ClearOrbit's Collaborative Purchase Order Processes Now Incorporate Material Requirements Planning.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 2004

PO Change Management Module Eliminates Significant

Bottleneck by Providing Visibility and Control over

MRP Output and Purchasing Processes

ClearOrbit, the leading provider of real-time supply chain execution (SCE) software solutions, today announced the availability of Purchase Order Change Management, part of its Advanced Collaborative Replenishment Suite. PO Change Management automates the communication of order changes suggested by a manufacturer's MRP (Material Requirements Planning) system. It also allows buyers and suppliers to simultaneously change, manage, and collaborate on purchase orders and MRP suggestions. Through ClearOrbit's unique "prevent control" system, PO Change Management also automates data reconciliation, and reduces errors by barring shipments with mismatched data records.

PO Change Management reduces the time buyers and suppliers spend communicating by providing shared, real-time visibility and control over the entire Purchase Event History. All the purchase order data can now be displayed in front of the right people, when they need it, without requiring that they manually look up data in disparate systems. Suppliers can access the system via standard web browsers, by uploading/downloading spreadsheets into the system, or via a Web Services XML interface.

The original collaborative module installed at hundreds of locations is ClearOrbit's "PO Collaborator." "PO Collaborator" provides suppliers with online visibility and control over orders so they can meet their customers' production schedules. The new "PO Change Management" module extends this capability by bringing a manufacturer's MRP output into the same closed-loop replenishment system. This eliminates a key disconnect between MRP and purchasing systems, as it provides suppliers with visibility to both systems at the same time. Even better, the buyers now have configuration rules that give them greater flexibility in dealing with supplier responses to shipment requests.

Study after study has shown that this automated process reduces administrative costs, eliminates mistakes, and cuts down on duplicate shipments, as it avoids expediting charges and time-consuming disputes over conflicting purchase orders. PO Change Management is the newest addition to ClearOrbit's collaborative product suite, and it works to supplement PO Collaborator. The other products in ClearOrbit's collaborative product suite include ClearOrbit's VMI, Schedule Collaborator, Drop Ship Manager, and Sales Order Collaborator.

"ClearOrbit's existing Purchase Order Collaborator application helped to assure the Perfect Order Metric for inbound supplies to a factory," said Steve Banker, Service Director, Supply Chain Management, ARC Advisory Group. "Now with this new release, Purchase Order Change Management, the MRP output is more tightly integrated into their application for a more seamless process."

"ClearOrbit's clients demand more visibility and control over their purchase order management than is available in their current systems," said Tom Dziersk, President & CEO of ClearOrbit. "We can now 'layer-in' a comprehensive, web-based Purchase Order Change Management tool that enables significant new collaborative capabilities while avoiding the massive integration costs associated with alternative approaches."

About ClearOrbit

Since 1994, ClearOrbit has assisted more than 250 clients in automating and controlling their supply chain execution processes. ClearOrbit extends enterprise systems value with proven Supply Chain Execution (SCE) and Collaborative Supply Management (CSM) software solutions that allow customers to fully leverage their investment in enterprise applications while also gaining additional value by incorporating their trading partners into their supply chains. ClearOrbit products work within the existing enterprise system to leverage a "single version of the truth," expanding rather than duplicating functionality to eliminate inefficiencies in the supply chain. By using the customer's data model, ClearOrbit delivers on the promise of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) with fully integrated supply chain execution and collaboration solutions that address "last mile functionality" issues inherent in most ERP systems. ClearOrbit customers include Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), JDS Uniphase (Nasdaq: JDSU), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) and Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT). See how enterprise systems can reach a higher level at www.clearorbit.com or call us at 800-324-5143.