New Initiative Brings RosettaNet to the Masses; RosettaNet Automated Enablement Standard Garners Broad Industry Support to Deliver Low-Cost B2B Integration to Small- and Mid-sized Enterprises.

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. & BEIJING -- RosettaNet, the technology industry's leading e-business process consortium and a subsidiary of the Uniform Code Council, Inc.(R) (UCC(R)), today announced as part of the RosettaNet Global Partner Conference being held in Beijing China that the RosettaNet Automated Enablement (RAE) program is completing the first pilot of innovative standards that significantly reduces the cost and complexity for small-and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt RosettaNet Partner Interface Processes(R) (PIPs(R)), making RosettaNet truly accessible to such businesses for the first time. The new standards will allow RosettaNet to dramatically increase the number of adopters for RosettaNet e-business process standards.

"The RAE program defines a 'system-to-human' interface that allows trading partners to participate in RosettaNet e-business processes by simply filling out and exchanging electronic forms," said John Cartwright at Intel Corporation. "RAE also defines the process by which a company can express their implementation of a PIP in a machine-readable format, thereby reducing the time and IT resources required for multi-national companies (MNCs) to on-board multiple partners." Intel is in production with several trading partners using the new standards, which provides more flexibility in extending e-business processes to companies.

"We are extremely pleased to be able to announce the successful pilot of the RAE standards during RosettaNet's global conference in China where high cost has proven to be a challenge in implementing B2B processes," said Herman Stiphout, president of RosettaNet. "By leveraging RAE, large companies will be able to maximize their existing RosettaNet infrastructure investments across their entire trading partner base, while many small and mid-sized enterprises will be able to participate in RosettaNet initiatives for the first time."

The RAE program, which has been led by Intel since its inception in 2004 to help bring RosettaNet standards to the masses, is undergoing validation, planning for a public release to the broader community in the second half of 2005. Currently, Intel is successfully using the new RAE standards and the XML Schema-based PIPs with a number of its smaller trading partners from North America, Europe, and Asia in the validation phase of this program. Adobe Systems Incorporated is contributing the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) for the forms' capability, which will enable the visual representation of RosettaNet PIPs allowing system-to-human integration. As a result, supply chain partners will be able to complete and submit forms by using either Adobe Acrobat(R) software or the free Adobe Reader(R). E2open, a Solution Provider in the RosettaNet community, is working to enable Intel's new RosettaNet SME trading partners to execute standard e-business processes and will be validating the specifications, demonstrating the cost effectiveness and ease-of-use of RAE.

In addition to the validation participants, the RAE program has received remarkable support from the RosettaNet solution provider community. GridNode has announced the availability of a RAE solution this quarter. Also GXS, which contributed an on-loan resource to the RAE program, announced its RAE solution this month. TAG Business Tools expects to release its RAE software next month and IBM aims to have its RAE solution available imminently.

To learn more about the RosettaNet Automated Enablement program, visit the RosettaNet website at www.RosettaNet.org.

About RosettaNet

RosettaNet is a non-profit consortium dedicated to the collaborative development and rapid deployment of open, e-business process standards that align processes within global trading networks. RosettaNet standards and services provide a common language for e-business transactions and the foundation for integrating critical processes among partners within the global supply chain. Companies that use RosettaNet's proven standards benefit from added cost-savings throughout supply chain processes, improved e-business communications with trading partners, enhanced product life cycle management capabilities, and added customer satisfaction. RosettaNet is a subsidiary of the Uniform Code Council, Inc.(R) (UCC(R)).