Johnson, O'Hare Endorses ISS as Preferred Vendor for Its More Than 200 Food Industry Suppliers.

Business/Technology Editors

FRANKLIN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 2002

EZConnect Plus Supply Chain Software Helps Connect Suppliers to UCCnet: Integration and Compliance Enables Sales to Shaw's, Ahold and

other Major Supermarket Chains

Integrated Software

Systems (ISS) today announced that its EZConnect Plus supply chain software will be recommended by Johnson, O'Hare Company, Inc., the largest independent food broker in the Northeast United States, to its more than 200 suppliers so they are able to connect their product catalogues to major supermarkets through the Internet.

ISS EZConnect will allow Johnson, O'Hare Company suppliers to link directly to UCCnet, an organization that sets standards for automating supply chains that connect retailers to their suppliers. This connectivity is critical as major supermarket chains and retail operations including Shaw's Supermarkets, Ahold (owner of Stop and Shop and Giant supermarkets) and WalMart, are requiring that all vendors, regardless of size, have their items coded through UCCnet by June of this year. Once coded, retailers can instantly view shipping availability, product attributes, pricing changes and promotional data for all of their vendor's products.

"We looked at a variety of software solutions and chose ISS for our organization. It was logical to then recommend ISS to our many suppliers," said Wayne Diamond, vice president of technology operations for Johnson, O'Hare. "ISS offers an easy-to-deploy and easy-to-integrate software solution that streamlines the process of meeting UCCnet's requirements. Many of these vendors have limited investment in information technology and we expect EZConnect will get many online that otherwise might otherwise have had few alternatives for becoming UCCnet compliant."

ISS has provided Johnson, O'Hare suppliers special pricing for EZConnect, reducing the cost burden for many smaller vendors. Already several of these vendors are in early trials with the software.

ISS is working with an array of large enterprises and small vendors, all of which have the goal of rapidly integration with trading partners through UCCnet. ISS, for example, recently signed a deal with General Mills, allowing the food industry giant to connect with all of its vendors using through UCCnet with EZConnect.

"Our objective is to continue reaching out to the thousands of vendors who all are facing impending deadlines established by the major supermarket chains," said ISS Chief Executive Officer Steve Horton. "To that end, we have tailored a solution that is fully UCCnet compliant but does not require integration into a complex enterprise software platform to operate. This is an easy solution to deploy and is designed to expand with the needs of our customers."

ISS's EZConnect Plus enables real-time, machine-to-machine conveyance of product information by linking back-end systems with the ISS "integration engine," which converts data and communicates it directly to UCCnet through XML messages. (XML is a software language which identifies specific properties of data).

EZConnect Plus complement ISS's advanced line of products including Web-based software CericomX(TM) (e-Catalog and e-Commerce Platform), Ceriview(TM) (Supply Chain Management/CPFR) and ISS Capital Asset Management, which enable businesses to automate the process of managing inventory and other assets.

All products are fully supported by ISS. Demonstrations of each product are available by contacting Haley Miller at hmiller@ieccomp.com.

About Integrated Software Systems

Integrated Software Systems is a provider of Internet-based, end-to-end dynamic collaboration solutions. ISS software solutions present a powerful vehicle for managing and expanding the scope of value chain partner relationships. They ensure productive workflow collaboration and synchronization, and help to reduce operating costs, improve decision-making capabilities, and increase overall effectiveness and efficiency. For more information on ISS's products and services, please visit online at www.issbiz.com.