EMSI and Mercator Partner to Facilitate HIPAA Compliance; Companies Deliver e-Business Integration Solutions to the Healthcare Industry

Business Wire, Oct 25, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

WILTON, Conn. & ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 2000

Mercator(R) Software, Inc., (Nasdaq: MCTR) the e-business transformation company(TM), and EMSI, Inc., an innovative information technology consulting and application development company, today announced a strategic alliance to integrate Mercator's world-class graphical data mapping and transformation technology with EMSI's EDI Gateway Manager. The EDI Gateway Manager(TM), facilitates compliance with HIPAA, the new federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The Gateway Manager uses Mercator's E-Business Broker products to increase the speed and accuracy of the transfer of claims data, while providing a high level of security to clients, as required by the HIPAA standards.

EMSI specializes in providing consulting and application development services to clients in healthcare, as well as in other vertical marketplaces. The company uses Mercator's commerce chain transformation products to build customized e-business integration solutions for its clients. The two companies will jointly market and sell customized solutions for the electronic transfer of health care claims information. As part of the agreement, Mercator and EMSI have joined each other's partner programs, the EMSI Alliance Program and the MercatorWorld Partner Program respectively.

"EMSI and Mercator have joined forces to provide our clients with a secure and cost efficient way to process electronic healthcare claims," said L.M. Shores, president and founder of the Atlanta, Georgia, based EMSI. "Through the EDI Gateway Manager, we are transforming the healthcare industry by introducing technologies that will manage efficiently the labor intensive and voluminous process of transferring claims information from healthcare providers to insurance payers. We are committed to meeting HIPAA standards and delivering a technologically advanced product."

The EMSI EDI Gateway Manager and the Mercator e-Business Broker Suite provide complementary functionality for numerous clients transforming their businesses to e-businesses, such as New York State-Children's Health Insurance Plan and ADVICA Health Resources of Long Island, among others. The joint solution is scaleable and flexible and will meet any changes in HIPAA standards.

"While cost control has long been a health care industry imperative, compliance with HIPAA regulations is now a major driver of key technology decisions, especially e-business integration" said Connie Galley, president and CEO Mercator. "Our agreement with EMSI further illustrates Mercator's commitment to work with complementary, best-of-breed e-business solution providers, and demonstrates our focus on helping healthcare organizations satisfy the HIPAA requirements."

About EMSI

Founded in 1995, EMSI, Inc. specializes in the transformation of data for use within electronic communication applications. EMSI consultants are experts in developing web presences and systems that communicate business transactions amongst diverse trading partners. Rigorous project management techniques and highly effective systems development methodologies are utilized extensively throughout each development or design effort.

EMSI, Inc. is a privately held firm incorporated in the state of Georgia, with its principal office located in Downtown, Atlanta. EMSI's goal is to market strategic application interfaces or business processes to all vertical marketplaces.

www.emsi-inc.net

www.hipaasurvival.com

The EDI Gateway Manager is a registered trademark of EMSI, Inc.

About Mercator

Mercator is a leading provider of integration software for e-business transformation. Our products are designed to automate the end-to-end integration of the commerce chain, enabling the seamless flow of information throughout the enterprise and with the applications of customers and partners. With Mercator, customers can lock in the benefits of e-business through the adaptive transformation of business processes, while leveraging current technology investments at every step.

More than 5,000 customers, across every industry, use our software to accelerate their transformation to e-business. Over 100 partners, including application software providers, systems integrators and Net markets, embed or resell our technology to enhance their product or service offerings. Additional information about Mercator can be found at www.mercator.com.

Mercator is a registered trademark of Mercator Software, Inc. "the e-business transformation company" is a trademark of Mercator Software, Inc.

Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding Mercator software's beliefs, expectations, hopes or intentions regarding the future. Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the growth of the enterprise application market, the demand for the company's application integration solutions and the speed of deployment of new products, including combined Mercator e-business integration broker products. It is important to note that actual outcomes and the company's actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include risks and uncertainties such as changes in demand for application integration or e-business integration software and the company's Mercator e-business integration broker suite of products in particular, the ability of the company to expand its international operations, the ability of the company to manage expanded global operations, the ability of the company to continue to add resellers and other distribution channels, and the success of third parties in utilizing and marketing the company's products, or seasonality in operating results. Readers should also refer to the risk disclosures outlined in the company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements and reasons why results might differ included in this release are made as of the date hereof, based on information available to the company as of the date hereof, and the company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement or reasons why results might differ.