ECsoft Extends Its ASP Offering With a Strategic Partnership; ECsoft Partners With Peregrine Systems Inc.

Business Editors

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2000

ECsoft Group plc (&uot;ECsoft&uot; or the &uot;Company&uot;; London: ECS, NASDAQ: ECSG) the independent E-business consultancy, systems integrator and IT solutions provider, today announced a new partnership with Peregrine Systems Inc that extends its offer in the application service provision (ASP) space. ECsoft will host Peregrine's Systems Products range of infrastructure management solutions including AssetCenter, FleetAnywhere, ServiceCenter and InfraCenter for Workgroups for delivery to its UK customer base.

&uot;The new contract with Peregrine recognises ECsoft's emergence as a key player in application hosting and managed services,&uot; says Cliff Alsop, director of ECsoft's ISM Group.

Alsop points to a shortage of skills as the primary driver in the exponential growth of the ASP market. Indeed, the lack of in-house expertise was a powerful reason for Mackays, the UK-based fashion retailer, to go the ASP route. It was ECsoft's track record and capability in the design and development of retail data warehouse solutions that persuaded them to choose ECsoft for the work.

He further believes that the growing need for small and medium sized companies to focus on their core business activities has created a huge growth in the demand for high quality, low risk ASP services. A Forrester report recently predicted that the ASP market would be worth $6 billion by 2003 with 22% of all package sales coming through the ASP route, primarily CRM and E-commerce solutions.

&uot;With the increased maturity of E-commerce has come an explosion in the number of Internet based companies and E-business start-ups,&uot; says Alsop. &uot;These people want a complete solution, one that's Internet ready, well managed and can be implemented, quickly, easily and cost effectively. As regards cost, they want a payment stream that's in line with the benefits.&uot;

He suggests that cost is a real issue and that the rapid interest in this market has come about because of the growing resistance of upper/ mid market companies (UMMs) to spending millions of pounds on large-scale ERP packages that can take years to implement. ASP has the advantage of enabling companies to switch vendors without additional cost barriers.

&uot;A number of the companies who bought into the big software offerings in the mid 1990s are now unhappy with the result. ASP services are a `second chance' to get successful ERP implementation,&uot; continues Alsop.

ECsoft's core competencies of Java and Forte object oriented development skills, Oracle data warehousing, and large scale CRM and ERP implementations mean that it has both the skills and track record to offer the ASP services the market is looking for. Not only that, but its branded service delivery proposition, Enterprism(TM), ensures that it also has the infrastructure and service delivery capability to take care of the whole package.

Alsop concludes: &uot;The relationship with Peregrine is the first of many. There is a real appetite out there for this kind of a solution, but not in the way of the old service bureaus. Web access and application functionality mean that ASP is the route to market for the next generation of business systems, and ECsoft is superbly positioned to host and deliver them&uot;.

About ECsoft Group plc:

ECsoft Group plc (London: ECS, Nasdaq: ECSG) is an independent E-business consultancy, systems integrator and IT solutions provider, specialising in the development and delivery of innovative mission-critical business solutions to Europe's top 500 companies. Headquartered in London with a current workforce of over 1000 people across sixteen offices in the UK, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany, ECsoft is a leader in the practical application of advanced technology and in turning a customer's E-business vision into a technical reality. More information about ECsoft Group can be found at www.ecsoft-group.com.

The IT landscape is increasingly distributed and open and never has the dependency of an organisation on its information systems and technical infrastructure been greater. The open-all-hours Internet has raised the stakes as business managers demand that their IT systems support cost-effective delivery of business services 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. ECsoft's Information Systems Management (ISM) Group is focused on providing end-to-end management of systems, networks and applications. It underpins this with its Enterprism model; this is a unique architecture that integrates all the management disciplines to deliver a holistic and systemic management infrastructure. The ISM Group delivers Enterprism either via its project services, which provide consultancy and integration projects, or via its operational services which help organisations replace or supplement their own IT resources by the provision of systems and operations management, application management and desktop and network management.

Enterprism is a trademark of ECsoft

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may contain forward-looking information with respect to the plans, projections or future performance of the Company, the occurrence of which involve certain risks and uncertainties. Potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, continued competitive pressures in the market place; reliance on attracting and retaining technically skilled professional staff; successful integration of acquired companies; managing risks associated with customer projects; significant fluctuation in quarterly operating results; the Company's ability to manage its growth; dependence on trends towards open systems computing architecture and outsourcing; reliance on key executives; reliance on relationships with third parties; and the Company's ability to develop information technology solutions that keep pace with rapid and continuing changes in computing technology, evolving industry standards and changing customer preferences. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company's financial results are included in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly in its Annual Report on Form 20-F.

ECsoft and the ECsoft logo are trademarks of ECsoft Group plc The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.