Architel, Calico Commerce, Micromuse, Portal Software, Syndesis,and TIBCO Software Join Initiative

Integrated, Web-Based Solution Reduces Time to Market, Provides Quality-of-Service and Accelerates Time to Revenue

NICE, France - May 22, 2000 - KPMG Consulting, LLC, a leading provider of Internet integration services, today announced at the TeleManagement World Conference in Nice, France, that it has joined forces with Cisco Systems, Inc. and six industry leaders to deliver a next-generation, integrated Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Plug and Play solution for service providers. The New Generation Plug & Play for DSL solution embeds innovative, best-in-class applications and technologies from Architel (Nasdaq: ASYC/TSE: ASY), Calico Commerce (Nasdaq: CLIC), Micromuse (Nasdaq: MUSE), Portal Software (Nasdaq: PRSF), Syndesis Limited, and TIBCO Software (Nasdaq: TIBX). This integrated, Web-based solution delivers streamlined business processes that reduce time-to-market for new services, provide quality-of-service (QoS), and accelerate time-to-revenue.

In order to meet the growing demand for broadband access, DSL service providers need to find ways to accelerate service rollouts to their customer base while continuing to offer new and profitable services. The New Generation Plug & Play for DSL solution is an integrated, Web-based infrastructure that offers the agility and flexibility to quickly deploy new services in response to rapidly changing market trends.

The New Generation Plug & Play for DSL solution supplies an open Operations Support System (OSS)/Business Support System (BSS) platform for swift service creation. This enables service providers to rapidly define, configure, deliver and manage differentiated services to their customers, based on customized Service Level Agreements (SLA) and QoS. These capabilities help service providers to continually, and cost-effectively offer their customers new and incrementally billable services.

"It is clear that the DSL service provider who wins in this market will automate the provisioning cycle, be able to rapidly introduce new services every 60-90 days and have the agility to enter new markets without reinventing its OSS environment. We believe our Configure-to- Fit^TM, plug and play solution provides that capability and more," said Brad Schwartz, executive vice president, Communications and Content, KPMG Consulting.

New Generation Plug & Play Catalyst DSL Project

The New Generation Plug & Play for DSL solution is a part of the Plug & Play Catalyst program sponsored by the TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum). Catalyst Projects contribute to the TM Forum charter of driving standards through reference implementations to enable integration, interoperability and interchangeability between business process support applications. The projects also promote the development of new applications by independent software vendors that can be easily integrated into existing OSS and BSS. These contributions are of significant value to the key emerging sectors of next generation networks and e-Business.

The New Generation Plug and Play Catalyst DSL project has created a multi-vendor, integrated DSL solution that delivers fast and cost-effective management of new service and network environments. The DSL Catalyst project is a reference architecture developed on Internet technology from Cisco, and KPMG Consulting's Configure-to-Fit^TM software and methodology for the OSS/BSS integration. This solution offers pre-built process, policy and data mapping templates that help enable multi-vendor capability, best-in-class functionality, and a highly integrated workflow that can deliver fast and cost-effective management for the operating environment. Applications are integrated utilizing a standards-based approach that helps ensure compatibility with the existing environment and offers flexibility for future implementations.

"The success of DSL service providers is measured by speed to market, quality of service and time to revenue," said Elizabeth K. Adams, president and CEO, TM Forum. "The Plug & Play approach advocated by the Forum and employed by this team is intended to help ensure success by enabling service providers to rapidly deliver and manage automated, customer-focused solutions that promise to reduce costs, increase accuracy and enhance overall customer satisfaction."

New Generation Plug & Play for DSL Components

Using best-in-class applications, New Generation Plug & Play for DSL delivers streamlined business processes to accelerate time-to-revenue for service providers. Visit www.kpmg-cisco.com for more details on this integrated solution. Plug & Play components include powerful solutions from the following corporations:

• Architel - Architel's Carrier Grade product line features ASAP for service activation, OMS for order management, Objectel for network inventory and InterGate, the interconnection gateway so-lution.
• Calico - Calico's standards-based eBusiness application suite offers the customer-facing sales and ordering capabilities that enable service providers to sell complex communications solutions across multiple channels.
• Cisco - The New Generation Plug & Play for DSL reference architecture was developed on Internet technology from Cisco. Cisco's networking and element management solutions are created to uniquely use Cisco IOS. software feature set for managing network functionality.
• KPMG Consulting - KPMG Consulting's Configure-to-Fit^TM methodology is a Web-enabled solution that delivers pre-built process, policy and data mapping templates and offers multi-vendor capability, best-in -class functionality, and a highly integrated workflow to help enable the delivery of rapid and cost-effective DSL solutions.
• Micromuse - Micromuse's Netcool./OMNIbusd allows operators to collect and consolidate fault information from more than 150 network environments off the shelf, and enables them to design their own views of service.
• Portal Software - Portal's Infranet. delivers a range of real-time, highly scalable ca-pabilities, including creation and management of customer ac-counts; authentication and authorization; development, sophisti-cated rating, pricing and provisioning of service offerings, activity tracking, and analysis.
• Syndesis - Syndesis' NetProvision, a powerful, off-the-shelf service creation and activation solution, enables telecommunications providers to rapidly deploy next generation services, and fully realize the revenue opportunities available from their networks.
• TIBCO Software - TIBCO ActiveEnterprise. product suite enables companies to become real-time e-businesses by connecting their back-end and front-end systems and tying those systems to customers and partners over the Web. TIBCO provides a truly modular infrastructure for efficient e-business including real-time OSS integration and service provisioning.