May 27, 1998 - MAPICS, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise-wide planning solutions to manufacturers, and International Business Systems (IBS), a leading international supplier of distribution and supply chain software, today announced the intent to form a co-operative development effort based on IBM SanFrancisco(TM) Java(TM) business process components. Through the partnership, MAPICS and IBS intend to develop hardware platform-independent, component-based business software using IBM SanFrancisco to gain market share in the growing supply chain software marketplace.

Under the terms of the proposed agreement, IBS and MAPICS would focus on the application areas where they have specific strengths and share information to complete a fully integrated system. The companies intend to market and distribute this future suite of applications as different entities and under separate brands, IBS and MAPICS.

MAPICS will focus on delivering manufacturing software to the partnership. IBS will initially focus on delivering distribution and logistics software to the product development partnership.

IBM SanFrancisco provides an industry standard set of Java business components and application frameworks, including software tools that allow application developers to focus on constructing their own business software, decreasing time to market and removing the requirement of developing a proprietary framework.

IBM SanFrancisco - www.ibm.com/java/sanfrancisco

International Business Systems - www.ibs.se or www.ibsibs.com

MAPICS, Inc. - www.mapics.com

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