eConnections Suite Delivers on Promise of Electronics Industry Collaboration via Embedded Best Practices and Connections to Community of 1500+ Suppliers

Pasadena, CA – November 5, 2001 – eConnections, Inc., the leading provider of extended supply chain intelligence solutions for the electronics industry, announced today a suite of services delivering on the promise of true Web-based supply chain collaboration. Available today, the Suite consists of four modules: the eConnections Quote Manager "Quotility", eConnections Demand Manager, eConnections Supply Manager, and eConnections Inventory Manager.

"Developed by industry experts, the eConnections Suite offers the only net-native solutions specifically designed for collaborative management of the electronics industry's global marketplace, which are widely backed by the industry community," said Kneko Burney, director of eBusiness infrastructure and services with Cahners In-Stat. "In doing so, the Suite has delivered what traditional four-wall supply chain management solutions can't and exchanges and e-marketplaces haven't."

"We worked closely with eConnections to define and develop the eConnections Suite of services," said Doug Reinart, director with the consulting firm of Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath (PRTM). "Unlike many other exchange-oriented and collaborative supply chain solution providers, eConnections has remained true to the vision of a private, authorized supply chain community for the electronics industry. eConnections was very open to incorporating best practices in supply chain management within its services. The suite was designed to provide strategic supply chain visibility beyond a company's standard transaction systems while addressing practical business needs such as forecasting and inventory management."

The eConnections Suite speeds communications and streamlines processes to enable electronics companies to get the right product to the right place at the right time in the most efficient way possible. The Suite reduces the complexity of managing supply chains by bringing together the three core areas of functionality required for effective collaboration in the electronics industry.

• Extended: The Suite provides private, secure and authorized connections to a community of more than 1500 of the world's leading electronics suppliers, distributors and manufacturers' representatives.
• Supply Chain: The highly scaleable and flexible Suite of mission-critical supply chain solutions are delivered as hosted services with "come-as-you-are" connectivity, enabling electronics firms to get up and running – and realizing ROI – within weeks.
• Intelligence: The Suite was designed with electronics industry domain expertise and features embedded rules to move, reduce and eliminate complexity throughout the supply chain.
  
  "The rollout of the eConnections Suite of extended supply chain intelligence solutions delivers on the promise that drove the foundation of our company – to harness the Web to enable all members of electronics supply chains to optimize their established business relationships and processes," said Rob Rodin, president and CEO of eConnections. "Our new suite offers the first independent, industry-authorized solutions allowing for unprecedented levels of collaboration among supply chain partners, leading to a win-win for customers and suppliers alike."
  
  eConnections' business model has remained steadfast to the industry's requirements for true supply chain collaboration. In an August 2001 report, the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) stated that e-business standards must be private, authorized, secure and made with the explicit permission of all parties. Architected specifically for the Web, with built-in industry domain expertise that complements the electronics industry's business processes and relationships, eConnections is the only company to adhere to these community mandates.
  
  A Hosted, Collaborative Services Approach Earns Industry Praise
  "eConnections' Quote Manager provides us with an effective quote management solution that has been fully embraced by the electronics community," said Kevin Melendy, vice president of sales for Spectral Response, Inc., an electronic manufacturing services company. "With Quote Manager, we can process quotes and bids faster than ever, eliminating time spent on redundant data entry. eConnections' exceptional customer support has been a great asset in helping us implement Quote Manager in days, resulting in immediate ROI."
  
  "Having a single point of access to our supplier community is very important to us. We really like the fact that almost all of our suppliers already use the eConnections Quote Manager," said Curtis Campbell, vice president of sales for Flash Electronics, a contract electronics manufacturer. "You can buy a solution with front-end functionality for gaining efficiencies internally, but if you don't have the back-end connections, it doesn't help you in the long term. It's good to see that the electronics supply chain community has adopted such a solution."
  
  Extended Supply Chain Intelligence Suite Solutions
  The eConnections Suite features four mission-critical Web-based solutions to enable electronics companies to manage their supply chains.
  • eConnections Quote Manager "Quotility": eConnections' first offering, Quote Manager is the authorized quote management solution for the electronics industry. It provides access to more than 15 million part numbers representing over $10 billion in available inventory from 1500-plus suppliers. Quote Manager is a comprehensive quote management solution that delivers up to a 50 percent reduction in quote cycle time. eConnections subscribers have processed over $3.5 billion in quotes since the solution's introduction in January, 2001.
  • eConnections Demand Manager: Demand Manager improves the speed and accuracy of supply chain performance by delivering a single, reliable and accurate demand signal. It provides timely, accurate, dynamically updated analyses of constantly changing forecasts. Demand Manager facilitates collaborative demand planning – inside and outside the four-walls of the company – through the use of configurable rules and alerts that enforce subscribers' business rules.
  • eConnections Supply Manager: Supply Manager enables extended supply planning through collaborative rules-based exception management and advanced optimization routines. With Supply Manager, users can model complex, multi-tier supply chain networks creating end-to-end visibility and dynamic supply-demand gap analysis. This allows subscribers to maximize the efficiency and performance of their supply chain and to improve customer satisfaction.
  • eConnections Inventory Manager: Inventory Manager enables efficient collaborative inventory management to meet manufacturer and supplier goals for VMI, auto-replenishment and demand pull solutions. It minimizes shortages, eliminates excess inventory and reduces expediting costs by automatically generating replenishment signals to achieve strategic goals like inventory turns and service levels. Configurable rules and alerts enable efficient management by exception, and one-click exception management gives instant access to alternate inventories and sources.
  • eConnections Architecture: Flexibility, Connectivity, Security
    The eConnections solutions are based on a highly scaleable and flexible architecture.
    • eConnections solutions are Web-architected for instant access from multiple locations.
    • eConnections Authorized Role Descriptor (eCARD) security process delivers the security and confidentiality of four-wall solutions in a web environment, through a combination of certificate-based authentication, role-based authorization and encryption.
    • "Come as you are" connectivity provides easy access to supply chain data, and simplifies integration with existing systems. eConnections supports industry standards like EDI, XML and RosettaNet, proprietary formats such as SAP BAPIs, and even automated mapping of in-house Excel spreadsheet formats.
    • eConnections Domain Intelligence includes electronics-specific data and OLAP models, and analytics engines for both ad-hoc and robust statistical analysis.

Pricing and Availability
All four Suite solutions are available today. Monthly subscription fees of up to $60,000 per module are based on the solutions chosen, complexity and number of users. Professional services are available and determined by the specific needs of the users.

About eConnections
eConnections is the leading provider of extended supply chain intelligence solutions specifically designed for collaboration to manage the electronics industry's global marketplace. eConnections offers hosted supply chain services that combine embedded domain expertise with authorized connections to a community of more than 1500 of the world's leading suppliers, distributors, and manufacturers' representatives. eConnections provides electronics companies with trusted, net-native solutions that streamline the complexity of the supply chains in which they operate and enable them to get the right product to the right place, at the right time, in the most efficient way possible. eConnections, a privately held company, is headquartered in Pasadena, Calif. For more information, please visit www.eConnections.com.