News Release

Editorial Contact:

Hilary Shaw
Open Systems Advisors
617.367.3003
hshaw@crossroads-osa.com

(October 28, 2002) -- Open Systems Advisors, Inc. (OSA) has issued a Call for Participation for the 2003 Crossroads A-List Awards Program. For the past nine years, the Crossroads A-List Awards have recognized the new technology products and services best at delivering business results. Today, results matter more than ever before. Earning a Crossroads A-List Award positions a product, technology, or service as a survivor.

Back to Basics is the theme for 2003. It's all about retaining customer loyalty, improving agility and productivity, cutting infrastructure cost, and reducing risk. The Crossroads 2003 A-List Awards will recognize technology solutions that can really help businesses do more with less during this challenging recession.

According to Nina Lytton, President, Open Systems Advisors, Inc., "In 2003, the Crossroads A-List Award winners will demonstrate they have delivered business results for early adopters in a particularly difficult economy. They will be ready for mainstream consideration and poised to flourish in the years ahead."

The Crossroads A-List Program considers all types of products, technologies, and services and focuses on those emerging offerings that mainstream enterprise customers are successfully using to drive their businesses forward.

To be considered for a Crossroads A-List Award, a provider must offer:

• An emerging product, technology, or service that is either new to the market or a significant enhancement to an existing offering.
• Four deployed Lighthouse customers willing to speak confidentially to the Crossroads research team about the business impact of the product, technology, or service. Lighthouse customers are early implementers of the candidate offerings. If the candidate offering is a service for individual business travelers, it must be in the public trial phase.

Previous Crossroads A-List Award winners include: ActivCard, Inc. (ACTI), BEA Systems, Inc. (BEAS), EnvoyWorldWide, Inc., FineGround Networks, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), IBM Corporation (IBM), Illumitek, Inc., Kintana, Inc., KnowNow, Inc., MicroMuse, Inc. (MUSE), Mindjet LLC, Placeware, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc. (SUNW), Tradec, Inc., and Unica Corporation. A complete list of winners is available at www.crossroads-osa.com.

Crossroads 2003 A-List Award Program information is available on the Web at www.crossroads-osa.com. Those with other inquiries should contact Hilary Shaw at 617.367.3003, or hshaw@crossroads-osa.com.

Founded in 1989, Open Systems Advisors, Inc. (OSA) helps organizations understand and align business priorities with technology investments. OSA provides confidential, objective advice to industry leaders making major business decisions about technology investments. This includes marketing services, industry analysis and due diligence, and management summits. OSA helps technology vendors improve sales with short, crisp messages that paying customers understand. OSA works with businesses to understand their best opportunities for technology investment. OSA leads private-label meetings for providers and their partners and customer organizations to recognize the linkages and priorities across organizations and business ecosystems.

OSA conducts research under its Crossroads brand that includes the publication of the Crossroads Decisions, conferring of the Crossroads A-List Awards, and production of the Crossroads Conference.

The company can be reached at 24 West Cedar Street, Boston, MA 02108 Telephone 617.367.3003 | Fax 617.742.4594 | www.crossroads-osa.com | info@crossroads-osa.com.