SmarTeam Announces New Technology Initiative for Product and Plant Information Exchange and Enterprise Application Integration

    The iXF Standard Leverages XML-based Technology For Secure, Quick and
     Effective Collaborative Product Commerce; Easy-to-deploy Enterprise
     Application Integration Component for the Manufacturing Supply Chain

    BEVERLY, Mass., March 5 Smart Solutions, a
Dassault Systemes company and its America's subsidiary,
SmarTeam Inc., today announced the creation of a new XML-based industry
standard for integrating and exchanging product, plant, or project information
throughout Discrete and Process manufacturing enterprises and their supply
chains.  Backed by Dassault Systemes, the iXF format provides a simple and
powerful way for OEMs, parts suppliers, and any participant in the product or
plant development chain to exchange information electronically, accurately and
securely.
    The iXF format is also utilized by SmarTeam and third-party developers as
a key component for ERP, CRM and other legacy application integration, and as
a basis for a number of new, untethered applications for creating, reading,
viewing, updating and deleting product, plant and other related information.
The iXF format specification is open and published, and available free of
charge.  More information can be found at http://www.ixfstd.org .
    The iXF format is based on XML, and is compatible with a wide array of
business data exchange conventions, including Microsoft(R) Corporation's
BizTalk and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).  It enables the transfer of
a self-describing collection of objects and associated files between two
systems.  Created by SmarTeam for deployment in its collaborative product
commerce (CPC) solutions, iXF is most suitable for sharing product and plant
item geometry (drawings and CAD models) and product or plant item content
(meta data) by transferring data and metadata from one iXF-enabled system to
another.
    "Traditionally, the huge amount of information associated with product
design is stored and controlled by conventional product data management (PDM)
systems, which manage design information and files primarily within
engineering departments," stated Avichay Nissenbaum, Smart Solutions' Vice
President of Product Marketing.  "Today, the product development process
crosses departmental and enterprise boundaries and includes customers and
suppliers in the process.  The iXF standard will enable faster, more accurate
and standards-based product content exchange throughout the value network,
streamlining the product development collaboration cycle."
    The iXF format enables the integration of product data stored in a
SmarTeam database with existing legacy systems, and facilitates the exchange
of information between organizational departments and across a supply chain.
iXF can be independently extended and customized to meet specific business
requirements, enabling any two parties to utilize iXF to define a common
language between them, creating a virtual, seamless partnership.  Internet-
based standards enable easy transportation and simplify integration with other
existing systems.

    About Smart Solutions Ltd.
    Smart Solutions Ltd., a Dassault Systemes S.A. company,
develops and markets rapidly implemented, yet totally customizable, Windows
and Web-centric collaborative product commerce (CPC) and product data
management (PDM) solutions between teams, within the enterprise and throughout
the supply chain.  Smart Solutions was founded in 1995 and is one of the
fastest-growing companies in the data management market with over
1,400 customers worldwide.  SmarTeam's broad solutions portfolio enables
small-to-medium-sized manufacturing organizations and their supply chains to
efficiently exchange, track and manage design information related to product
development from concept to realization.  SmarTeam's solutions help companies
gain improvements in product quality, reduce costs, expedite project
turnaround, comply with industry standards and shorten-time-to-market.
    For more information, contact:  SmarTeam Inc., Smart Solutions' American
subsidiary. SmarTeam Inc., 900 Cummings Center, Suite 307T, Beverly, Mass.
01915, tel:  978-524-1950.  E-mail:  info@smarteam.com, or visit the company's
website at http://www.smarteam.com .