Woody Bygghandel Increases Competitiveness With Intentia's Integrated Retail Solution.

Business and Technology Editors

STOCKHOLM, Sweden & SCHAUMBURG, ILL.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept 17, 2002

Intentia Consulting Sweden recently announced in Europe that an implementation project of Intentia's totally integrated Movex retail solution is currently under way in Scandinavia.

Woody Bygghandel, Sweden's leading building materials chain, is deploying Movex to increase its competitiveness by combining the advantages of centralization with the retention of the local entrepreneurial spirit.

AB Interpares, with the trademark Woody Bygghandel, is Sweden's oldest specialized retail chain. Its 67 partners together own 120 locations, which makes Woody Bygghandel Sweden's largest building supplies chain. According to Woody Bygghandel CEO Ulf Hennings, "During recent years, Interpares has gone from being a purely purchasing organization, with the task of negotiating favorable agreements, to being an increasingly service-oriented and aggressive organization that creates the conditions for higher profitability among the partners. Under the common name and image of Woody Bygghandel, we have increased our clarity in the market. With Movex as an important cornerstone, we can quickly and effectively establish ourselves as the building industry's most modern retail chain."

"There is a pent-up need within retailing for integrated IT infrastructures," said Markus Jakobson, CEO of Intentia Consulting Sweden. "The continuing implementation of Movex at Woody Bygghandel is part of our Scandinavian investment in becoming the leading supplier of totally integrated solutions for the business-critical processes in retailing."

The retail industry is undergoing large structural changes with the goal of increasing competitiveness and rendering business processes more effective. The trend is clearly that retailers are striving to cut costs while still offering a high level of customer service. A number of retail chains are reviewing their business processes and trying to find new solutions. At the Woody Bygghandel building materials chain, the Movex implementation project will significantly increase Woody's competitiveness and profitability.

"We plan to increase our market share considerably while simultaneously giving our customers the market's best service within existing structures. Movex will be the foundation of our development of more effective business processes and a streamlined supply chain," said Hennings. "With Movex, we see unique possibilities for dynamic utilization of all the companies within the group, which gives us great operational and scale advantages. At the same time, can maintain the local entrepreneurial spirit of our stores."

Intentia has a number of Scandinavian customers within the retail industry. Demand has increased for Movex's totally integrated solution where the entire flow - from central purchasing and warehousing to the individual store shelves and points of sale - is integrated into one unit. Jakobson commented: "The trend is that retail chains want to coordinate those functions that can create profitability for all stores within the group of companies, such as purchasing, warehousing, logistics and customer service. At the same time, you don't want to streamline the local building materials locations too much, so the important local entrepreneurial spirit is maintained. It is this combination of being able to manage central and local processes that makes Movex unique." Intentia in Northern Europe believes that Movex has the potential to be the market-leading system platform because Movex supports retail companies' need to quickly and dynamically react to changes in the industry.

About Intentia

Intentia is one of the world's leading suppliers of collaboration solutions. Our vision is to become the leading global collaboration solutions vendor by supplying our customers with tomorrow's solutions today. Intentia offers a one-stop shop for all collaboration needs within numerous industry segments. We develop, implement and maintain our own solutions to produce the highest possible level of customer satisfaction. The Intentia Solution consists of applications covering customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise management (ENM), supply chain management (SCM), business performance measurement (BPM), e-business and value chain collaboration (VCC).

Intentia has more than 3,200 employees and serves over 3,400 customers in the manufacturing, maintenance and distribution industries via a global network spanning some 40 countries. Intentia is a public company traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (XSSE) under the symbol INT B. Visit Intentia's Web site at www.intentia.com