NightFire Automates Backbone Circuit and Voice Trunk Ordering for Broadband Service Providers; One Vendor and One Architecture Solves All Interconnection Requirements.

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 11, 2000

NightFire Software Inc. today extended its successful interconnection product line to include NightFire(R) ASR which enables automated ordering of dedicated high-capacity backbone circuits and voice trunks. Using NightFire ASR, communications providers can acquire bandwidth and voice trunks to build out their own backbone network and resell bandwidth to customers.

"Access service requests enable broadband service providers to offer a comprehensive set of high-value service bundles. However, ordering ASRs is an arduous, error-prone process that involves numerous forms and business rules," said Ferial Shomloo, senior analyst, Stratecast Partners. "The ability to automate and integrate carrier-to-carrier communications for ASRs provides significant improvement to the service delivery times for the broadband customer."

The access service request (ASR) is the most widely accepted method for ordering broadband and voice circuits. ASRs allow competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), interexchange carriers (IXCs) and incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) to order high-capacity circuits like T1 and T3 lines, optical circuits (OCXs), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and Frame Relay circuits; and to order voice trunks from other carriers to gain access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

"With ASR capabilities, NightFire is extending its vision, success and expertise with local service request ordering for competitive DSL providers to a wider market of broadband service providers," said Venkates Swaminathan, founder, executive vice president and chief strategist, NightFire. "Service providers can now turn to NightFire as a single vendor with a single, uniform architecture to solve all their interconnection needs."

NightFire Automates ASR Ordering

ASR ordering is normally a complex manual process. NightFire ASR accelerates order fulfillment and reduces errors by completely automating the process. NightFire ASR offers a number of key advantages, including:

-- Automated ordering with the greatest number of suppliers -- enables
customers to find the best technical solution at the best price with the
fastest time to market

-- Enforcement of business rules -- getting the order right the first time
optimizes use of resources and speeds time to market

-- Industry-leading change management -- NightFire's proven change management
leadership keeps pace with changes and delivers updates so that the customer's
business is never disrupted

-- Common infrastructure -- NightFire ASR is built on the same open,
standards-based infrastructure as NightFire's other interconnection products,
including the industry's leading loop ordering solution, NightFire Loop
(formerly SupplierExpress(TM))

NightFire ASR will be available at the end of September. It conforms to the Access Service Ordering Guide (ASOG) 22 specification, which takes effect September 22, 2000. It also supports the "Mechanized Specification" enabling NightFire to send orders electronically to the broadest number of suppliers possible.

The NightFire Infrastructure

The NightFire Suite of applications allow communications companies to add value to interconnection ordering by integrating the various components into a single interface for all carriers. The NightFire ASR application leverages the extensible, proven NightFire Infrastructure and easily integrates with other NightFire Applications such as NightFire Preorder, NightFire Loop, NightFire DSL and NightFire Voice.

The NightFire Infrastructure provides a uniform platform for all NightFire Applications. It is built on open, standards-based, Web-centric technology such as CORBA, Java, and XML, and provides an extensive set of features that enhance customer acquisition and service fulfillment for broadband services. Because of its flexible, XML based architecture, the NightFire Infrastructure allows customers to easily integrate NightFire into the other components of their operations support systems.

About NightFire

NightFire Software Inc. is a leading e-infrastructure software provider for broadband service fulfillment. NightFire enables companies in the broadband value chain to bring high-speed, always-on Internet access and services to consumers and businesses faster, more reliably and more efficiently. The NightFire Suite and the NightFire Network automate critical steps in the service fulfillment process, from prequalification to trading partner service management. NightFire customers include industry leaders across the entire broadband ecosystem ranging from Web brands to service providers. Headquartered in Oakland, Calif., NightFire is a privately funded company. Primary investors include U.S. Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, The Roda Group and New Enterprise Associates.

More information, including recent company news releases, is available at http://www.nightfire.com.

Note to editors: For a full press kit go to http://www.nightfire.com/news/presskit.html

NightFire is a registered trademark, and the NightFire logo, Igniting the Bandwidth Explosion, SupplierExpress, eSupplierExpress, CustomerExpress, eCustomerExpress and BandwidthExpress.com are trademarks and/or service marks of NightFire Software, Inc. All other company, brand, and product names are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.