Qiva and Mercator Form Strategic Partnership to Deliver Unparalleled Business-to-Business Integration and Visibility Across Supply Chain Environments

Business Wire, July 25, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

WILTON, Conn. and SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 25, 2000

Combining Best-of-Breed Technologies to

Reduce Time to Market of Global E-Commerce Initiatives

Mercator(R) Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: MCTR), the e-business transformation company(tm), today announced that Qiva, an innovator in collaborative Supply Chain Execution (SCE) applications will incorporate Mercator Commerce Broker as part of its Web-based supply chain execution framework, IQuator. Leveraging the leading integration technology of Mercator Commerce Broker, IQuator customers can realize faster implementation, reduced time-to-market of their global e-business objectives, and integrated operations across their supply chain.

Mercator's value proposition to Qiva's customers is two-fold. Qiva's IQuator provides companies in the retail, manufacturing and transport and logistics markets visibility across their collaborative supply chain environments. Since many of these companies already have an ERP or proprietary back-end system in place, Mercator Commerce Broker assists in integrating these systems into the IQuator framework for faster deployment--reducing customer's time-to-market by up to 60%. Additionally, Qiva is utilizing the powerful transformation capabilities of Mercator Commerce Broker to allow IQuator customers to integrate their business processes with their partners. This integration enables a centralized view of logistics information relating to any global transaction via a standard Web browser - from the time a purchase order is raised, to its performance at the factory, to its arrival at planned destinations.

"Qiva believes the Mercator e-business integration platform is one of the best the market has to offer," said Oliver Martin, President and CEO at Qiva. " For companies that have already made investments in ERP or proprietary systems, the Qiva/Mercator partnership offers a very strategic value proposition. Our combined technologies enable customers to reduce time-to-market significantly and benefit from supply chain visibility almost immediately. We estimate that customers can gain a 500-600% return-on-investment within the first 12 months of implementation."

Mercator Commerce Broker and Iquator, which is deployed through an application service provider (ASP) model, will provide an integrated management and control environment of all supply chain activities via a standard Web browser. Customers can view, manage, customize, and control their operational business processes in a dynamic, collaborative, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce environment. Powerful transformation capabilities in Mercator Commerce Broker also allow IQuator customers to capture and distribute data in a variety of formats, and supply messaging alerts when transportation irregularities occur. This provides an environment for benchmarking and performance management for the vendor, transport companies, suppliers and their customers.

Qiva chose to partner with Mercator to provide its e-business integration platform because of the power of its B2B integration technology and market leadership. The solution allows tighter integration between business processes, linking together business function between transportation service providers, manufacturers and retailers within the IQuator application itself. Combined with Mercator Commerce Broker, Iquator customers can access critical information about the status of their orders through a simple Web browser interface for an integrated B2B and business-to-consumer (B2C) environment. The Mercator technology was key to this process, shortening development time, increasing cost effectiveness and dramatically reducing Qiva's time to market. In addition, customers are able to take advantage of Mercator's ability to manage B2B integration over the Internet and bypass traditional, much slower and costlier distribution methods.

"We are very pleased that Mercator has been chosen by Qiva to provide their customers seamless B2B integration with their supply chain partners," said Peter Jones, chief operating officer, Northern Europe, Mercator. "Qiva's decision to partner with Mercator demonstrates the market leading position of our e-business integration software and will extend the reach of our Mercator products to many new customers in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia. Given Qiva's excellent track record and vast experience in the supply chain management marketplace this is a key win for Mercator."

About Qiva

Qiva provides end-to-end supply chain execution solutions that enable corporate customers to view, manage, customise and control their operational business processes in global B2B e-commerce environments. Qiva's IQuator Component Framework allows customers visibility and access across Order Processing, Inventory Management, Transport Execution and Import & Export in one integrated application via collaborative, web-based communities. Delivered on an application service provider model, Qiva's products and services are based on 10 years of experience with suppliers, customers and transportation service providers in the maritime transportation industry. Qiva is headquartered in San Francisco, California with sales and support offices in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia. Qiva is a privately held company.