Symbol Technologies Inc. Introduces the Lomas Integrated Logistics Management Solution.

HOLTSVILLE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 1998--Symbol Technologies Inc. (NYSE: SBL) today at the Food Distributors International trade show in Nashville, TN, introduced LOMAS, a collaborative architecture that provides the industry with a fully integrated logistics solution.

Based on open standards, LOMAS allows different applications to share data seamlessly. LOMAS integrates a variety of software solutions into one scalable, networked system that allows companies to improve their productivity, lower their total cost of operations and strengthen customer service.

"In the past, logistics, operations and IT professionals have been forced to invest in discrete systems to manage such operations as: warehouse/yard management, routing and scheduling, dispatch and on-board computer fleet management," said Wayne Parkin, vice president for transportation and logistics, Symbol Technologies, Inc. "The result has been a patchwork of non-integrated, proprietary, closed-end systems with no clear migration path and a high cost of ownership. LOMAS offers a solution to these problems. It `future-proofs' an organization's IT investment while greatly improving operational control and customer service throughout the entire logistics process."

A key element of the LOMAS collaborative architecture is a process for the application integration, testing and certification of LOMAS Partner applications. To enable the strategic integration of disparate applications, several partners have adopted the LOMAS architecture.

Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: MANH), the leading provider of supply chain execution systems for consumer markets worldwide, has integrated its innovative PkMS(R) warehouse/distribution center management system solution with LOMAS.

"Adopting Symbol's LOMAS architecture offers our customers a clear path for integrating various execution applications with our PkMS solution to significantly improve their operational effectiveness," said Alan Dabbiere, president and CEO of Manhattan Associates. "The PkMS/LOMAS solution furthers our commitment to remain the leader in software that supports collaboration among companies in an integrated supply chain."

Systems Application Engineering (SAE), a long-time Symbol Premier Business Partner and provider of solutions for the transportation, distribution, manufacturing and retail industries, jointly developed, with Symbol, the Dispatch Management System/Driver Assistance System (DMS/DAS) that serves as a key application of LOMAS. The DMS/DAS solution provides organizations with a real-time view of activities of their drivers, tractors, trailers, deliveries and pickups while providing instantaneous trip status and exception reporting.

DMS/DAS is fully integrated with LOMAS and provides both wide area wireless and Symbol's Spectrum24(R) local area wireless communications, augmented by a global positioning system (GPS) for real-time asset visibility.

"Partnering with Symbol was strategically important from an industry perspective," said Jerry Sacks, president and CEO of SAE.

"Symbol's commitment to providing logistics solutions via the LOMAS architecture provides our customers with a comprehensive integrated solution for all of their logistics operations. This is a true win-win solution."

Randtec Inc. has integrated its UltraYard(TM) yard management solution with the LOMAS architecture. "UltraYard has had tremendous industry acceptance, however its integration with a dispatch and warehouse management system has been a great concern to our customers," said Alan Hurkamp, chairman of Randtec. "Integrating UltraYard with Symbol's LOMAS architecture provides our customers with an end-to-end solution for their logistics operations."

XATA Corporation (NASDAQ: XATA), a leading provider of on-board computers and fleet management solutions is combining its OpCenter fleet management software with LOMAS, and has also entered into a strategic licensing agreement with Symbol for the development of a fully open-systems-based on-board computer.

"The integration of XATA's new OpCenter fleet management solution with Symbol's LOMAS architecture is strategically important for our customers," said Dennis Johnson, president and CEO of XATA Corporation. "We can now provide our customers with unprecedented flexibility in enabling their logistics control processes to link seamlessly with other execution systems.

"XATA's decision to sign a comprehensive licensing agreement with Symbol for the co-development of an open architecture on-board computer solution is specifically targeted at those customers who desire an integrated solution which includes both inventory management and fleet management applications on a single platform in the vehicle," Johnson added.

LOMAS reinforces Symbol's strategy to partner with "best of breed" applications to provide solutions for the logistics marketplace. These new LOMAS partners, together with Symbol's existing relationships with such partners as SAIC/Bellcore, Nettech and other soon-to-be-announced relationships will enable customers to implement scalable application modules incrementally, and build an integrated solution to provide bottom line benefits and competitive advantage.

Symbol Technologies Inc. is a global leader in mobile computing and communications systems with innovative customer solutions based on wireless local area networking for voice and data, application-specific mobile computing and bar code data capture. Symbol's wireless LAN solutions are installed at more than 30,000 customer locations worldwide and support more than six million Symbol scanners and hand-held computers. Symbol provides point-of-activity computing solutions for retailing, transportation and distribution logistics, parcel and postal delivery, healthcare, manufacturing and other industries. Information is available from Symbol at 1-800-722-6234 and at www.symbol.com.