Home Health Care Leader Chooses Bluestone Software for E-business; Bluestone's Total-e-BusinessTM to Provide Foundation for Mission- Critical Health Care Applications at Visiting Nurse Service.

Business Editors

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 31, 2000

Bluestone(R) Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLSW), a leader in business-to-Web and wireless technologies, announced that Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNS) has selected Bluestone's Total-e-Business(TM) as the foundation for its mission-critical health care applications. In business for more than 100 years, VNS is the largest not-for-profit home health care agency in the nation. Last year alone, VNS made over six million home visits to more than 116,000 patients.

VNS is using Bluestone's comprehensive, standards-based Total-e-Business platform, comprising best-of-breed software components for content management, personalization, and e-commerce, as the foundation for e-enabling its information technology (IT) infrastructure. Initially, VNS will use Total-e-Business to develop a Web-based software application that will provide VNS users with browser based access to a mainframe Prospective Payment System. The agency also plans to leverage Total-e-Business to transform its existing static Website to a dynamic, personalized site and bring other business-critical, back-office applications online.

Using Bluestone's software as the foundation for its planned e-business transformation, VNS will be able to continue its rapid growth, while supporting the huge transaction volumes it experiences on a daily basis. The agency's mainframe currently processes as many as 80,000 transactions per hour, including operations such as adding, updating or querying patient records.

By moving to a Web-enabled architecture, VNS can continue to manage its growth with minimal business disruptions and reduced IT costs. Instead of deploying software to each desktop computer, VNS can deliver instant application and information via Internet access using standard browser software. IT costs will be further reduced because VNS will be able to leverage its existing mainframe system, which houses seven years of patient data. Bluestone's Total-e-Business also gives VNS the flexibility to support any platform or operating system it chooses, and enables VNS to seamlessly exchange data with other businesses over the Internet.

"At VNS, we have a highly diverse set of needs. Our technology infrastructure team needs an e-business platform that offers easy manageability, scalability, and high availability," explained George

Germann, chief information officer for Visiting Nurse Service. "Our programmers want both advanced and visual development tools, depending on their level of experience. From a business standpoint, we must easily converse with other businesses over the Internet and provide access to mission-critical applications to a large mobile workforce. Bluestone's Total-e-Business satisfies virtually all of our requirements for an online business."

Added John H. Capobianco, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Bluestone Software, "Advanced companies like VNS recognize the need for a platform that enables them to respond rapidly, efficiently, and properly to the ever-emerging opportunities of the e-business world, whether those opportunities are increased competitiveness or the ability to increase profitability. Using Bluestone's Total-e-Business, VNS can further strengthen its business by taking a standards-based, platform-independent approach to e-enabling and integrating its processes."

Bluestone at the Top of the List

VNS has historically managed its business, from obtaining patient referrals to billing for services, by predominantly using custom CICS mainframe-based applications. The company recognizes the value of transforming from text-based "green screen" applications to a graphical, Web-based application environment, in order to improve productivity and reduce data entry errors. As a result, VNS began searching for a standards-based, e-business platform that would accommodate a wide variety of client devices, while at the same time, leveraging its investment in mainframe-based applications.

VNS began a detailed assessment of competing e-business platforms, relying heavily on advice from a third-party consulting team and leading industry research firms. "Based on our requirements, Bluestone's Total-e-Business emerged at the top of the list every time," said William McCloskey, director of Information Technology, Planning and Management for VNS.

Total-e-Business will be used to develop applications that interface with the company's mainframe systems, Unix-based Web servers and Windows-based PCs. The 100% Pure Java architecture of Total-e-Business allows VNS applications to run seamlessly across all of its systems. Building on a foundation of open standards, namely Sun Microsystems' J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition), Total-e-Business ensures platform independence, thereby avoiding the technological obsolescence associated with proprietary solutions. It addresses the needs of virtually any software developer, from experienced Java developers to entry-level programmers who prefer using visual, drag and drop tools.

VNS also will deploy Total-e-Business as a platform for delivering dynamic, personalized content on its re-engineered public Website. Eventually, Bluestone's software will be used as the foundation for applications that will enable seamless data exchange with other businesses using XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and give highly skilled caregivers at VNS Web-based access to mission-critical information and applications using various connectivity options.

In addition to enabling rapid application development and deployment, VNS needed a highly secure Application Server platform capable of handling tens of thousands of transactions per hour. Bluestone Total-e-Server(TM), the Application Server component of Bluestone Total-e-Business, provides the fault tolerance, security and scalability VNS needs to sustain large and growing transaction volumes.

Total-e-Business enables VNS to evolve its technology infrastructure, without concern for expensive and complicated licensing issues. "Bluestone's pricing model is based on usage, not on the number of CPUs," added McCloskey. "This is ideal for a business like VNS, allowing us to move to different platforms or accommodate new users without being concerned with complex pricing structures."

About Bluestone Software

Bluestone(R) Software, Inc., provider of Enterprise Interaction Management software, is a leader in business-to-Web and wireless technologies. Companies deploying e-business applications, like Avnet, CDNow, Food.com, MCI WorldCom, Planalytics, Reliance National, and Time Inc., rely on Bluestone's Total-e-Business(TM) platform to provide comprehensive e-business platforms, Internet-class infrastructures, and robust integration services that e-business success demands. Bluestone is headquartered at 300 Stevens Drive, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19113-1597. For more information, please call 888-Bluestone or 610-915-5000, email [e-mail], or visit http://www.bluestone.com

Bluestone is a registered trademark, and Total-e-Business and Total-e-Server are trademarks of Bluestone Software, Inc. All other names, brands or products may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Certain statements in this press release constitute forward-looking statements as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including those contained in Bluestone's publicly filed reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which may cause Bluestone's actual results, performance, or achievements or those of its customers or its industry to be materially different from the future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward looking statements. Specifically, the Company's beliefs with respect to the business opportunities presented by e-business and the Company's ability to profitably market and deploy its product solutions may prove to be inaccurate. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in these forward looking statements, the information in this press release should not be considered a representation by the Company or any other person that Bluestone's objectives and plans will be achieved.