Prognostics Launches First of Its Kind Benchmarking Program for IT Professional Services Industry.

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PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 17, 2000

The inauguration of the first IT professional services customer loyalty and referenceability study of its kind was formally announced today by Prognostics, a leader in providing customer satisfaction market research and consulting to the Information Technology (IT) industry.

Prognostics is conducting the study in conjunction with the Information Technology Services Management Association (ITSMA).

The study will enable participating companies to compare their performance with specific competitors as well as industry leaders. "We'll be surveying customers of EDS, Andersen Consulting and IBM Global Services, among others, to compare every element of a company's performance to the IT professional services industry average," indicated Chief Executive Officer Tina Weinfurther. "We're now looking for large and mid-size professional services companies to `round out' our study sample."

The Prognostics Methodology that will be used in the study is generally regarded as the most articulate and robust toolset for measuring customer opinions available today. "The heart of the methodology is directed toward linking customer satisfaction, loyalty and referenceability. Numerous studies have shown that the way customers feel about a company's performance is highly correlated with referenceability, a critical element in expanding the client base, maximizing revenue growth and improving profitability," Weinfurther continued.

Prognostics worked with ITSMA to develop a standard IT services customer satisfaction survey questionnaire that will be administered to key customers to evaluate the performance of each participating professional services company. Participating companies will have the option of adding up to ten proprietary questions in a custom insert to supplement the core data provided by the standard questionnaire. Surveys will be administered by telephone, Internet or mail, and results will be available in both hard copy and online formats. On completion of the analysis, each client will receive an Executive Action Report, an on site presentation of the results and follow-up consultation. "Deliverables are designed to enable participating companies to utilize the data to develop business strategies that maximize competitiveness," Weinfurther explained.

Prognostics conducts the largest and longest-running series of comparative customer satisfaction studies in the IT industry. Through three programs - networks, computers and software - in every major market in the world, more than 20,000 IT users of products and services are reached. "This new study will offer the same rigorous methodology for companies in the business of providing professional services to IT customers."

Prognostics is currently recruiting participants for the study, which will be repeated annually to enable IT services companies to track their performance over time in addition to identifying and analyzing trends. Companies with an interest in participating in the Professional Services Comparative Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty and Referenceability program can call Roger McConville at 650-842-1970.

Prognostics is a member firm of NFO Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:NFO). In April, NFO shareholders voted to align the company with The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE:IPG), one of the largest and most successful advertising and marketing communications organizations in the world. Prognostics delivers survey-based customer focus research and consultation to Information Technology companies such as Compaq, Oracle, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft and Novell. In addition to high technology, NFO delivers custom and syndicated marketing information to over 4,000 clients in key market sectors, including financial services, packaged goods and food, travel and leisure, health care, automotive and business to business.