Do it Best Corp. Delivers Web Access to Mainframe Inventory System; ClientSoft's CTO Tool Provides Mainframe Access to Better Serve Customers.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 2002

ClientSoft, the leader in delivering fast and secure integrated applications to legacy systems, has deployed ClientSoft Tanit Objects (CTO) on the Do it Best Corp. IBM Mainframe, giving its 4,300 independently owned retailers the competitive advantage of direct access to online transactions.

Do it Best Corp. is a wholesale distributor of hardware and building materials, that offers the price advantage of volume purchases with over 68,000 products stored in its corporate warehouses. Prior to the ClientSoft CTO roll-out, its independent hardware retailers used a static catalog and disparate systems for browsing, pricing, ordering, and inventory inquiry activities. Stores now find product information and real time inventory, real time pricing, and ordering consolidated into one application, the internet Infoplus catalogue.

"Customer service and price advantage have been main market advantages of our independently-owned Do it Best Corp. retailers, and with ClientSoft's CTO technology in place, we are now providing our members with up to the minute inventory and pricing information on all of our available products, " said Bob Langston, IT Manager at Do it Best Corp. "Without relying on emulation technology, ClientSoft's CTO 3.4 gave us options for connecting to the back-end, allowed us to extend the capabilities of our VSE environment, and reduced the time to deployment from months to weeks," he added.

Do it Best Corp. uses a IBM VSE operating system and DL1 database, and were originally looking at extensive programming changes in order to give their retailers real-time, Web access to product information. CTO connects directly to the Mainframe, passing the retail information to the front end using a COM component. The process is transparent to the user, who simply sees a list of inventory, confirmed reservation, and personalized pricing on the Web interface.

"Re-purposing mainframe data to new applications is a more strategic and cost-effective option for companies than a complete 'rip and replace' of systems," said Hugh Raiford, VP of Marketing for ClientSoft. "Do it Best Corp. is a perfect example of the value found by integrating new technology with current investments in enterprise and human capital."

About ClientSoft

ClientSoft, the leader in delivering fast and secure integrated applications to legacy systems, has been in the business of providing e-business solutions since 1987. With more than 500 customers, including Fortune 1000 companies, universities and the public sector, ClientSoft's solutions open the door to Web services and all the benefits of today's client/server, Internet and wireless technologies. For further information, visit www.clientsoft.com.

About Do it Best Corp.

Do it Best Corp., headquartered out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is the third-largest cooperative in the hardware industry. With over 4,300 member-owned stores worldwide, they stock 68,000 hardware and building products. The co-op, whose buying power enables members to get retail products at competitive prices, also offers unifying branding programs using the Do it Best(R) and Do it center(R) names. To learn more, visit www.doitbestcorp.com.

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