Business Engine Selected By Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield Of New Jersey To Drive Business Efficiencies Across The Organization

Business Engine, the leading provider of enterprise service automation software applications, today announced that Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has selected The Business Engine Network(TM) [The BEN(TM)] to manage its critical portfolio of projects and resources across the entire enterprise. Horizon BCBSNJ will leverage The Business Engine Network to bring predictability and consistency to its project portfolio and resource management practices by continuously aligning operational execution with corporate strategy.

"With The Business Engine Network, we'll have real-time information about our return on investment, our IT spending, and our resource conflicts," said Pamela T. Miller, Esq., Vice President of Enterprise Strategy and Quality at Horizon BCBSNJ. "We'll be able to manage our resources better, particularly people and dollars, and we'll have greater precision around implementation and issue resolution."

As New Jersey's largest health insurer, Horizon BCBSNJ invests millions of dollars annually on IT to support a wide range of business applications, including the processing of approximately 25 million health claims each year. The Business Engine Network will enable the Company's management team to oversee a portfolio of complex projects and initiatives to meet Horizon BCBSNJ's changing business and technology requirements, and support the Company's ongoing efforts to ensure compliance with applicable statutes and regulations."

The Business Engine Network is a collaborative software solution that provides the visibility and control that IT and R&D managers need to continually balance their portfolio projects and assets - people, time and money - against value, risk and capacity.

"We have an aggressive agenda," added Ray Gannon, Director of Strategic Planning at Horizon BCBSNJ. "We need a way to help us execute against management directives on a day-to-day basis. The BEN is critical to delivering on our strategy and keeping all our stakeholders in the loop."

Horizon BCBSNJ expects approximately 600 users within the company throughout the enterprise including IT, healthcare management, compliance, service and marketing. Users will leverage The Business Engine Network's shared collaborative workspace and integrated project, resource and budget management applications to help increase efficiency, avoid bottlenecks, and identify and fix problems before they cause expensive delays. This will produce cost savings, on time project delivery, and increased client satisfaction.

Horizon BCBSNJ will initially roll out The Business Engine Network to a core group of users, who will use it to manage 50 key projects. The projects managed through the Business Engine Network include large efforts involving over 100 team members as well as initiatives involving outside vendors. In the first phase, Horizon BCBSNJ's goal is to ensure that power users - the 'go to' people involved in each project - adopt and fully embrace The BEN.

"Relationships with companies like Horizon BCBSNJ demonstrate our continuing commitment to helping customers manage their core technology function," said John O'Neil, Business Engine Chairman and CEO. "The Business Engine Network will allow Horizon BCBSNJ to strengthen its competitive position within the marketplace, streamlining its development of new healthcare products and services."

Horizon BCBSNJ began using Business Engine products in 1997. It decided to upgrade to the Web-based Business Engine Network from the client/server product, Business Engine 5.x, after a competitive review of 12 products. Horizon BCBSNJ found The BEN offered better portfolio management, problem anticipation and scenario planning capabilities, as well as the ability to allow third parties involved in critical projects to participate as virtual team members. Horizon BCBSNJ has rolled out an internal training program called "BEN Basics" to educate potential users on the 'basics' of collaboration, document management and project communication. This will ensure that everyone can utilize The BEN effectively.

About Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, provides health care products and services to 2.8 million people. Since 1932, the company has offered products and services designed to meet the changing health care needs of its customers. For more information, visit the company's website at www.horizon-bcbsnj.com.

About Business Engine

Founded in 1987, Business Engine solves portfolio project, resource and financial management issues for large global IT, engineering and R&D organizations. 430 blue chip customers use Business Engine products, including market leaders from the aerospace and defense, financial services, and pharmaceuticals industries such as Boeing, Deutsche Bank, Elan, Ericsson, GE Card Services, Fidelity, Honeywell, Merrill Lynch, Pharmacia and Siemens. The company's flagship product, The Business Engine Network(TM), (The BEN(TM)) is a collaborative software solution that provides IT, R&D and engineering managers the visibility and control they need to continually balance their portfolio of projects and assets - people, time and money - against value, risk and capacity.