BOSTON (Nov. 28, 2006) — Optiant, the leading provider of inventory planning and optimization solutions, announced today that Becton Dickinson (BD), a leading global medical technology company that manufactures and sells medical devices, instrument systems and reagents, is utilizing Optiant’s robust PowerChain™ Suite to effectively improve service levels, optimize inventory and quantify a distribution supply strategy for its low volume SKUs.

Committed to maintaining and driving overall high customer satisfaction levels while reducing inventory requirements for finished goods through improved mix levels, BD is implementing Optiant’s award-winning PowerChain Suite in order to obtain a holistic view of its end-to-end supply chain. Moving to a more formal process allowed BD to identify and effectively manage performance drivers such as supply lead time uncertainty and demand variability.

“Becton Dickinson’s overall success is directly impacted by our ability to continually streamline and improve the sales fulfillment process and delivery performance we provide our customers,” said Ewald Parolari, director of supply chain at BD. “With Optiant’s PowerChain Suite of solutions in place, we are poised to take our businesses to the next level by creating a supply chain that is both responsive and resilient to supply and demand variability.”

As a result of implementing Optiant’s inventory optimization solutions, BD is positioned to realize dramatic improvements in the areas of customer satisfaction levels and inventory reduction. Additionally, BD was able to implement a formal supply chain strategy for its low volume SKUs, enabling the company to identify appropriate inventory levels and thus reduce overproduction and stock-outs.

Through its work with BD, Optiant continues to prove its commitment to the life sciences industry and the success of its industry-targeted solutions. “We are extremely pleased that global manufacturer and life sciences leader, Becton Dickinson, is using Optiant as a tool to improve business processes and more accurately set inventory levels,” said Jonathan Colehower, Optiant’s CEO.

Optiant's solutions optimally balance resources, total costs, and customer service across the supply chain to deliver greater profitability, increased customer satisfaction, more efficient use of capital, and a resilient supply chain that fully handles uncertainty in supply and demand. Optiant has transformed supply chains for the world's leading manufacturers including Black & Decker, Gillette (a Procter & Gamble division), Henkel, HP, Imation, Intel, and Sonoco.

Delivering millions of dollars in returns, Optiant’s industry-focused solution certified for integration by SAP generates quantifiable business results within 90 days of implementation. The solutions are based on award-winning research from MIT and decades of experience dedicated to the identification and realization of supply chain efficiencies. For more information, please visit www.optiant.com.