Clarity from Niku Leads Rapidly Growing IT Management and Governance Market.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 2004

Niku Corporation (Nasdaq:NIKU) today announced the release of Clarity(TM), a product that addresses the needs of the burgeoning IT Management and Governance (IT-MG) market. With advanced portfolio modeling and process management capabilities designed for IT organizations, Clarity empowers companies to drive the complete IT-MG lifecycle, enabling them to achieve up to 25 percent greater returns on their IT investments. Clarity's product features are detailed in the accompanying "Niku Releases Clarity" press release.

According to Gartner Group, 70 percent of IT organizations will adopt portfolio management solutions in the near future. With Niku's solution already proven in IT environments around the world, Clarity will extend Niku's market leadership into the growing IT-MG arena. Clarity incorporates unique capabilities for IT Management and Governance, enabling organizations to select IT opportunities which align best against business needs, manage delivery and execution of their portfolio plans, then assess the results both from the IT and business perspective -- all from within one enterprise application.

"At Harrah's, we view business value creation through IT as more than just ROI as a number, but as a lifecycle process spanning ideation to realization -- where value is managed at all steps in the process," said Heath Daughtrey, Vice President of IT Services. "As such, our IT governance does not stop at the selection and approval phase, but continues through delivery and on-going value measurement, informing future investment decisions along the way. Niku has proven itself as Harrah's system of record for IT management and governance; now with Clarity, we envision creating an even more seamless link between business value and IT."

"BBH has utilized Niku software for almost ten years to manage work, leverage the productivity of our resources, meet schedules, and deliver cost-effective solutions to our business," said Philip DeCesar, Vice President of Systems at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. "The product has been invaluable in enabling us to account to our various users the costs of the efforts we undertake on their behalf. Now we look forward to the expanded, innovative and rich features in Clarity, especially its seamless management and governance capabilities."

"IT Management and Governance happens in every large organization, although generally with whiteboards, email, MS Project and spreadsheets," said Josh Pickus, Niku's CEO. "In many organizations, however, this is changing, as the demands on IT are too great for fragmented and incomplete solutions. Industry analysts have identified savings and benefits from comprehensive IT-MG of up to 30 percent of the IT budget, a significant contribution to even the largest income statements."

Clarity from Niku: Leading IT-MG

Introduced today, Clarity is a targeted solution that enables organizations to achieve true IT Management and Governance, facilitating partnerships between IT and operating executives and maximizing Return on IT. Clarity builds on the strength of Niku's world-class project management by offering the most comprehensive portfolio planning capabilities and a new module for process management. Specifically, Clarity supports IT-MG processes common in best-in-class IT organizations:

IT Portfolio Selection:

Clarity enables IT Governance councils or steering committees to engage all stakeholders in the IT portfolio modeling and selection process, ensuring that the entire IT portfolio -- not merely current IT projects -- is in alignment with corporate goals. Clarity supports IT portfolios with pre-built templates for modeling hardware, applications, and network assets. Operational and IT executives can use Clarity for scenario planning, comparing alternative paths, and selecting optimal investments most in line with business objectives.

IT Project Delivery:

Once the portfolio has been balanced and a plan selected, Clarity enables organizations to seamlessly move into delivery phase. Because it is based on a proven Global 2000 Architecture and features unique "role-based precision security," Clarity supports even the most complex, global teams comprising internal and outsourced workgroups scattered across multiple continents and time zones. The product equips IT managers to work efficiently in real time, allowing them to quickly respond when issues occur so that they can minimize negative impacts on budget and delivery. Additionally, Clarity's new Process Manager module supports industry best practices, enabling teams involved in satisfying ISO or CMMI standards to track and apply best practices.

IT Portfolio Assessment:

Effective portfolio evaluation is the final step in true management and governance. Now, with accounting and bill-backs at the individual project level, as well as benchmarks and scorecards at the portfolio levels, business sponsors and IT leaders can collaboratively review metrics for success, and understand both the true cost and business value of an IT portfolio.

About Niku

Niku Corporation (Nasdaq: NIKU) is the leading vendor of IT Management and Governance (IT-MG) solutions. More than 400,000 users at industry leaders such as 3M, Best Buy, Harrah's Entertainment, Nissan, Unilever and Visa International depend on Niku software to maximize their Return on IT. Niku's Global 2000 Proven capabilities make it the leading solution for Product Development Planning and Management, and Professional Services Automation, in addition to IT-MG. Niku Corporation is a publicly-held company with a global presence.

For more information, contact [e-mail] or visit www.niku.com.