Achieves Certification for Integration With SAP NetWeaver
Fast and Easy Link Drives Optimization with Demand Data for More Responsive Operations

Fast and Easy Link Drives Optimization with Demand Data for More Responsive Operations

BOSTON (Sept. 20, 2005) - Optiant, the power behind hundreds of high performing supply chains, today announced the immediate availability of PowerChain® Connector for effortless integration of its supply chain design suite with the SAP NetWeaver open integration and application platform. The company's new offering delivers a fast path to capturing the value of inventory optimization for manufacturers who rely on SAP® solutions to manage operations.

PowerChain Connector 1.0, certified by SAP for integration with SAP NetWeaver as an ABAP Add-on based on the SAP Web Application Server (SAP Web AS) Release 6.20, seamlessly streamlines communication between the PowerChain Suite, ERP and planning and execution systems. The off-the-shelf solution quickly and easily downloads critical data to drive optimization strategies and then uploads optimal targets to planning and execution systems. Connector is the industry's only solution that ensures that targets are set using the most comprehensive demand profile, based on sales orders, production consumption and interplant transfers. This ability to capture shifts in business conditions means that customers can further leverage investments in SAP NetWeaver, SAP R/3® and SAP Advanced Planning & Optimization (SAP APO) for more frequent and detailed supply chain analysis - resulting in fewer stock-outs, more strategic inventory deployment and higher efficiency and productivity.

"Effective demand management and inventory optimization are the new benchmarks for operational excellence," said Jonathan Colehower, president and CEO of Optiant. "With PowerChain integrated with SAP NetWeaver, it's much easier to capitalize on unexpected changes in demand with new inventory strategies that reduce risk and improve opportunity."

More than 75 percent of Optiant's customers are SAP customers, including leaders in consumer packaged goods, industrial manufacturing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and high-tech electronics. These companies gain significant benefit from the combination of Optiant's PowerChain Suite, which optimizes inventory levels and locations throughout the supply chain, and SAP systems for ensuring that operational targets are met.

"Our customers expect us to deliver strategic and tactical supply chain solutions that can transform their business," said Tim Vaio, managing vice president for Hitachi Consulting's supply chain practice. "With Optiant's solution for integration with SAP NetWeaver, we can offer our customers the complete package - the optimal strategies for driving business advantage and the power to turn those strategies into proven results."

Hitachi, Ltd. is a global integrator of SAP solutions. Hitachi Consulting, an Optiant partner, worked closely with Optiant on the design, implementation and testing of PowerChain Connector.

PowerChain Connector is the latest addition to the PowerChain Suite, an award-winning combination of supply chain design and inventory optimization solutions that enables customers to execute intelligent business strategies including new product introduction, new market penetration, M&A rationalization, as well as outsourcing strategies and service level optimization to satisfy even the most stringent channel masters. Optiant's solution is in production at many of the world's largest manufacturers, including Gillette, HP, Sonoco and Henkel. Backed by the industry's most experienced services organization, Optiant's customers are ensured a robust, rapid and highly repeatable process for designing and implementing flexible, cost-effective supply chains - regardless of the level of complexity. PowerChain Connector and all of Optiant's solutions are available from Optiant and its worldwide partners.

About Optiant
Optiant and PowerChain Suite are trademarks of Optiant, Inc. SAP, SAP NetWeaver, R/3 and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Optiant is a pioneer in the emerging market of supply chain design and optimization. Optiant's flagship software solution, the PowerChain® suite, enables global organizations to design and configure optimal supply chains, solving real-world problems today. PowerChain determines cost-effective inventory placements and integrates supply chain strategy into sourcing and distribution processes for quantifiable results in less than ninety days. Optiant has proven that intelligent inventory policies improve customer service levels and provide rapid ROI by driving out millions of dollars of associated costs from complex supply chains. Our roster of blue-chip clients, including Global 1000 discrete manufacturers, utilizes Optiant's expertise to design competitive supply chains and innovative inventory policies. PowerChain solutions are built on patent-pending optimization technology based on more than ten years of leading-edge research and industry partnerships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Optiant is a privately held company headquartered in Boston, Mass., and can be reached at www.optiant.com or (781) 238-8855.