Horizon Companies Expands Operations Into Canada; Leading-Edge Telecom, Enterprise Developer Opens in Toronto and Vancouver

Business Wire, July 29, 2002

Business/Technology Editors

EDISON, N.J. & VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 29, 2002

Horizon to Leverage Offshore Operations in India and China for

Canadian Clients; Will Provide Expertise in Wireless, IP Telephony,

ERP, SAP, Oracle, and E-commerce

Horizon Companies, Inc., a leading U.S.-based software developer and I.T. systems integrator, today announced that is has expanded its operations into Canada with the establishment of full-service offices in Toronto and Vancouver.

Horizon will serve a growing Canadian client base in the telecom software and enterprise integration businesses and will provide Canadian firms with cost-effective offshore development services through its India-based division, Trans Horizon Consulting Pvt. Ltd. In addition, Horizon will help develop business ventures for Canadian telecom firms in China through its joint venture, Teksen Horizon Systems Ltd.

According to LYA International, the Canadian telecom service industry is currently a $35 billion market, with revenue growth projected to grow at a 9% rate through 2006.

The recent expansion into Canada enables Horizon to more efficiently provide its highly-skilled, cost-effective I.T. integration and development services for high-end projects, both in telecom and corporate markets. Trans Horizon operates development centers in Mumbai and Pune, and has provided services for U.S. clients, including AT&T, Lucent, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW). Based in Hong Kong, Teksen Horizon will enable Horizon to establish channels for Canadian partners and customers looking to expand into the Asia-Pacific market.

"The Canadian market is now looking, as has been the case with the U.S. for some time, to greater offshore resources that can be effectively managed for telecom and I.T. projects," said Girish Nadkarni, executive vice president of Horizon Companies. "We will leverage our considerable technical expertise and our offshore resources in India to serve a full range of clients and projects, of any scale, with the industry's most accomplished, cost-effective software development team."

Horizon has previously worked with such renowned Canadian firms as Bell Mobility (Toronto: BCE.TO), Nortel (NYSE: NT), and Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO) on a variety of projects, including work through its mobile products and services subsidiary, Mobiliti, Inc. (www.mobiliti.com).

The company will offer services to Canadian clients by leveraging its skilled enterprise divisions, which have recently completed Oracle implementation work for public utility PSE&G Global, as well as SAP implementations for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.

Horizon Companies' Canadian operation will also look to replicate the company's stellar reputation inside the U.S. telecom industry, largely built upon groundbreaking software innovation and efficient project management, that has created products such as the Lucent Softswitch, for Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU); AT&T Click2Dial for AT&T (NYSE: T); QuickTrend, and the GeoVideo Browser. Horizon has incubated several companies, including Mobiliti, BeLinked, DomainGo, and Kirusa, which recently received funding from Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) and Innovacom, France Telecom (NYSE: FTE)'s venture capital subsidiary.

To reach Horizon Canada's British Columbia office, call (604) 502-8991 or contact K. Jayaprakash at jp@horizoncompanies.com. To reach Horizon Canada's Ontario office, call 905-696-0592 or contact Arun Rajan at arunr@horizoncompanies.com.

Horizon Companies, Inc.

Horizon Companies, Inc., based in Edison, New Jersey, is a leading software development and I.T. systems integration company. Founded in 1989, Horizon has also brought several leading-edge technology products to market through its incubator program, which includes such companies as Mobiliti, BeLinked, and Kirusa. Horizon operates in the U.S. and Canada, and operates a subsidiary in India (Trans Horizon Consulting Pvt. Ltd.) and a joint venture in China (Teksen Horizon Systems Ltd.). Horizon excels in all phases of I.T. development, including ERP, CRM, IP telephony, SAP, Oracle, e-commerce, and Web site design. Horizon Companies maintains strategic partnerships with AT&T, Business Objects, Cognos, Ernst & Young LLP, Lotus/IBM, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, Oracle, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, SAP, and Sun Microsystems. For more information, visit www.horizoncompanies.com.

Trans Horizon Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Trans Horizon Consulting Pvt. Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Horizon Companies Inc., was launched in India in 1999 to facilitate offshore development for software projects initiated by Horizon Companies in the U.S. Trans Horizon has successfully undertaken and completed projects for major clients in the US and Asian markets, including AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems and has expanded its focus to the Gulf Market. Trans Horizon's expertise in project planning and management is complemented by a highly qualified technical workforce, which are based in two development centers in Mumbai and Pune, India. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.transhorizon.com.