WTC, Meritus Consulting and Visteon Sponsor New Product Development Conference In Conjunction With The Conference Board

Business Wire, March 8, 1999

LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 1999--

-- Joint Conference Will Present Critical Results From WTC

And Meritus' High Performance Product Development Survey --

Continuing to provide companies with the expertise and enabling solutions necessary to maximize the effectiveness of their product development teams, WTC (Workgroup Technology) (NASDAQ:WKGP) announced today that it will sponsor "The Conference Board's 1999 High Performance New Product Development Conference" with Meritus Consulting Services and Visteon Automotive Systems. This conference, on March 18, 1999 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, is being hosted in association with The Conference Board, a leading business membership and research organization. In conjunction with this conference, WTC and Meritus will also unveil the preliminary results from their High Performance Product Development Survey, which was conducted among a broad range of companies that design and develop products.

"Leading product developers are constantly searching for new solutions and methodologies to maintain the competitive edge and enhance revenue," said Sarah Bingman Schott, WTC's Vice President of Marketing. "Attendees will have an opportunity to learn how to optimize the product development process and leverage the experience of the conference sponsors and other participants to significantly improve their company's competitive success."

Focused on significantly sharpening a company's competitive edge, this one-day conference will feature a number of intensive sessions addressing critical aspects of product design and development, including integrated system design, measuring the return on investment, enhancing engineering productivity and creating superior supplier networks. These in-depth, interactive conference sessions will feature presentations from experts at WTC, a leading provider of pragmatic, product development management and knowledge-based program management solutions for enhancing product development; Meritus, a management consulting firm specializing in optimizing manufacturers' operational performance; and Visteon, a designer and manufacturer of numerous products for the automotive industry. There will also be presentations from Hewlett-Packard, US West, EMC Corporation, Control Engineering Company, Henredon Furniture Industries and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

As part of this conference, WTC and Meritus will also present and facilitate discussions on the comprehensive results of their joint High Performance New Product Development Survey, focused on companies engaged in product development activities. While most companies have made significant strides toward improving their product development activities, some surprising preliminary results include:

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--   Only 17% of companies surveyed have suppliers directly involved
     with their product development processes.

--   Despite the availability of electronic and rapid prototyping
     tools today, almost 50% of companies surveyed still have the same
     number of prototype cycles as five years ago.

--   Although customer satisfaction is broadly recognized as a primary
     driver of successful product development, the current source of
     customers' design requirements is primarily through sales, not
     through contact between the product development organization and
     the actual customer.

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"We are very excited to be sponsoring this conference with WTC and Visteon," said John Saladino, Meritus' Vice President. "Together, we will enable attendees to enhance and optimize the most critical component to their companies' success - their product development organization."

Conference Contact and Pricing Information

For additional information, please contact The Conference Board's customer service department at (212) 339-0345 or visit www.conference-board.org. The cost of this conference is $650.

WTC provides both production-proven, enterprise Product Data Management (through CMS(tm)) and real-time knowledge-based program management (through WTC OpCenter(tm)) solutions for product development. WTC SolutionCenter(tm) is a line of productivity enhancing products and services that are pragmatic and results-driven, offering even complex enterprises a quick return on investment. Thousands of users at over 500 customer sites benefit from WTC products, including 3Com Corporation; ADC Telecommunications, Inc.; AlliedSignal, Inc.; DSC Communications; Eaton Corporation; Fujitsu Network Communications; General Electric Company; Moen Incorporated; Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc.; Tektronix; United States Surgical Corporation and Whirlpool Corporation. The company's World Wide Web site is located at www.workgroup.com.

Meritus Consulting Services, LLC is a management consulting firm specializing in meeting the needs of manufacturing companies to improve operational performance. Drawing on a broad base of experience, Meritus consultants work with a client's management team to achieve major improvements in competitiveness, profitability, customer satisfaction and growth. Applying analytic tools, state-of-the-art technologies, strategic modeling and best practices, Meritus Consulting helps clients develop strategies to surpass their business goals and transform their business enterprise. The company's world wide web site is located at www.meritus.com or call 1-800-MERITUS.