National Student Clearinghouse Selects Flamenco Web Services Networking Solution.

Business/Technology Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 22, 2002

Web services expected to fuel rapid growth of student enrollment

and degree verification services.

Flamenco Networks, a leading provider of Web services networking solutions, today announced

that the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) will use the Flamenco Network to manage a Web services-enabled version of its student enrollment and degree verification service. Flamenco Networks will provide the management infrastructure and automate Web services connection provisioning among the thousands of universities and millions of businesses and government organizations who may require verification of enrollment and degree data.

The National Student Clearinghouse, a non-profit organization founded by the higher education community in 1993, streamlines the student record verification process for colleges and universities, students and alumni, lending institutions, employers, and other organizations. The Clearinghouse maintains a comprehensive electronic registry of student records that provides a single, secure point-of-contact for organizations and individuals requiring timely, accurate verification of student enrollment, degree, and loan data.

Originally formed to address inefficiencies related to enrollment verification and deferment processing in the student lending industry, the Clearinghouse has recently expanded its services and now also provides enrollment and degree verifications for employers performing background checks and for other businesses that rely on authorized student enrollment information to provide specialized products and services.

The Clearinghouse currently offers customers access to its service via a Web-based browser. The organization began exploring Web services technologies earlier this year as customers expressed an interest in real-time, system-to-system integration with human resources and student information systems.

Leveraging Internet standards such as XML, SOAP and WSDL offers the Clearinghouse a way to satisfy existing customer needs and create new market opportunities, but standards only provide the means for establishing interoperability, not the infrastructure to actually manage the network of Web services connections. "We knew we would have major obstacles to overcome in implementing and managing a Web services project of this scope," says Mark Jones, NSC vice president of marketing and business development.

One of the Clearinghouse's first concerns was provisioning connections. Currently, the Clearinghouse processes over 100 million transactions a year and expects that number to increase dramatically once programmatic interfaces are available. "We could have as many as 4,000 universities and over six million businesses and government organizations providing and requesting information and each one of them represents a unique connection that has to be provisioned properly for the service to work," says Jones.

In addition to connection provisioning, security and network monitoring posed concerns. "We handle sensitive information that is subject to strict privacy laws so we have sophisticated security requirements and we must have the ability to closely monitor all of our network endpoints so that we know who is accessing the data," says Jones.

The Clearinghouse chose the Flamenco Network because of its sophisticated connection provisioning application and its unique peer-to-peer architecture. "The Flamenco Network provided some unique features that other solutions didn't offer and their architecture is particularly well-suited for synchronous, real-time Web services which we think provide the greatest opportunities for expanding our markets."

The Clearinghouse recently launched its initial Web services project with pilot customers and expects to expand the implementation through the remainder of 2002.

About Flamenco Networks

Flamenco Networks is a leading provider of Web services networking solutions. By eliminating the cross-platform and cross-organization implementation and management issues associated with Web services, Flamenco Networks accelerates time-to-benefit while reducing project costs by up to 80%. For more information, visit www.flamenconetworks.com.

About National Student Clearinghouse

The National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit association founded by the higher education community, streamlines the student record verification process for colleges and universities, students, alumni, lending institutions, employers and other organizations. The Clearinghouse maintains a comprehensive electronic registry of student records that provides a single, automated point-of-contact for organizations and individuals requiring timely, accurate verification of student enrollment, degree and loan data. Today, over 2,700 colleges representing 91% of the nation's enrollment, participate in the Clearinghouse. Student loan providers, employers, student credit issuers, student health insurance providers, the federal government and others access the Clearinghouse's registry over 100 million times annually to conduct electronic student verifications. For more information about the National Student Clearinghouse, visit www.studentclearinghouse.org.

Editors Note: Flamenco, Flamenco Networks and the Flamenco logo are trademarks of Flamenco Corporation. All other trademarks are recognized as proprietary to their owners.