Clarus Selected by Graybar Electric Company to Implement Financial and Reporting Applications by Y2K.

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 17, 1999--Clarus (Nasdaq:CLRS) has been chosen by Graybar Electric Company to provide a suite of Clarus(tm) Financials products that will ready the distribution company's back office for the Year 2000.

Graybar, a $3.7 billion international distributor of electrical and communications equipment and supplies, initiated a selection process in 1998 for a solution provider that could implement Y2K-compliant software with extensive reporting functionality. After evaluating several potential vendors, Clarus was selected based on its comprehensive reporting capabilities, flexibility, open approach and its ability to meet Graybar's aggressive timetable for implementation.

"Our present system is heavily spreadsheet-driven," said Steve Becker, director of business system design for Graybar. "With continued growth and change expected, we wanted a database structure with flexible reporting capabilities. Clarus is the solution we feel will satisfy our complex reporting and analysis requirements."

Graybar's main challenges are to manage various types of reports generated with information pulled from payroll, payables and sales, while eliminating the need to manage separate reporting components. The Clarus reporting solution will also enable the staff at Graybar to perform drill down analyses from top level reports to the source financial systems.

"Not only will we deliver our applications in breakthrough time, but we will provide Graybar with a total tool set of analysis and reporting features that will carry them well into the new century," said Steve Jeffery, CEO and president of Clarus.

Graybar is planning to implement Clarus(tm) OLAP for analysis in addition to other critical financial and reporting applications.

Graybar is confident in the Clarus team to deliver the specified applications in 1999 and to service the customer for years to come. Noted Becker, "The entire group involved in the selection process was impressed with the responsiveness of the Clarus team and their excellent work in handling the entire process. Clarus gave Graybar a positive feeling about how our account will be managed on a long-term basis."

Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, Graybar Electric Company is an employee-owned, independent distributor of electrical and communications/data products. Graybar represents thousands of manufacturers and distributes hundreds of thousands of different products and components. The company operates 260 branches throughout the United States and Canada and has operations in Mexico, Chile, Singapore, and Puerto Rico. Graybar distributes more than 800,000 different products ranging from General Electric lighting products to Square D electrical products and Lucent Technologies communications/data products.

Atlanta-based Clarus Corp. (www.claruscorp.com; Nasdaq:CLRS) is a leading provider of Web-based applications for managing operational resources together with Financial and Human Resource applications for mid- to large-sized companies. Founded in 1991, the company's applications create high lifetime value by delivering sophisticated functionality while substantially reducing the time required for implementation, maintenance and upgrades. Clarus serves such customers as First Data Corporation, MasterCard International, Hyatt Regency Chicago, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Investment Technology Group, Toronto Dominion Bank, The Container Store, H.D. Vest Financial Services, Lands' End and Chartwell Re Holdings Corp.

THIS PRESS RELEASE CONTAINS FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS WITHIN THE MEANING OF SECTION 27A OF THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933 AND SECTION 21E OF THE EXCHANGE ACT. ACTUAL RESULTS COULD DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM THOSE PROJECTED IN THE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AS A RESULT OF CERTAIN RISKS INCLUDING THAT THE BENEFITS EXPECTED BY THE COMPANY AS A RESULT OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT MAY NOT OCCUR.

Clarus is a trademark of Clarus Corporation. Throughout this release, software and hardware products are mentioned by name. In most, if not all, cases, these product names are claimed as trademarks by the companies that manufacture the products. It is not our intention to claim these names or trademarks as our own.