AspenTech Announces Release of Aspen Capable-to-PromiseTM

AspenTech Announces Release of Aspen Capable-to-PromiseTM New supply chain and e-business solution improves customer service by optimising the sales order commitment process London, UK, September 24, 2001-Aspen Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: AZPN) today announced the availability of Aspen Capable-to-PromiseTM, a supply chain and e-business solution that allows process manufacturers to streamline and optimise their sales order commitment process. This new web application automates the process that manufacturers use for responding to customer requests, enabling them to deliver superior customer service through significantly faster and more reliable order commitments. Aspen Capable-to-PromiseTM helps manufacturers' customer service representatives make the right order commitment decision in seconds, based on accurate data, which includes inventory, current production schedule and customer order forecasts. Using this solution, process manufacturers can now give their customers an immediate response to their sales requests. Previously, substantial time and effort would be required on the part of customer service representatives to accept an order that could not always be fulfilled because the relevant decision- support information was out-of-date or the necessary analysis capability was unavailable. The Aspen Capable-to-PromiseTM solution incorporates a number of differentiating features that enable it to create particular value for process companies. These include the ability to: · Make reliable capacity and material-capable customer promises based on the actual state of manufacturing plants and current production schedules · Arrive at decisions based on user-defined business rules that can be customer and/or manufacturing equipment specific · Simultaneously consider alternate sourcing locations · Recommend alternate products - if the requested product is not available, substitute it with an approved alternative Manufacturers across the process industries, ranging from chemicals to consumer goods, can derive substantial benefits from Aspen Capable-to- PromiseTM. The solution facilitates customer retention by significantly reducing late orders; increasing the effectiveness of customer service representatives by allowing them to rapidly make the right decision; lowering transportation costs by reducing the number of expedited shipments; and decreasing unplanned reschedules in the plants. "The ability for manufacturers to have visibility into inventory as well as available manufacturing capacity, coupled with a powerful analytical decision support capability, is a compelling value proposition," said Mary Palermo, co-Chief Operating Officer of AspenTech. "Aspen Capable-to- Promise can create tremendous value for process manufacturers by helping them to exceed customer service expectations." The solution is currently being rolled out by several chemical and food processing companies across US, Europe and Asia. Aspen Capable-to- PromiseTM is built using standard J2EE application server technology and is directly integrated with a JDBC compliant relational database. It is easily interfaced to popular ERP systems, and is offered with AspenTech's e-business solutions. Aspen Capable-to-PromiseTM is a key demand-side component of AspenTech's ProfitAdvantageTM solution. ProfitAdvantage increases the profitability of process companies by enabling the optimisation of their entire value chain from the supply of raw materials, through production, to the delivery of the final product. About AspenTech Aspen Technology, Inc. is the leading supplier of integrated software and solutions to the $6 trillion process industries. The company's Aspen ProfitAdvantage(TM) solution enables companies to identify and maximise profit opportunities throughout their entire value chain -- from the supply of raw materials, through the production of goods, to the delivery of final products to customers. The Aspen ProfitAdvantage solution encompasses engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and e- business collaboration technologies, providing the tools that enable manufacturers to design, optimise and execute business processes in real time. Over 1,200 leading process companies already rely on AspenTech's 20 years of process industry experience to increase revenues, reduce costs and improve capital efficiency. AspenTech's customers include: Air Liquide, AstraZeneca, Bayer, BASF, BP, Chevron, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Equistar, Exxon Mobil, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Mitsubishi Chemical, and Unilever. For more information, visit http://www.aspentech.com. Contacts: Peter Watt Genevieve Houdent Annalie Cook / Monica Costa Aspen Technology, Aspen Technology, Inc. Banner PR Inc. +44 1223 819-752 +33 1 47 12 47 76 +44 20 7349 2200 peter.watt@aspentech genevieve.houdent@aspentech. aspentech@b1.com .com com ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2001/09/24/20010924BIT01150/bit0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2001/09/24/20010924BIT01150/bit0001.pdf