Crews of The Western Legend and Western Spirit Land First Internet Purchases Completed From a Ship.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 1999--

Mid-Sea Purchases Dramatize Advantages of Intelisys'

Supplier-Managed e-Procurement Model

Intelisys Electronic Commerce, Inc., a global provider of Internet-based business-to-business procurement solutions, announced today that two ships off the coast of Africa operated by Western Geophysical, the seismic exploration division of Baker Hughes, made the first live purchase orders over the Internet at sea. The crews of The Western Legend and The Western Spirit used a regular desktop browser, a satellite hook-up and Intelisys' e-commerce solution, IEC-Enterprise(TM), to link directly to suppliers' catalogs and complete the orders of badly needed supplies. Supplies included computer equipment, consumable products, engine products and other necessities. The instantaneous order placements saved days, eliminating traditional physical purchase order routing by fax or mail and bureaucratic back-office approvals.

Western Geophysical, chose to use Intelisys' IEC-Enterprise(TM) earlier this year across its widespread global operations for its ability to link buyers directly to suppliers and automate the entire purchasing process internationally. IEC-Enterprise automates the procure-to-pay cycle, including product selection requisitioning, approval, ordering, fulfilment, delivery and financial settlement, enabling employees to make purchases right from their desktop, from anywhere in the world.

"We had to get detailed, up-to-date information in front of our end users, not only in Houston and London, but out in the middle of oceans and deserts and any other remote location where our crews are working," said Martin Wiltshire, Director of Logistics at Western Geophysical. "Intelisys' e-procurement model leverages suppliers' catalogs, so it met our remote needs around the world."

"Western Geophysical's successful use of our i-procurement solutions on land and sea is proof positive that the supplier-managed catalog content model pioneered by Intelisys is easy to implement and fully scalable," said Lloyd O'Connor, CEO of Intelisys.

The at sea initiatives mark the 24th worldwide installation of IEC-Enterprise by Western Geophysical, including its Houston headquarters and 11 field offices the U.S., United Kingdom, Australia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In addition, Western Geophysical has already enabled twelve additional ships to make at-sea purchases using the Intelisys system in numerous seafaring locations off the coasts of Africa, Canada, in the Gulf of Mexico and other areas.

Automating purchases with IEC-Enterprise has transformed procurement at Western Geophysical. Earlier EDI-based processes required the company to maintain catalogs, a costly and burdensome method that was not scalable to remote locations. Only 10% of the company's Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) purchases were automated. Earlier this year, Western Geophysical turned to Intelisys and quickly implemented their leading Internet-based procurement solution with sixty of their major strategic suppliers. Currently, approximately 400 Western Geophysical company employees are using Intelisys' IEC-Enterprise to purchase goods and services from suppliers that represent 60% of the company's total non-production commodity spending.

"We are very excited about this industry first," said Chris Usher, Vice President of Technology at Western Geophysical. "Western Geophysical has been leveraging communications technology to manage remote data processing via satellite for some time, and we expect to attain even further value from these same IT investments through e-procurement."

IEC-Enterprise revolves around a procurement process that lets suppliers develop, maintain and control their online catalogs (Supplier Managed Content(TM) process). This relieves buying organizations of the expense and management burdens associated with hosting redundant supplier catalogs and allows purchasers to maximize their current e-commerce investment and dramatically reduce administrative costs.

"Our goal is to cut processing costs substantially, which we believe the Intelisys system will help us achieve," says David Durham, manager of purchasing, Western Geophysical.

About Intelisys Electronic Commerce

Headquartered in New York, Intelisys is a leading provider of Internet-based business-to-business purchasing solutions for companies of all sizes. Intelisys' IEC-Enterprise suite of products enables both private and public large-scale entities to dramatically reduce the high cost of procuring non-production goods and services, while increasing management control. The U.S. Patent office recently awarded Intelisys a patent for the innovative process upon which IEC-Enterprise is based - Supplier Managed Content(TM). IEC-Enterprise received "Best of Show" honours at the 1999 Gartner Group Internet and Electronic Commerce Conference and Exposition.

With IEC-Portal, Intelisys is applying its Internet procurement expertise to meet the e-commerce needs of small and mid-sized companies, both as suppliers and buyers. Formed in 1996, Intelisys lists among its clients Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), Telstra (ASX: TLS), Western Geophysical, a division of Baker Hughes, The Chase Manhattan Bank (NYSE: CMB), eMall, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the States of Idaho, New York, Texas and Utah. Intelisys can be reached by calling 1.888.294.4PRO or by visiting its Web site, www.intelisys.com. For media inquiries, please call Lisa Wolford at Robinson Lerer & Montgomery at 212-484-7058 or e-mail: [e-mail].