Leading Application Software Vendors Announce Commitment and Delivery to Open Applications Group Specifications

Chicago, Illinois, USA -- July 9, 1996

Today the world's leading enterprise applications software vendors are announcing their commitment to adopting the standards being developed by the Open Applications Group, Inc.

American Software, CODA, Dun & Bradstreet Software, IBM Manufacturing Solutions Unit, J.D. Edwards & Company, Marcam Solutions, NEC C&C Systems Group, Oracle Corporation, Peoplesoft, QAD, SAP AG, Software 2000, and Texas Instruments have all agreed to the following commitment statement:

"We are committed to support the Open Applications Group's efforts to promote open applications integration. When we develop new products they will comply with Open Applications Group specifications. We will also endeavor to make future releases of existing products comply with Open Applications Group specifications as marketing conditions warrant."

These vendors represent almost 4 billion U.S. Dollars of software industry revenue and close to 80% of the market for enterprise applications, according to Advanced Manufacturing Research.

The following leading software companies are now ready to announce their first deliveries of products which comply with Open Applications Group specifications. The table below shows the vendors, their products, and delivery dates for applications which comply with the first Open Applications Group specification, OAGIS 1.002.0:

Additional Open Applications Group members will announce their plans to conform with OAGIS 1.002.0 in the near future.

"These announcements make it clear that most of the leading application vendors are committed to making their applications work together so that customers can pursue best of breed strategies, picking the applications that best fit each need without sacrificing integration", said Tony Friscia, President of Advanced Manufacturing Research.

"The Open Applications Group and its members are committed to making it easy for our customers to use applications from different sources. We are working to make open application integration a reality," said Paul Margolis, the Open Applications Group's Chairman.

The Open Applications Group, Inc., is dedicated to promoting open application integration, which is the interoperability of enterprise applications from different sources. The membership of the Open Applications Group includes some of the largest enterprise application vendors in the world including American Software, Baan, Computer Associates, CODA, Dun & Bradstreet Software, IBM Manufacturing Solutions, J.D. Edwards & Company, Marcam Solutions, NEC C&C Systems Group, Oracle Corporation, Peoplesoft, QAD, SAP AG, Software 2000, and Texas Instruments.

The benefits of open application include the ability to more easily use applications from multiple vendors, to integrate purchased applications more easily with custom-developed applications, and better support for integrating with customers, vendors, banks, governments, and other partners.

The Open Applications Group headquarters is at 401 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60611 USA Tel: 312 527 6799 Fax: 312 245 1081.