Amazon.com Selects Managed Objects' Formula Software to Provide Enterprise-wide Service Management Console

Business Wire, Dec 4, 2000

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 4, 2000

Formula to Monitor and Troubleshoot Critical Business Systems and

Applications Worldwide for the Internet's Number One Retailer

Managed Objects, a provider of Business Service Management software, today announced that its Formula(R) software will be deployed by Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) as an enterprise-wide service management console. In this role, Formula will monitor and help troubleshoot the delivery of critical business services across Amazon.com's systems and applications worldwide. With Formula, the leading online retailer will be able to further enhance the availability and performance of its business processes, as well as the efficiency of its IT operations.

According to Charlie Bell, Vice President, Infrastructure at Amazon.com, "We're always looking for new ways to improve the customer experience. That includes taking a more proactive approach to monitoring and troubleshooting our technology infrastructure. Formula's Business Service Views(TM) will help us do just that. With them, our first line of support will see exactly how IT resources combine to support business services. Now, our first line of support will understand the impact of any particular problem on an overall service. This proactive approach will mean even better service for our customers."

To create Business Service Views of Amazon.com's infrastructure, Formula translates the company's technology into business terms. Formula will leverage Amazon.com's existing enterprise-wide management tools by integrating and consolidating their data. From this single point of control, Formula will clearly depict the relationship between IT resources and the services they support - such as online book sales. These Business Service Views will provide a simpler way to identify and resolve problems before they impact key business processes, enabling Amazon.com to improve service delivery across its infrastructure.

"Maintaining our existing management toolset and infrastructure was key," said Bell. "When we saw that Formula was able to come in and completely leverage what we already had, we were very excited. Its object-oriented approach will enable us to quickly provide a business-centric view of our infrastructure."

Formula will also enable Amazon.com to improve its "global" method of distributing management information. Bell adds, "With a company as global as Amazon, there needs to be shared business-centric views of the infrastructure. It's an efficient way for our people to work."

Siki Giunta, president and chief executive officer of Managed Objects, notes, "Amazon's challenge is characteristic of the growing need for service-driven companies to view their entire infrastructure in a business context. That's why we built Formula to complement a company's management systems, while still giving IT - and business managers - the big-picture perspective they need to understand how service is being delivered."

About Managed Objects

Founded in 1997, Managed Objects makes Business Service Management software built on this premise: to effectively meet and exceed service commitments, a company must evaluate and manage technology at a business process level. We are the first to provide a simple, objective approach to managing service across management systems, business processes and even companies - an idea we call Business Service Management3(TM). Our flagship product, Formula(R), translates technology into business terms, and enables companies to understand how infrastructure impacts their business. And as a result, provide better service across the board. That is why companies like Amazon.com, AT&T, Bank of America, BellSouth, Computer Sciences Corporation, Dell Computer Corporation, TSR Wireless, and WebLink Wireless use Formula today. For more information, visit www.managedobjects.com.

About Amazon.com, Inc.

Amazon.com (Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries) is the Internet's No. 1 retailer. Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection, along with online auctions and free electronic greeting cards. Amazon.com seeks to be the world's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Amazon.com lists more than 28 million unique items in categories such as electronics, kitchen products, books, music, DVDs, videos, camera and photo items, toys, software, computer and video games, tools and hardware, and lawn and patio items. Through Amazon.com zShops, any business or individual can sell virtually anything to Amazon.com's more than 25 million customers, and with Amazon.com Payments, sellers can accept credit card transactions, avoiding the hassles of offline payments.

Amazon.com operates three international Web sites: www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.co.uk and www.amazon.de. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 250,000 movies and entertainment titles and 1 million cast and crew members dating from the birth of film in 1891 to 2003.