Scala Joins Worldwide Standards Setting Consortium

The success of online business is in the hands of the IT industry" -- Mike Burdett, Scala CEO

15 October 2002: From October 2002, Scala Business Solutions becomes an Enterprise Member of the Open Applications Group. This is a not-for-profit consortium founded in 1995 to promote standardisation in the IT industry based on XML, and as such is the worlds largest publisher of XML-based content for business software interoperability.

Scala has supported the work of the OAG since 1999 and we believe it is time for all software vendors to adopt a unified standard," says Mike Burdett, Scalas Chief Executive Officer. This will allow any user to easily integrate their applications and reduce the time and cost of implementation, which is especially valuable to our customers who roll out our software in locations all over the world. The OAG is a valuable mediator within the IT industry and we look forward to playing a more prominent role within this consortium in order to help in the future evolution of documenting standards."

The aim of the OAG is to encourage the adoption of a unifying standard for application integration and e-business. Through the speedy implementations this will bring about, businesses will gain a faster return on investment, lower integration costs and a low total cost of ownership. As the OAG gains more support from companies like Scala, common message standards will become widespread and businesses can enjoy the full benefit of near plug and play integration with vendors working together through these bodies.

We are extremely pleased to have Scala join the Open Applications Group as an Enterprise Member," says David Connelly, CEO of the Open Applications Group. Standards save money, and support of significant software providers like Scala for the OAGIS Open Standard ensures that end-users will lower their total cost of ownership and achieve much faster return of investment over using non-standards based software."

The OAG was formed by companies such as Dunn & Bradstreet, Oracle and SAP, and has gone on to gain members such as The Ford Motor Company, IBM, Mercator, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The industry has been talking about a future where businesses will be transacting with each other online. It began as e-commerce, but has grown into something far more powerful," says Burdett. Organisations as diverse as manufacturers, hoteliers, and telecoms companies have all realised the potential of being able to interact over the Internet, exchanging purchase orders, invoices, and checking stock levels with minimum human intervention. This amount of collaboration means that companies must take on board systems that inter-operate, which in turn is driving the need for standardisation of protocols. The work of the OAG is imperative in ensuring the IT industry accepts the responsibility of adopting the same standards."

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Notes to Editors

About the Open Application Group
The Open Applications Group is a non-profit consortium focusing on best practices and process based XML content for e-business and application integration. It is the largest publisher of XML based content for business software interoperability in the world. Open Applications Group, Inc. members have over 6 years of extensive experience in building this industry consensus based framework for business software application interoperability and have developed a repeatable process for quickly developing high quality business content and XML representations of that content. For more information visit www.openapplications.org.

About Scala Business Solutions
Scala Business Solutions creates collaborative ERP software -- integrating Internet technology and traditional ERP functionality -- to make global business simple. With Scala, global companies can fully integrate all their ERP systems anywhere in the world, whether in a subsidiary, division or headquarters, and extending to their partners and suppliers. Scalas collaborative ERP software makes it possible for global companies to meet the requirements for advanced e-business as well as use a standard ERP product for managing traditional business processes. This enables them to gain measurable benefits from trading electronically, building a private exchange or global portal, or optimising the supply chain.
From offices in Europe, North America and the Far East, and through its network of partners and dealers, Scala delivers software and services that are available in over 30 languages in more than 140 countries.
Scala is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange (symbol: SCALA). 2001 revenue was US$70.6 million (€79.1 million).
Visit Scalas website at www.scala.net for press information including press releases, information for investors, and company and product information.
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