The signing of a strategic licensee agreement with Billerica, Mass.-based Peritus Software Services Inc., to jointly provide consulting and technology solutions for year 2000 compliance conversion.

* The release of CSC's new Catalyst2000 methodology for guiding year 2000 projects.

As widely reported in trade and business publications, the changing of the date from 1999 to 2000 poses a serious challenge for most applications in today's corporate information systems. These systems, which were programmed to accept only the last two digits of the year in date fields, will interpret the year 2000 as 1900. The resulting confusion could lead to a complete failure of any time-sensitive programs. Accordingly, businesses everywhere are faced with the massive, complex and expensive effort of changing their systems' code to recognize 2000 as a viable date.

Catalyst2000--which has evolved from CSC's business change methodology, CSC Catalyst--is a structured approach to managing such large-scale programs, and incorporates the technical, cultural and organizational features unique to year 2000 initiatives. The methodology separates work into four discrete phases: assessment of the current state of the application systems, correction of the problems, validation of the solution and deployment of the renovated system.

To keep year 2000 projects on schedule and minimize costs, Catalyst2000 makes extensive use of standard, repeatable activities and common tools, employs templates and reusable components and maintains a sharp focus on project management activities.

The CSC/Peritus alliance is designed to combine the elements of Catalyst2000 and CSC's systems integration expertise with the code and data conversion technologies embodied in Peritus' Automate:2000 service to create the complete suite of year 2000 consulting and technology solutions.

Peritus' year 2000 technologies include the Mass Change Factory, which provides the process necessary for managing a code transformation in which a significant portion of the code and its related data are affected; and the AutoEnhancer/2000 tool, which automates code correction and data conversion activities, as well as the redeployment of the enhanced code and data subset.

In addition to teaming the respective companies' subject matter expertise, the CSC/Peritus agreement provides for joint marketing of the two companies' year 2000 services and enables CSC to license use of Peritus' Automate:2000 products (AutoEnhancer/2000 and Mass Change Factory). Furthermore, as Peritus' sole "strategic licensee," CSC will work with Peritus to establish technical direction and strategy for year 2000 solutions, and will co-develop with Peritus new year 2000 products, technologies and services.

"The strategic alliance between CSC and Peritus provides unsurpassed expertise in addressing the year 2000 challenge," said Tom McAndrew, a senior partner with CSC and head of the company's year 2000 solutions practice. "CSC's Catalyst2000 incorporates all of the key competencies required for a successful year 2000 project: program and project management, legacy portfolio analysis, configuration management, large-scale testing and systems integration. Peritus' Automate:2000 technologies include processes and tools necessary to carry out the actual code correction and data conversion. The two complement each other perfectly."

"Our licensing agreement with CSC is an important validation of the tools and methods that we have developed to automate the work required in a year 2000 enhancement effort," noted Dominic Chan, president of Peritus. "With our Automate:2000 technologies, CSC can offer a highly automated, accurate and reliable enhancement capability as part of its Catalyst2000 methodology."

Peritus Software Services develops technologies to sharply reduce the cost of software maintenance. With a unique combination of people, process, formal mathematical techniques, computer-based tools and continuous improvement, the Peritus approach significantly increases the productivity, responsiveness and quality of software maintenance tasks. Peritus, with headquarters in Billerica, Mass., has offices in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, and Illinois, and has partners in the United States, Canada, Italy, and Spain.

Computer Sciences Corp. had $4.1 billion in annual revenues for the 12 months ended Dec. 29, 1995. The company has headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., and has 34,000 employees in 575 offices worldwide. CSC provides clients with a wide range of professional services including management consulting; business reengineering; information systems consulting and integration; and outsourcing.

NOTE TO EDITORS: CSC's Internet home page address: http://www.csc.com. All CSC press releases and other literature can be requested via Fax on Demand at 1-800-549-0676 or via mail at 1-800-615-4455.

CONTACT: Computer Sciences Corp., El Segundo

Bernie Thiel, 617/788-4023

e-mail: [e-mail]

or

Peritus

Ted Swoyer, 508/670-0800

e-mail: [e-mail]