CascadeWorks Clarity 3.0 Wins Crossroads 2002 A-List Award; Demonstrating Significant Reductions in Services Spend for F1000 Companies Clinches Prestigious Award.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2002

CascadeWorks, the leader in enabling services e-procurement, announced that CascadeWorks Clarity is a Crossroads 2002 A-List Award winner. CascadeWorks Clarity won the award, which is based on proven results achieved by customers, for excellence in services e-procurement. Studies show that corporate spending on services like project-based consulting, transportation, temporary staffing, repair and maintenance typically amounts to more than 50 percent of all purchasing dollars. In these challenging economic times, providing a solution that companies can leverage to deliver immediate and significant savings was key to CascadeWorks Clarity being selected to receive this prestigious award.

Drawing on industry-wide interviews with line-of-business and IT executives, the Crossroads A-List Award recognizes technology products that are making the strongest contribution to business results right now. After interviewing CascadeWorks customers, Crossroads-OSA selected CascadeWorks Clarity for enabling companies to gain visibility into services spending patterns; reduce maverick spending and related markup costs; achieve savings by better leveraging volume, early payment and other negotiated discounts; and reducing costly financial reconciliation and other administrative overhead.

"From management consulting to temporary staffing, companies spend millions of dollars on outside professionals every year," said Nina G. Lytton, President of Crossroads-OSA. "Companies use CascadeWorks Clarity to bring that spending under control and enhance vendor relationships not just for one department or type of service, but enterprise wide. The immediate cost savings reported by customers, which is the main measure of success in today's economy, made CascadeWorks Clarity a clear choice for a Crossroads A-List Award."

Award judges were impressed with the metrics described by CascadeWorks customers. One customer eliminated 15,000 invoice transactions by consolidating billing information in CascadeWorks, while other customers reported significant reduction in maverick spending after implementation -- in some cases, a more than 50 percent decrease.

"The Crossroads A-List Awards are recognized industry-wide because they are based on real results achieved by customers," said Diana Jovin, CEO of CascadeWorks. "When new markets emerge, companies often find it difficult to evaluate whether new technology solutions will help them achieve their corporate goals. That's why it is so important to be the first to prove results and why we are so proud that CascadeWorks Clarity is the only services e-procurement solution to earn a CrossRoads A-List Award."

About the Crossroads A-List Awards

The Crossroads A-List Awards signal that a provider has successfully combined three elements critical to mainstream adoption: strategic focus; a viable product or service offering; and, most importantly, consistent business results for its customers. The Crossroads A-List Program, now in its ninth year, is extremely competitive. To participate in the Crossroads A-List Program, a provider must offer:

-- An emerging product, technology, or service that is either new to the market
or a significant enhancement to an existing offering

-- Four deployed Lighthouse customers willing to speak confidentially to the
Crossroads research team about the business impact of the product, technology,
or service. Lighthouse customers are early implementers of the candidate
offerings.

About CascadeWorks

CascadeWorks enables Global 2000 companies to derive strategic business advantage from services e-procurement -- the inter-enterprise process for sourcing, managing, and paying for services. CascadeWorks' integrated suite of applications, CascadeWorks Clarity, delivers improved management of spend, procurement process and vendor networks addressing the complex inter-enterprise interactions specific to the services procurement life cycle. In use at major corporations such as ABN AMRO North America, Autodesk, Charles Schwab and Texas Instruments, CascadeWorks solutions help businesses significantly reduce costs by optimizing spend, improving process efficiencies, and optimizing the management of their vendors across all categories of services. Based in San Francisco, CA, CascadeWorks is a privately held company with venture capital backing from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Kennet Capital Limited, Broadview's early stage venture affiliate.

About Open Systems Advisors, Inc.

Founded in 1989, Open Systems Advisors, Inc. (OSA) provides a real-world perspective on using new technology in business. OSA's research is based on an ongoing and in-depth dialogue with hundreds of seasoned IT executives and business leaders who are using emerging technologies to achieve business results. OSA reports the Crossroads Decisions, confers the Crossroads A-List Awards and produces the Crossroads Conferences. For additional information, contact the company at: Open Systems Advisors, Inc., 268 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116, 617/859-0859; www.crossroads-osa.com

Note to Editors: CascadeWorks and the CascadeWorks logo are trademarks of CascadeWorks Inc. Crossroads is a registered trademark, and Crossroads A-List, Crossroads Decisions and Bizno-tech are trademarks of Open Systems Advisors, Inc.; any other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.