Industrial and Electronics Manufacturers Choose QAD for Best-in-Class Manufacturing for...

Business Editors/Technology Writers

CARPINTERIA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2001

RF Industries and Everhard Industries Build Business in Australia

and Prepare to Leverage the Power of Internet Commerce

With QAD Enterprise Applications

QAD

(Nasdaq:QADI), the leading provider of applications for global manufacturing enterprises and their private exchanges, today announced that a leading manufacturer of pre-cast concrete, steel grating and plastics, and a radio communications product manufacturer and distributor, Everhard Industries and RF Industries, respectively, have chosen QAD for best-in-class manufacturing for e-business.

Everhard Industries completed its implementation of QAD MFG/PRO enterprise applications version 9.0 on July 1, 2000, approximately six months after it began the project. The solution runs on the Unix operating system and Sun Solaris server technology. Everhard is a family-owned manufacturer of pre-cast concrete, steel grating and plastic products that employs more than 300 people at 10 sites in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, Australia.

According to Peter Drew, manager of information systems at Everhard, among the most important criteria for its selection process was support and maintainability, which was where QAD scored highly.

"The chief financial officer and I examined five enterprise software vendors, then managed to shortlist three companies: Baan, J D Edwards and QAD," Drew said. "We have confidence in QAD's ability to deliver local support with the functionality we require. We also took comfort in the way QAD paid attention to what we wanted. They listened and helped us implement the right system for our company.

"The fact that QAD MFG/PRO is Web-enabled is an attractive option for us and means we can integrate it with our other systems in the future. Our primary market is resellers and we use electronic data interchange (EDI) with some of them, but it is an expensive way to conduct business and we look forward to exploring some of the opportunities e-commerce presents."

On Oct. 31, 2000, RF Industries signed a contract for the complete QAD MFG/PRO version 9.0 suite of enterprise applications running on the Unix operating system with HP UX server technology. RF Industries has offices in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand, and employs more than 100 people.

According to RF Industries' managing director, Steve Jaques, the company purchased QAD enterprise applications to help provide better service to customers and lay the foundation for its move to e-business. "With QAD applications, we expect to benefit from a much better flow of information which will directly help our customers," Jaques said.

"We anticipate providing some of our established customers with access to our own enterprise applications in the coming six months. This will be a pilot program initially enabling customers to check order status, then moving on to a full B2B e-commerce functionality in the following six months.

"We see our future in e-commerce so we want to ensure we have first-rate software and systems," said Jaques. "QAD applications offered full integration with our enterprise software rather than simply setting up a storefront. As a B2B-specific supplier, we needed a fully interactive e-commerce suite. We felt that QAD had the best, most comprehensive offering on the market, and we are confident that this really equips us for the future.

"The Java-based interface and the browser screen presentation makes the entire program more accessible. There is a low bandwidth requirement for Internet use, which we plan to take advantage of."

About Everhard Industries Pty Ltd

With headquarters in Brisbane, Everhard Industries is a private manufacturer of pre-cast concrete, steel grating and plastic products. The company now employs more than 300 people at 10 sites in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria with agents in all other states of Australia and New Zealand.

Everhard currently exports plastic products to New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Region with growth in South East Asia and the Middle East. New products are also being developed for these markets. For more information about the company, visit the Web site at http://www.everhard.com.au.

About RF Industries Pty Ltd

With headquarters in New South Wales, RF Industries is an antenna manufacturer and distributor of various radio communications products from other companies, including antennas, cables, connectors and solar and power products.

RF Industries is 9001 accredited and maintains locations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Townsville and Perth. For more information about the company, visit the Web site at http://www.rfindustries.com.au.

About QAD

QAD's global manufacturing expertise delivers value through collaborative commerce applications that empower enterprises to integrate diverse business processes and increase market share. Manufacturers of automotive, consumer, electronics, food and beverage, industrial, and medical products use QAD software at more than 5,000 licensed sites in 86 countries and in as many as 26 languages.

For more information about QAD, telephone 805/684-6614, or visit the QAD Web site at http://www.qad.com. To receive any of QAD's news releases via facsimile, contact 800/356-0747, or outside the United States, contact 213/253-5647.

Note to editors: QAD is a trademark and MFG/PRO is a registered trademark of QAD Inc. All other products or company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to investors: This news release contains certain forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. A number of risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These risks include evolving demand for the company's software products and products that operate with the company's products, the publication of opinions by industry analysts about the company, its products and technology, the entry of new competitors and their technological advances, delays in localizing the company's products for new markets, delays in sales as a result of lengthy sales cycles; changes in operating expenses, pricing, timing of new product releases, the method of product distribution or product mix; and general economic factors. In addition, revenue and earnings in the e-business and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software industries are subject to fluctuations and the growth rates recently experienced by the company do not necessarily represent future operating results. Investors should not use any one quarter's results as a benchmark for future growth. For a more detailed description of the risk factors associated with the company and the enterprise resource planning industry, refer to the company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2000.