Visionael and Orchestream Join Forces to Power Inventory, Provisioning and Activation of Next-Generation Broadband Services

Visionael today announced plans to integrate its Visionael 6 and ServiceBase products with Orchestream's Service Activator software platform. The integration of the companies products will drive down the time and cost associated with delivering services, ultimately speeding time to revenue for service providers.

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Aug. 20, 2002 -- Visionael today announced plans to integrate its Visionael 6 and ServiceBase carrier-grade service creation and network resource management (NRM) software solutions with Orchestreams (LSE:OCH) Service Activator software platform for automating the configuration and activation of next-generation services on broadband networks. The integration of the companies products is key to a unified operations support system (OSS) solution, and will drive down the time and cost associated with delivering services, ultimately speeding time to revenue for service providers. As part of the agreement, Orchestream will become a member of the Visionael Technology Partner Program, an alliance of best-of-breed companies with solutions that support the total OSS lifecycle and network management architecture.

Visionael and Orchestream are currently working with business partner Dimension Data to deliver automated flow-through provisioning as part of a unified OSS solution for one of the world's largest service providers, located in the Asia-Pacific region.

"As service providers respond to a growing demand for value-added, revenue generating services, they are turning to OSS solutions that will help them rapidly and accurately turn up these services while cutting costs," said Verne Anton, principal analyst at Gartner, Inc. "OSS solution providers must work together to meet these needs by providing an automated solution to deliver value-added services while helping customers make effective use of all their network resources."

Visionael 6 is widely regarded as a top-tier NRM solution and was a Best Inventory Management Product finalist at the TeleStrategies 2002 OSS Excellence Awards. It combines autodiscovery and data collection, validation/reconciliation, engineering and network change management, circuit and cable management, engineering design and workflow to deliver an accurate, real-time view of network resources. Visionael ServiceBase works seamlessly with Visionael 6 to deliver the market's first open, automated multi-service creation engine, working with other best-in-class solutions to empower companies to rapidly and cost-effectively deliver high-demand services to their subscribers and users. Orchestream Service Activator enables managers of large-scale IP and broadband networks to automate the configuration tasks associated with network management and service activation to deliver real-time, dynamic, customized network services, such as virtual private networks (VPNs), using MPLS or IPSec, metro ethernet and application services on multi-vendor networks. Working together, the joint solution will enable companies to design, create, provision and activate services quickly and efficiently.

"The combination of Visionael's strengths in service creation and network resource management, combined with our powerful service activation platform, means that service providers can take full advantage of an integrated OSS solution," said Richard Moore, executive vice president at Orchestream. "We look forward to working with Visionael to assist service providers as they strive to increase revenue from services delivered over their existing infrastructure."

The Visionael and Orchestream integration will be accomplished by leveraging specific features of the companies' solutions including Visionael's APIcentral, a suite of application programming interfaces that provide for extensible markup language (XML) data exchange; the Activation Exchange inside Visionael ServiceBase, which stores data with the service for delivery to configuration management or service activation systems; and Orchestream's OSS Integration Manager (OIM), which facilitates real-time, flexible sharing of network and service data with peer OSS solutions.

"We are excited about building a long-term relationship with Orchestream and believe there is tremendous value in integrating our NRM/ServiceBase solutions with Service Activator," said Richard Zambuni, vice president of marketing and business development at Visionael. "This partnership furthers our vision of aligning with best-in-class technology leaders to provide integrated OSS solutions that will allow service providers to quickly deliver high-demand broadband services that will help their businesses prosper and maintain competitive advantage."

About Orchestream
Orchestream delivers software platforms for automating the configuration, activation and assurance of next generation services on broadband networks. Orchestream's products provide network owners and operators with the tools they need to deliver value added services and manage network performance and customer satisfaction. Founded in 1996 and listed on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, Orchestreams customers include some of the worlds most innovative telecom companies including AT&T, BT Ignite, Cable and Wireless, COLT, SBC, Sonera, Telstra, Telewest and Vodafone. For more information visit www.orchestream.com, or call: Europe and Rest of World: +44 (0) 20 7348 1500; North America: (703) 734-3706.

About Visionael
Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Visionael transforms the economics of deploying, delivering and managing network services, providing carrier-grade service creation and network resource management (NRM) software solutions that form a key component of any operations support system (OSS). Recognized in 2002 as one of UPSIDE magazines Hot 100" private companies, Visionael has 60 service provider, outsourcer, enterprise and government customers worldwide. For more about Visionael, please visit www.visionael.com or call +1.650.470.8920. In Europe, please contact Visionael SARL in Paris at +33.140.71.28.28 or emea@visionael.com.

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Note to Editors:
Visionael, the Visionael logo, WEBcentral, APIcentral and ServiceBase are trademarks of Visionael Corporation. All other companies and products referenced herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.