News Release

Editorial Contact:

Tricia Ritterbusch
Sterling Communications (for Open Systems Advisors)
+1-415-749-6550
tmr@sterlingpr.com

BOSTON, Mass. - October 4, 2004 - Open Systems Advisors, Inc. (OSA), an independent research firm that advises clients on leading technologies for business, has today issued a Call for Participation for the Crossroads A-List Awards 2005 Program. Now in its twelfth year, the Crossroads A-List Research and Awards Program identifies the best proven new technologies for business. In 2005, the awards will continue to focus on comprehensive solutions and services that produce demonstrable business results.

The A-List Awards signal that an IT vendor has successfully combined the three elements essential to mainstream adoption: focusing on an important problem or opportunity; providing a viable solution or service offering; and, most importantly, delivering consistent business results for early reference accounts, considered by OSA as Lighthouse Customers.

"Amongst other awards programs, OSA has a unique proposition - reference customers are the jury," said Nina Lytton, president and principal analyst of OSA. "Lighthouse Customers share a holistic knowledge of what it takes to make technology work for business. Without exception, reference customers of Crossroads A-List Award winning companies are seasoned veterans who bring discerning judgment to the evaluation process."

To be considered for a Crossroads A-List Award, a vendor must offer a new or notably enhanced solution or service that is significant to business and is proven through four established customer implementations. Solutions or services that have the greatest chance of winning a Crossroads A-List Award: enable business strategy; add customer-visible differentiation; enhance agility; help grow the top line via improved marketing, sales, service or retention; improve the bottom line by lowering costs or increasing productivity; shrink IT infrastructure costs; improve return on assets; or improve security by lowering risk. Past winners, including Digital Harbor and SupportSoft, have demonstrated many of these qualities.

"It has been an honor to be recognized as a 'forerunner' in our space as well as to be able to reap the benefits of our customers' validation, said Austin Wells, vice president of product management and marketing at Digital Harbor. "OSA's analysis through the Crossroads A-List Awards gave us valuable insight into our customers' experiences implementing and using our PiiE composite application platform"

Chris Grejtak, senior vice president of products and marketing at SupportSoft added, "The effort put into the Crossroads A-List Awards process is well worth it. It's the only business technology award program that analyzes and explains how our software benefits customers in such detail. It's an honor to be recognized as the 'gold standard' in our industry by OSA."

Other past Crossroads A-List Award winners include: Access360 (acquired by IBM), BEA Systems, Blue Martini Software, Inc., Citrix Systems, Inc., Cybermation, Inc., DASCOM (acquired by IBM), Emerald Group (acquired by Nortel Networks Corporation), Fast Search and Transfer (FAST), Guardent (acquired by Verisign), Hewlett-Packard, IMlogic, Inc., Informatica Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, NativeMinds, Inc. (acquired by Verity), Noosh, Oracle Corporation, Plumtree Software, SalesNet, Staffware (acquired by TIBCO), Sun Microsystems, Unica Corporation, and ZANTAZ. A complete list of recent winners is available at http://www.crossroads-osa.com.

The Crossroads A-List Awards program considers all types of commercially available IT solutions and services for the enterprise. Vendors that are encouraged to submit for the Crossroads A-List Awards 2005 include companies with one or more of the following offerings:

• Web services for business
• IT infrastructure services
• IT solutions for technology-user organizations that deliver business-visible value, do not require costly, lengthy integration and implementation and/or complement popular software suites or middleware platforms
• Embedded or OEM technologies that enable businesses to offer enhanced products or innovative services

Only 10 Crossroads A-List Awards will be conferred in 2005. Organizations that are interested in submitting for the Awards must complete and submit the application form with an entry fee of $450 by November 15, 2004. In addition, applicants are asked to provide an existing customer case study that best illustrates the core value proposition of the service or solution being submitted for an A-List Award. Finalists will be chosen in December 2004, and will be required to provide four references from early adopters of the IT solution or service who have agreed to participate in confidential interviews with OSA. These interviews will occur in February and March with winners announced in May 2005.

Crossroads A-List Awards 2005 program information is available on the Web at www.crossroads-osa.com or by e-mailing a request to info@crossroads-osa.com. Those with questions regarding the application process should contact Tricia Ritterbusch at 415-749-6550, or tmr@sterlingpr.com.

About Open Systems Advisors
Open Systems Advisors, Inc. (OSA), founded in 1989, helps businesses align their priorities with their technology investments, and identify the best new technology solutions for today's business challenges. OSA conducts the Crossroads A-List Research and Awards program on an annual basis. The company provides strategic and marketing consulting services for technology vendors, and Bizno-tech™ advisory services for organizations looking to maximize the business value of their technology investments. Principal Nina Lytton has spent 20 years analyzing major issues in applying technology to business. She provides consultation regarding IT user and vendor clients' most pressing issues in light of technical and market realities. The company can be reached by sending email to info@crossroads-osa.com.