Accenture and Lombardi Software Form Global Alliance

Combined Experience Provides Strategic Focus to Leverage Business Processes to Help Drive Financial Value and Operational Efficiency for Clients

NEW YORK, February 20, 2001 – Accenture and Lombardi Software, a pioneer in driving financial value through optimized business processes, today announced an alliance to jointly develop and market cross-enterprise business process solutions in eight key industries worldwide.

The scope of the alliance calls for Accenture and Lombardi Software to jointly develop, market and implement solutions for Global 1000 companies that drive substantial operational efficiencies and higher financial returns from intra- and inter-enterprise business processes, including supply chain collaboration, product lifecycle and facilities management, human resources and other corporate processes.

The alliance responds to the growing market desire to increase the financial and operational impact found through optimizing key business processes. Lombardi Software solutions are designed to drive prescribed, sustained value by increasing the speed, accuracy and effectiveness of business processes that require human intervention.

Initial target industries covered in the alliance include communications, electronics and high tech manufacturing, automotive, transportation, consumer package goods, retail, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and utilities.

Lombardi Software Focus

Lombardi Software, which today also announced its official market debut, focuses on enhancing business performance through people-centric solutions to drive speed, accuracy and efficiency in operational execution.

The company develops solutions to address domain-specific processes, and is unique in its approach in enabling human intervention for effective real-time decision-making. Decision optimization is supported via knowledge management capabilities, along with step-by-step process coaching functionality. TeamWorks™, the company’s flagship process optimization platform, is the underlying support engine for all Lombardi Software solutions.

Optimization Approach

Process optimization is achieved through a combination of Lombardi Software’s operational impact analysis and financial measurement methodology and Accenture’s ’best practice’ approach to solutions development.

These combined approaches are embedded in a unique blend of system integration and process automation, leveraged with real-time decision, exception and knowledge management capabilities, in a one-stop process execution environment.

"Today’s business requires a focus on performance-driven metrics, such as cost, time-to-market, process and enabling people to drive value. Addressing these needs requires access to data and support from information systems - but data and systems alone are not the complete answer," said Michael Mikurak, partner in the global Supply Chain Practice at Accenture.

"The truth is, any type of interruption to automated or web-enabled business processes requires human intervention. Up until now, the approach to enabling collaborative operations typically focuses on addressing data management, not people management. With Lombardi Software, the value of factoring people and their knowledge into the equation for creating higher-value business processes and decision support can finally be realized. We’ve met with major companies already and they are clearly seeing the financial and operational benefits Lombardi Software solutions deliver," Mikurak added.

Joe Kozak, chairman and CEO for Lombardi Software, said integrating people and their knowledge into business processes, such as those in the supply chain, is a key approach for adding to top and bottom line growth for large companies.

"Since the vast majority of all business processes will always require human intervention and real-time decision-making, it makes sense to integrate people-focused decision and execution capabilities within process flows," Kozak said. "The economic and time-saving impact can be significant"

Background: Optimized Processes

The driving factor behind optimizing processes is to streamline internal operations and strengthen relationships between companies and their customers, suppliers and partners. For external-facing processes, companies today typically focus on a limited set of processes related to automating system-to-system exchanges of data, such as purchase orders or invoices. More than just integrating business processes at an application level, all Lombardi Software and Accenture solutions include decision support – integrating people and their knowledge into the processes and interactions.

About Lombardi Software

Lombardi Software is the leading innovator of solutions and services providing effective enterprise business process optimization. The company’s solutions address the processes that yield the greatest operational and financial impact toward increasing shareholder value. Lombardi Software solutions increase the speed, accuracy and effectiveness of business interactions by letting people take action, make decisions and solve problems at appropriate points in automated, web-based processes.

The company is based in Austin, Texas and has the co-lead financial backing of Goldman Sachs and Austin Ventures, plus additional investment from Wit SoundView, Sanders Morris Harris, Empire Capital Partners and Net Market Partners. For further information: www.lombardisoftware.com.

About Accenture

Accenture is a $10 billion global management and technology consulting organization. The firm is reinventing itself to become the market maker, architect and builder of the new economy, bringing innovations to improve the way the world works and lives. More than 70,000 people in 46 countries deliver a wide range of specialized capabilities and solutions to clients across all industries. Under its strategy, the firm is building a network of businesses to meet the full range of client needs -- consulting, technology, outsourcing, alliances and venture capital. Accenture’s home page address is http://www.accenture.com.

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Allen Valahu

+33 1 53 23 57 54

allen.valahu@accenture.com

Bernard Walker

+1 (512) 382-8200 ext. 314

bwalker@lombardisoftware.com