PFN To Contribute Its E-Business and Integrated Supply Chain Expertise To UDDI E-Commerce Standard.

Business/Technology Editors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17, 2000

-- Originated By Ariba, IBM And Microsoft,

UDDI Will Enable Companies To Dynamically Automate And

Integrate Their B2B E-Commerce Initiatives --

PFN, Inc., a leading provider of intelligent communications infrastructure solutions for rapidly building dynamic e-business and supply chain networks, announced today that it has joined the UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) Business Registry and Project. As a member of this team of industry leaders, PFN will work with founders Ariba, IBM, Microsoft, and other e-business enabling companies to develop a standard registry of services to help companies rapidly extend their business-to-business (B2B) trading networks.

"E-commerce truly opens the door for companies of all sizes to compete globally," said Jeff Wheeler, PFN's Chief Technology Officer. "However, there are several approaches and architectures that can be used to build these networks. By participating in the UDDI initiative, PFN will contribute its expertise to develop a global, platform-independent and open framework standard for companies to quickly and easily conduct e-business."

The UDDI initiative will enable companies to easily and rapidly build a service registry to discover and define how trading partners will interact, and facilitate the communications between their partners over the Internet. Leveraging existing industry standards, such as HTTP, XML, SOAP and DNS, this initiative will remove technology barriers for any business anywhere to truly participate in the global, digital economy.

PFN's intelligent network communications infrastructure transforms the Internet into a trusted, dynamic virtual private network to conduct e-business without the cost, time and administrative burden of replacing existing network infrastructures. Built on this infrastructure, PFN's FirmLink 2.0 solution allows organizations to link internal systems and users, with suppliers, partners and customers, bringing guaranteed delivery, secure communications and transaction accountability to the Internet. This allows companies to quickly and cost-effectively create Electronic Trading Networks that streamline business processes, reduce supply chain inefficiencies and improve customer service.

PFN is also an active participant in the Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF) Policy Framework working group, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) working group, Resource Allocation Protocol (RAP) working group, and Diffserv initiatives.

For more information on UDDI, please visit www.uddi.org.

About PFN, Inc.

Founded in 1995, PFN, Inc. provides advanced communications architecture and technologies that deliver end-to-end, persistent intelligence, and policy-based quality of service over traditional IP networks. The patented network communications architecture uses policies and distributed directory technologies to support next generation applications such as business-to-business, supply chain, wireless networking, voice over IP, and converged data services.

PFN's FirmLink is a suite of policy-based services that provide a secure, reliable platform for linking a company's internal systems with its suppliers' and partners' systems, quickly, easily, and non-intrusively over the Internet - without extensive software development or technology adoption. PFN is headquartered in Cambridge, MA and holds seven patents for its components and communications processes. To learn more about PFN and FirmLink, please contact 617-494-9980 or visit www.pfn.com.