Creative Networks Announces First TCO/TVO Benchmarking Discussion Forum; Forum to Facilitate Industry Standard Cost / Value Methodologies.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 8, 1998--Creative Networks, Inc. (CNI) announced today its new Web-based TCO/TVO discussion forum designed to extend discussions that resulted from feedback on the company's most recent TCO benchmarking report. This report, which presents TCO results for Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes/Domino, solicited a significant amount of feedback illustrating the tremendous interest the industry has around quantifying the cost and value of technology. CNI established this discussion forum to bring industry ideas together to begin formulating standard benchmarking methodologies.

"CIO's and business executives need to quickly assess the risk, the cost and the value that new technologies bring to their business, especially in this age of Internet time when the wrong decision and the wrong timing can cost them the future." said Nina Burns, President and CEO of CNI. Burns continued, "The industry needs to better define TCO in general. To us, TCO means total cost of ownership, not selective cost of ownership. Methodologies for measuring TCO are so diverse, the practice is often an art rather than a science. This discussion forum is the first attempt to bring ideas together in support of developing industry standard practices."

CNI received an unprecedented amount of feedback to their recent report, "Benchmark TCO: Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes/Domino in the Enterprise." This was the most definitive study ever completed for these market-leading messaging/collaboration systems, establishing the industry baseline for companies to measure their effectiveness against and to make decisions about investing in these technologies. It identifies where Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes/Domino are most effective, what the impact on cost of improving services levels is, and quantitative data for comparing in-house operations and maintenance to outsourcing. CNI has populated their discussion forum with a sampling of the feedback we received, which can be viewed at http://www.cnilive.com/.

CNI, a market research and consulting firm, is the leader in identifying and measuring the business value of technology. The company's research programs measure the effectiveness of information technology through tested, proven and extensive cost value methodologies and research. Consulting services help clients build sustainable business value through the application of technology. CNI pioneered TCO and value analysis for messaging and collaboration systems. Its model and methodologies, which have become the de facto standard for the industry, have been developed, perfected and extended over the last three years from extensive research and consulting work with vendors, enterprise IS/IT departments and TCO experts. The model's extensibility accommodates benchmarking best practices in areas such as migration services, outsourcing, electronic commerce, knowledge management and other applications. For further information on the company or this release, contact Darcy Fowkes at 650.326.9926.