for Supply Chain Design

Hitachi Consulting and Optiant To Deliver World-Class Performance Through Strategic and Operational Expertise For Fortune 500 Manufacturers

BOSTON (May 11, 2004) -- Optiant, a leading provider of supply chain design and optimization solutions, has formed an alliance with Hitachi Consulting, the business and IT consulting arm of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT). Hitachi Consulting is a market leader in the design and implementation of supply chain solutions. This alliance will drive solutions to help manufacturers improve business performance through better supply chain management.

The addition of Optiant's PowerChainŽ Suite for supply chain design to its robust portfolio of manufacturing and distribution solutions expands Hitachi Consulting's ability to provide both operational expertise and strategic value to its customers in the consumer packaged goods, industrial and high tech manufacturing industries. Hitachi will tap Optiant's unique offering to deliver significant impact and quantitative results by focusing on the design stage, where supply chain strategy is set and 80 percent of the costs are locked in.

"Our clients are looking for tangible improvements and real competitive advantage when it comes to managing their supply chains," said Stephen Engel, vice president of supply chain solutions for Hitachi Consulting. "Distribution network optimization and effective inventory management policies are critical to a well-managed supply chain. Optiant's solution delivers a real breakthrough to drive measurable results, quickly, by aligning operational decisions with business strategies."

Hitachi Consulting has a solid track record with over 15 years experience as a supply chain solution provider and counts among it clients such market leaders as Aviall, Inc., Mary Kay, and Viking Range Corporation.

For companies in the highly competitive markets that Hitachi and Optiant target, the supply chain represents the new frontier in defining world-class performance. These organizations face unprecedented challenges in building and maintaining market leadership, including economic uncertainty, increasingly complex supply chains, and channel pressure from large retailers who are increasingly demanding near perfect service and continuous price reductions. Optiant's award-winning solution offers immense relief from these forces by helping manufacturers build supply chains that are flexible enough to exploit changing market conditions. By accommodating an end-to-end view of the supply chain, and enabling users to evaluate multiple what-if scenarios to determine ideal configurations, PowerChain ensures that decisions are made to support larger business strategies, including growth, customer service, functional excellence, and improved asset utilization.

"Hitachi is a recognized leader in the market, with a blue-chip client list, world-class expertise and solutions that manufacturers demand," said Mike Braatz, vice president of business development for Optiant. "We are pleased to be a part of their team and support their continued success."

About Hitachi Consulting
Hitachi Consulting is Hitachi, Ltd.'s (NYSE: HIT) global business and IT consulting company. Hitachi Consulting serves Fortune 2000 companies across many industries throughout the United States. The company is focused on working with its clients to understand their needs and to enable and implement key business strategies. Hitachi Consulting delivers practical solutions to generate demand, ensure supply and help the client manage their enterprise effectively. The company is committed to delivering measurable results and to effectively transferring knowledge to optimize the client's investments.

To find out more about how Hitachi Consulting can inspire your next success, please call 1.877.664.0010 or visit us at www.hitachiconsulting.com

About Hitachi
Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 326,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2003 (ended March 31, 2004) consolidated sales totaled 8,632.4 billion yen ($81.4 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's Web site at www.hitachi.com

About Optiant
Optiant is a pioneer in the emerging market of supply chain design and optimization. Optiant's flagship software solution, the PowerChainŽ 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.

Optiant and PowerChain are trademarks of Optiant, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.