Automated Year 2000 solution now available to BPCS® users in Europe

Naperville, IL – August 27, 1997 – Two software and support organizations in Europe will now be offering users of SSA's BPCS® manufacturing and distribution systems a complete, cost-effective, and rapid year 2000 solution: the Focus/2000 automated conversion tool from Nexgen/2K, Inc.

Nexgen President and General Manager Rick Halsten today announced that I.B.S. France and TwinSoft in Italy have become Nexgen’s first Focus/2000 distributors in Europe.

"We chose Nexgen because it is a pragmatic solution that is ready now, with reference sites," said Jean-Paul Patureau, General Manager of I.B.S. France. "We presented the Focus/2000 solution at the French BPCS® user group’s Year 2000 meeting, and got very positive feedback. Our main objective is to provide good solutions for our clients, and Focus/2000 is among the best solutions for those who don’t want to rush to a new application just to fix the millennium problem. This is a technical solution that works fast." Headquartered in the Paris area, I.B.S. France has over 150 employees and 250 BPCS® clients.

"There are 100 BPCS® installations in Italy," said Director Roberto Bussani of TwinSoft. "And we will be offering the Nexgen solution to all those who want to bring their legacy systems into the 21^st century." Bussani and Gianni Lucarelli are directing TwinSoft’s Focus/2000 efforts. TwinSoft is a joint venture formed by two Italian BPCS® service providers: BMS Intersoft, with offices in Milan and Rome, and TIESSE Tecnologie & Sistemi, headquartered in Milan.

Focus/2000 helps BPCS® users overcome a formidable challenge

Close to 8,000 sites worldwide rely on the BPCS® manufacturing and distribution software to run their businesses. Without Focus/2000, clients who are not already live on BPCS® Version 6 (which is year 2000 compliant) face a formidable challenge. Version 6 introduced a radically different set of architectures (client/server, partially object-oriented) which many clients cannot implement without considerable expenditures of time and money. Alternatively, clients who wish to stay on their current version of the software would have a significant undertaking to century-enable their systems manually or using a less robust tool solution. As an example, BPCS® Version 4.05 has approximately 2,000 database files; 1,200 CL programs; and 1,600 RPG programs in which dates must be fixed. Since most companies have modified BPCS® , the number of programs and files is even greater. Nexgen developed Focus/2000 to automate the task.

This high level of automation—combined with professional services from experienced BPCS® professionals at TwinSoft and I.B.S. France—reduces the project turnaround to weeks or months instead of the years many users have budgeted.

Nexgen Software Technologies, Inc. is headquartered in Naperville, Illinois, a Chicago suburb in the area’s High Technology Corridor. Since 1990, Nexgen has focused on providing implementation and custom modification services to BPCS® users. Nexgen/2K, Inc. and Nexgen Asia/Pacific, Inc. were founded in 1997 to market Focus/2000 as a millennium solution for the BPCS® market and Nexgen/2K as a millennium solution for other AS/400 software. For more information, contact Rick Halsten at +1 (630)300-6000, via fax at +1 (630)300-6122, or via email at halsten@nexgeninfo.com.

Focus/2000 and Nexgen/2K are trademarks of Nexgen/2K, Inc.
BPCS® is a registered trademark of System Software Associates, Inc.
AS/400 is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation