Siemens Business Services Provides Application Hosting for Streamline.com.

Business & High Tech Editors

BURLINGTON, Mass. and WESTWOOD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 13, 2000

Streamline.com Foresees 50 Percent Reduction in Hardware And IT

Labor Costs in First Year

Siemens Business Services LLC today announced that it is providing Streamline.com (NASDAQ:SLNE), a pioneer in the consumer direct marketplace, with an application hosting solution that will allow the Company to reduce its capital costs while greatly reducing the burden of managing its IT infrastructure. Streamline.com is engaging Siemens Business Services to host its SAP(TM) R/3(R) applications and has already implemented the applications for the Streamline.com consumer resource center supporting the Northern New Jersey suburban market. Siemens' hosting of all consumer-related applications will be phased in at all Streamline.com markets over the next few months.

Application hosting is a growing trend as companies discover the advantages of leaving specialized IT activities to the experts. Under the terms of the agreement, all software and hardware related to running Streamline.com's SAP applications will be operated and managed at a Siemens Business Services data center. Siemens is providing Streamline.com with hardware, web hosting, network management, help-desk support, and maintenance services. By turning over these aspects of its operations to Siemens Business Services, Streamline.com can better focus its resources on its core business.

"This year alone, Streamline.com expects to spend 50 percent less for hardware and labor by using Siemens Business Services as our application hosting provider," said John Cagno, vice president of information technology at Streamline.com. "Before we decided to outsource our application hosting, we anticipated spending a significant amount of money to develop the physical infrastructure and staffing that would give us the performance and reliability to support our customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Consumers enjoy seamless, transparent access to the Streamline.com web site to order a wide range of products and household services, including groceries, dry cleaning, film processing, bottled water service, and video rentals. Order information goes to the hosting system at the Siemens data center for processing and details are forwarded to the Streamline.com consumer resource center where Streamline.com personnel pick and pack the orders for delivery. After the order is filled, the system closes the loop by generating an invoice for viewing on the customer's secure web page.

"The transition to Siemens was seamless to our employees, which really speaks to the success of the project and the strength of Siemens," Cagno said. "We closed down on a Friday afternoon, moved the data over the weekend, and when the employees came in on Monday, it was business as usual."

"We considered six different providers and found that Siemens brought more SAP hosting experience to the table and could support us on the hardware, operating system and database we currently utilize," Cagno explained. "Maintaining the same architecture is one of the main factors contributing to the significant savings we expect to realize. No time or money was spent on redesigning our systems."

Siemens Business Services has a proven track record in delivering comprehensive application hosting services in numerous market sectors, including retail and manufacturing. The company offers a wide range of integrated services including SAP implementation consulting, application hosting, operational services, and expert support for corporations doing business in the global marketplace.

"Organizations, including dot.com companies, are finding that it is much more cost effective to choose a partner like Siemens to handle specialized IT activities rather than try to do it themselves," explains Darren Nippard, senior vice president at Siemens Business Services. "Online application hosting allows Streamline.com to concentrate on its core business - the front end, the content, and the services they provide - all those things that make Streamline.com distinctive and unique."

Siemens Business Services is hosting all production SAP servers, including SAP Online Store, the web hosting module of SAP R/3, as well as financial modules and the warehouse management module. In addition, Siemens Business Services will deploy the SAP Business Information Warehouse(TM) module to allow Streamline's suppliers to get information about the effectiveness of their promotions and product launches.

About Siemens Business Services

Siemens Business Services is one of the world's leading services providers in the area of electronic business. With its comprehensive know-how and specific sector knowledge, Siemens Business Services offers solutions and services from a single source -- from consulting through system integration to responsibility for customers' entire business processes, and management of IT infrastructures. Siemens Business Services is part of Information and Communications (I and C), a business segment of Siemens AG. Siemens is a global powerhouse in electrical engineering and electronics with more than $70 billion in sales. Siemens Business Services has more than $5 Billion in sales and 34,000 employees worldwide. Further information can be found at www.sbs-usa.siemens.com.

About Streamline.com

Founded in 1993, Streamline.com is a pioneer in the consumer direct marketplace operating in the Boston, Washington D.C., Chicago and New Jersey markets. The company provides busy suburban families with time-saving lifestyle solutions through Internet-based ordering of groceries and a wide range of other quality goods and services. Streamline delivers these items directly to customers' homes placing them in a full-size refrigerator/freezer or temperature-controlled totes supplied by the company. The company also provides targeted research and marketing services to many consumer goods companies nationwide. Streamline.com can be found on the World Wide Web at www.streamline.com.

Note: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from those projected or suggested due to certain risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, those associated with our limited operating history and history of losses, inexperience in implementing our expansion strategy, need to raise additional capital, reliance on the growth of e-commerce and the infrastructure of the Internet, increased competition, and dependence on customer acceptance of direct, unattended delivery of goods and services. Additional information concerning these and certain other risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested, is contained in the Company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), copies of which are available from the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov or from the Company upon request. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the Company's judgment as of the date of this release, and the Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on such statements.

SAP, R/3, my.SAP.com and all SAP product and service names referenced herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG. Other product and company names herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Editors note: Siemens Business Services executives will be available for interviews at Sapphire 2000, taking place June 14 to 16 in Las Vegas. The company is exhibiting in booth #1157. If you would like to meet with Siemens Business Services at Sapphire, please call Oni Czeriowska, of Media Boston International, at 617-266-5969.