ALPNET Completes Restructuring
Strong Foundation for Efficient and Profitable Operations And
Distinctive Value Offering to Fortune 1000 Companies
SALT LAKE CITY, March 26 ALPNET , one of the
largest providers of multilingual information management services, today
announces completion of its restructuring plan that was initiated in November
of last year. The actions included the strengthening of ALPNET's customer
service, adjustments in the technology focus, and increase of production
outsourcing. As a result, ALPNET expects solid growth and profitability in
2001 with improved and distinctive value for ALPNET's customers.
"We now have the foundation for profitable and efficient operations as
well as a compelling and distinctive value offering to customers," comments
Mike Eichner, Chairman and Acting CEO of ALPNET. "We expect to start seeing
the positive results of our restructuring plan in the second quarter with
solid growth and profitability for the year 2001."
The strengthening of ALPNET's customer service included the recruitment of
around 20 new business development and account managers with strong industry
and commercial experience, as well as the growth of the consulting team. In
Europe, ALPNET has appointed Luc van Haute as European Sales Director. Luc
comes to ALPNET with more than thirteen years international experience in our
industry, previously working for Berlitz and Lernout & Hauspie's localization
division. In addition, ALPNET appointed several new Business Development
Managers and organized the European sales team on an international basis. In
Ireland, ALPNET has appointed Gretta Fitzgerald as country manager. Gretta
comes to ALPNET with fifteen years of experience in the localization industry,
previously working for Lionbridge. The European consulting team was further
expanded to meet the growing demand for ALPNET's InfoCycle(TM) consulting
expertise. In North America, ALPNET completed the formation of the Business
Development team under Renato Beninatto, Vice President of US Sales. New
business development managers have been appointed in New York City, Detroit,
San Francisco, Charlotte, Portland, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.
Adjustments in ALPNET's technology focus were made as a result of customer
feedback. ALPNET was building its technology with a focus of becoming a
full-scale Application Service Provider. In the year 2000, ALPNET contracted
a data warehouse for the hosting of customers' information databases. ALPNET
also increased its communications bandwidth in anticipation of a dramatic
increase in traffic as a result of the ASP model. Large corporations,
however, appear to be hesitant in migrating to this new model of buying
technology and services. As part of the restructuring plan, ALPNET has now
been able to cut back on third party commitments for data warehousing and
communications. ALPNET has also improved the flexibility of the
ALPNETXchange(TM) technology platform. Processes are built up in a standard
workflow management system, allowing for easy customization. The new
technology focus is based on building customized solutions as part of a long-
term services agreement. ALPNET is also increasing its consulting teams to
respond to the growing demand for technology-based solutions.
"Since ALPNET was building its technology with a focus of becoming a full-
scale Application Service Provider, we had developed an extensive technology
and communications infrastructure," says Jaap van der Meer, President of
ALPNET. "Although customers appreciate ALPNET's leading edge technology for
enterprise-wide localization management, we were confronted with many ideas
for customization and adjustments in the design of the system. As customers
will generally agree, there is no 'one size fits all' in the localization
services market. Every customer has specific file formats, specific
management processes and wishes for interaction with their service partners.
As we were trying to build a generic system, we have learned that this is
practically impossible. Our new customized technology focus combined with our
strong consulting skills puts ALPNET in a more distinctive position with large
customers searching for a powerful solution for localization management."
Commenting on ALPNET's information management and consulting approach, the
Aberdeen Group, a leading IT market analysis and positioning services firm in
Boston, states in its weekly Newsletter of March 28, "Aberdeen believes that
ALPNET will continue to have success by moving a step beyond localization and
providing the services that store and manage information, as well as products
and services adapted for each individual customer."
"The restructuring helped us to accelerate our strategic plans of
increased production outsourcing and concentration of customer service,"
comments Charles Noall, Chief Operating Officer of ALPNET. "In the past
couple of months we have completed transactions for spin-off of the Swedish
and Spanish production offices and closure of the Brazilian and French
offices. We have strengthened our supply chain management function and we
have an outstanding team of software engineers and excellent testing
capabilities. By concentrating project management and account management
functions with particular industry focus in some of our larger operations, we
are able to improve the quality of customer care and increase operational
efficiencies. The implementation of the various modules of ALPNETXchange(TM)
allows us to move more quickly than many of our competitors to a more
efficient operational model of centralized customer service and increased
outsourcing. We have now fully implemented our global sales management
system, which helps us to improve our effectiveness with global opportunities.
It also gives management instant access to the sales pipeline, which helps to
improve the predictability of our business. We have also implemented our
standard financial systems for all operations, and we will complete the
implementation of the project management and supply chain management modules
in the coming months."
About ALPNET, Inc.
ALPNET is one of the largest, publicly-owned, dedicated providers of
complete multilingual information management solutions, with a worldwide
network of offices and resources. A pioneer in its industry, ALPNET helps
corporations deploy into international markets faster and more efficiently,
through intelligent use and reuse of multilingual informational assets.
ALPNET offers an extensive range of services, based on innovative, proven
technologies, including strategic InfoCycle(TM) consulting, as well as Web,
software and document localization and publishing, in all business languages
and formats. Additional information about ALPNET is available at
http://www.alpnet.com. An investor package can be obtained by contacting Jose
Castaneda in our investor relations department.
Statements in this press release that present information, that is not
historical, are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements involve numerous
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially
different from estimated or expected results. Such risks and uncertainties
include, among others, changes in the Company's business model, adequate
funding for and effective implementation of the Company's current business
plan, fluctuating foreign currency exchange rates, changing levels of demand
for the Company's services, constantly changing general economic and political
conditions in all of the various countries in which the Company has
operations, the impact of competitive services and pricing, uncertainties
caused by clients (including the awarding and timing of projects and changes
in the scope of services requested), and other risks and uncertainties that
may be disclosed from time to time in future public statements or in documents
filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, no
assurance can be given as to future results.
InfoCycle(TM) and ALPNETXchange(TM) are registered trademarks of ALPNET,
Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
