CascadeWorks Announces General Availability of Services E-procurement Solution: CascadeWorks Clarity; Configurable Solution Cuts Costs, Optimizes Vendor Management for Large Corporations.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2001

In a move to streamline the processes involved in procuring temporary labor within large corporations, CascadeWorks today announced the general availability of its flagship product CascadeWorks(TM) Clarity. This services e-procurement solution reduces the overall costs of acquiring and managing staffing and consulting services by up to 20 percent while providing organizations with complete control over the vendor management and procurement process, from requisition to payment.

"Like product-driven e-procurement, CascadeWorks Clarity offers operational efficiencies by enabling companies to leverage vendor discounts, gain process efficiencies, improve financial controls and reduce transaction costs," said Diana Jovin, President and CEO of CascadeWorks, Inc. "With the introduction of CascadeWorks Clarity, we are delivering the most comprehensive, highly configurable solution for streamlining the e-procurement of all categories of temporary labor and for management of a vendor community that includes staffing organizations, professional service firms, and independent consultants."

With services representing up to two-thirds of a company's annual purchasing dollars, and with the contingent workforce accounting for up to 25% of a company's overall workforce, the opportunities presented by CascadeWorks Clarity for cost savings and strategic impact are significant. A study conducted by the Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies (CAPS) and the National Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM) of 158 major U.S. corporations revealed that an average of 54 percent of all purchasing dollars are spent on services, a category that historically has not received the attention focused on products.

Configurable Platform Ensures Multiple Options, Benefits

The only product of its kind built on a configurable platform, CascadeWorks Clarity can be rapidly adopted to support the diverse business processes of multiple departments and business units without the need for protracted consulting engagements required of customized solutions.

Other benefits include:

-- Cost Savings - Companies leverage negotiated discounts with preferred
vendors, reduce over-billing, and benchmark standard rates.

-- Time Savings - Hiring, workforce management, procurement, and finance
managers spend less time on administrative tasks surrounding requisition
status, document approvals, invoicing, reconciliation, and payment.

-- Operational Effectiveness - Workforce managers improve vendor quality;
finance managers get access to real-time data on services spend and accruals;
and all departments gain freedom from administrative duties, enabling a focus
on best practices and vendor and program management.

Major Customer Deployments Under Way

CascadeWorks first introduced CascadeWorks Clarity late last year with licensing agreements with Autodesk and Inktomi. Both companies selected CasadeWorks Clarity for its configurable design and flexible, modular architecture that allows for easy integration with existing e-procurement and business systems. For example, CascadeWorks Clarity is certified as Ariba Ready, providing broader insight into an organization's product and services spend along with more cost savings opportunities.

"As we deploy CascadeWorks Clarity, we expect to see significant improvements in the way we source and track our contingent workforce at Autodesk," said Lindsay Myers, senior buyer for the CAD software provider. "CascadeWorks Clarity will increase our operational efficiency and our ability to maximize our preferred vendor programs. Its integration with Ariba Buyer will also improve our visibility into our total spend."

The CascadeWorks Clarity Solution

Configured around each buying organization's business rules and best practices, CascadeWorks Clarity tightly couples the end-to-end business processes between a variety of enterprise managers and service vendors to deliver the following capabilities:

-- Process management - CascadeWorks Clarity enhances the

requisition to payment process for hourly and project-based

work, with configurable routing, notifications and approvals

of requisitions, timecards and invoices, while serving as a

central repository for all service-related documents.

-- Program Management - CascadeWorks Clarity enables contingent

workforce managers to communicate, track and enforce business

rules and information, and provides visibility into hiring

activity both in and outside of preferred vendor programs.

-- Vendor Management - CascadeWorks Clarity provides visibility

and metrics across all staffing and consulting vendor

activity, allowing corporations to optimize vendor

relationships and performance. Vendor classification provides

hiring managers with better information on approved and

preferred vendor resources.

Pricing and Availability

CascadeWorks Clarity pricing varies based on the size and activity of a company's contingent workforce, and includes a setup and hosting fee.

About CascadeWorks

CascadeWorks provides solutions for the services e-procurement market. The flagship application, CascadeWorks(TM) Clarity, streamlines the complex process involved in procuring and managing a company's contingent workforce. Based in San Francisco, CascadeWorks is a privately held company with venture capital backing from New Enterprise Associates (NEA). For more information, visit www.cascadeworks.com