eBreviate Completes Eight Successful Online Business-to-Business Downward Auctions in Eight Days

Auctions Totaling $190 Million Conducted for Clients in Europe and North America

CHICAGO, Illinois (April 19, 2000) EDS CoNext today announced eBreviate, a business unit of CoNext offering market leading e-sourcing tools and technologies, successfully completed a
company record run of eight downward auctions in eight days covering a wide range of goods and services. The downward, or reverse, auctions were carried out across the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom with auction spend amounts ranging from US$1 million to US$138 million.

Companies received bids from as many as 28 suppliers and realized auction-generated savings as high as 20%. Savings percentages were measured both as pre-auction benchmark savings, established by RFP with the help of eBreviate auction managers, and as incremental savings from the auction itself. One eBreviate auction came in with a combined benchmark and auction-generated savings of 47%, while others reached as high as 36%.

"E-sourcing tools and technologies are now a ubiquitous part of corporate procurement strategy", said Niul Burton, president of CoNext's eBreviate Business Unit. "The results we've seen in just eight days are indicative of the types of auctions we expect to see performed for thousands of companies all over the globe. The companies today using auctions and other e-sourcing tools from eBreviate are enjoying a head start, and realizing significant savings in both time and money."

eBreviate provides Web-based solutions that enable corporations to take the time, cost, and inefficiencies out of buying. Already one of the most active downward auction providers, eBreviate's total-cost Internet auctions have handled single auction transaction sizes ranging from US$1 million
to US$200 million. eBreviate's clients include industry leading corporations in manufacturing, consumer goods, information technology, electronics, energy, healthcare, automotive,
telecommunications and utilities across Europe and North America.

eBreviate auction managers worked together with the clients' procurement teams to develop auction strategies leading up to the start of the auctions. Suppliers were identified, qualified and invited to the auctions as bidders. RFPs were, for the most part, issued and submitted allowing the client's procurement organizations to establish benchmark prices against which incremental auction savings could be measured. The eight eBreviate auctions included such varied goods and services
as cell phones and monthly minute plans for Entergy; turned parts for Bosch Automotive; custom metal surgical components for U.S. Surgical, a unit of Tyco Healthcare; technical temporary labor for EDS Canada; plastic molded auto parts for a tier one auto parts manufacturer; technical computer labor for Rohm & Haas; tolling compounds for NOVA Chemicals and finally, conductor and surface casings for a major oil and gas company.

The eBreviate auctions were all held at the client site where auction war rooms were set up to permit eBreviate auction mangers and buyers to communicate online with bidders, while executive teams observed the action from adjacent viewing rooms. Most auctions were completed in as little as two
hours with several events receiving more than 1,000 different bids. Most of the auctions featured eBreviate's unique total-cost functionality where clients set multiple bidding parameters in addition to just cost. Bidders entered prices that took into account variables such as delivery time, hourly rates
and mark-up. These more complex auctions are being pioneered by eBreviate and allow more accurate data for clients to use to issue immediate post-auction contracts. Reaction from auction participants was enthusiastic "We applaud the eBreviate team for enabling the online auctionÉthe results surpassed our expectations," said Kerry Sabathia, senior sourcing manager at Entergy.

Patricia Moser, director of purchasing at EDS Canada, supervised her company's auction and observed that "the online auction defines the new procurement paradigm in the digital economy. Decisions can now be made in procurement organizations at what is comparatively lightning speed. Using traditional procurement methodology the process would have taken six months. With the use of eBreviate's tools and technology this time frame was shrunk to 10 weeks. Better savings are achieved faster and that can mean millions of dollars to the bottom-line of organizations."

EDS CoNextª, an EDS company, is a leader in full-service, Internet-enabled, B2B procurement solutions. The company delivers value to Global 1000 clients via its breakthrough service
offerings-including Leveraged Sourcing NetworksSM, a series of strategically managed netmarkets, and eBreviate with its eSourcing tools and technologies that provide web-enabled, total-cost downward auction solutions. Headquartered in Chicago, IL, CoNext is supported by the technology strength, electronic business capabilities and resources of EDS and the strategic sourcing expertise of A.T. Kearney, the EDS global management consultancy. To learn more about EDS CoNext visit its web site at www.edsconext.com and www.ebreviate.com

About EDS CoNext
EDS CoNextª, an EDS company, is a leader in full-service, Internet-enabled, B2B procurement solutions. The company delivers value to Global 1000 clients via its breakthrough service
offerings-including Leveraged Sourcing NetworksSM, a series of strategically managed netmarkets, and eBreviate with its eSourcing tools and technologies that provide web-enabled, total-cost downward auction solutions. Headquartered in Chicago, IL, CoNext is supported by the technology strength, electronic business capabilities and resources of EDS and the strategic sourcing expertise of A.T. Kearney, the EDS global management consultancy. To learn more about EDS CoNext visit its web site at www.edsconext.com and www.ebreviate.com.

About EDS
EDS is a recognized global leader in providing E-business and information technology services to 9,000 business and government clients in about 50 countries around the world. Having founded the IT services industry more than 35 years ago, EDS delivers high value management consulting, electronic business solutions, business process management, and systems and technology expertise to help clients simplify complexity and achieve superior value in the digital economy. The company brings deep industry practice knowledge to solve challenges in a wide variety of industries, including communications, energy and chemicals, financial services, government, healthcare, products and retailing, and travel and transportation. EDS reported revenues of $18.5 billion in 1999.
The company's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:EDS) and the London Stock Exchange. To find out more about the EDS vision, visit EDS via the Internet at www.eds.com.

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