Partner Press Release
Aspect Joins RosettaNet - Will Drive Standards for Inbound Supply Chain Collaboration

Solutions Leader For Inbound Supply Chain Management To Work With RosettaNet Consortium To Develop And Adopt Standards For E-Business Process Interoperability

For Release August 1, 1999

Mountain View, CA -- Aspect Development, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASDV), the global leader in inbound supply chain management solutions, announced its support for the RosettaNet standards and that it has joined the consortium as an Architect Partner. Aspect will contribute its vast domain expertise and technical resources to work with the RosettaNet members in defining and implementing a common set of business interfaces and content standards. Aspect products are used today by the world's leading manufacturing, process and distribution companies to provide decision support and supply chain interoperability solutions that accelerate and reduce the cost of product development, significantly reduce product costs, and improve operational and manufacturing efficiencies. These solutions, delivered through a combination of technology, content, and services, will be enhanced to enable Aspect customers to adopt and take full advantage of the emerging RosettaNet standards.

RosettaNet Defines Common Supply Chain Business Processes

RosettaNet will harness the global and pervasive reach of the internet by defining - and leading the implementation of - open and common processes designed to align the electronic business interfaces between supply chain partners. The RosettaNet consortium, driven by trading partners and solution providers within the high technology supply chain, will adopt a set of global process standards that enable businesses to operate more effectively and lower the cost of business-to-business e-Commerce. RosettaNet focuses on improving the processes and defining the common interoperability requirements of the supply chain, and does not impose specific business model requirements or impede the ability of companies to compete in an open market economy.

The RosettaNet standards include the following elements: utilization of HTML/XML, definition of standard dictionaries and associated DTDs, and adoption of a set of standard e-Business process dialogs known as Partner Interface Processes (PIPs). The RosettaNet PIPs will initially cover such areas as product management, order and inventory management, and service/support.

Aspect Participation in RosettaNet

Aspect joins RosettaNet as an Architect/Solution partner, beginning by working with the Electronic Components board to define a set of standards that are specifically focused on that segment of the supply chain. As one of the initial projects, Aspect will be a key member of the Technical Dictionaries team, tasked with defining a common taxonomy and set of standard properties and associated values for characterizing components such as semiconductor devices, passives and connectors.

"Aspect is delighted to join this very important industry initiative," said Aspect Chairman and CEO, Romesh Wadhwani. "Aspect's considerable investment in its content and technology, coupled with our years of supply chain experience working with the world's largest companies, will be leveraged to accelerate the development and industry-wide adoption of the RosettaNet standards." "We very pleased to have Aspect Development as a member," stated Fadi Chehadé, CEO of RosettaNet. "Aspect has demonstrated its ability and commitment to providing solutions that enable the supply chain to operate more effectively and enable companies to significantly reduce the cost of doing business."

Aspect Solutions to Support RosettaNet

Aspect will play a key role in driving the content standards for RosettaNet. These standards will be embodied in the suite of Aspect eContent™  products covering production components, indirect goods, business essentials and global suppliers. This content is developed and maintained for Aspect customers and partners, and delivered via its online portal, AspectWeb™  (www.aspectweb.com). Additionally, by enhancing its supply chain and online technologies, coupled with its delivery services, Aspect will make it easy for customers to quickly adopt and benefit from the RosettaNet standards. For example, the company's new Web-based eXplore™  solutions will support RosettaNet e-Business processes such as product information management, which enable users to effectively search and compare supplier products and receive product change notifications, via the Web.

In addition to RosettaNet, Aspect's open solutions also support other popular industry standards, such as XML, CORBA, JavaBeans, and ODBC.

About Aspect Development, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASDV)
Aspect Development, Inc. is the global leader in Inbound Supply Chain Management. Aspect's solutions reduce product cost and operations expense and speed new product introduction by providing strategic decision support for product development, sourcing, procurement, and operations to companies in all industries. Aspect's solutions combine its enterprise software, content products and rapid deployment services, to deliver a large value proposition quickly, at low risk. Aspect's solutions are being used by many of the largest companies worldwide to optimize their inbound supply chains; to provide the information bridge between design, engineering, sourcing, procurement and operations; and to technology-enable and automate best practices such as strategic sourcing, preferred component and supplier management, design reuse, and rapid selection of the best components. Additional information can be found at www.aspectdv.com.

About RosettaNet
Founded in 1998, RosettaNet is an independent, self-funded, non-profit organization dedicated to the development and deployment of common standards and e-Commerce interfaces that align the e-Business processes of supply chain partners on a global basis. RosettaNet can be found on the World Wide Web at www.rosettanet.org.