Kawasaki Celebrates Anniversary of Its e-Commerce Site; ARI's EMPARTweb Electronic Parts Catalog Provides Key Content for Site

    MILWAUKEE--May 1, 2001--ARI Network Services, Inc. , a leading provider of Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and business-to-business (B2B) Internet e-Commerce solutions for equipment manufacturers with shared service and distribution networks announced that Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. (Kawasaki), of Irvine, California, celebrated the first anniversary of the successful launching of its buykawasaki.com e-Commerce network on April 5. ARI's EMPARTweb(TM) electronic parts catalog is an integral component of the site, which was designed and built by Click Commerce, Inc. , a leading provider of channel management software and services. EMPARTweb supports the parts catalog in both the business-to-consumer (B2C) as well as B2B portions of the overall system.
    Kawasaki's goals for their website were to provide an additional sales channel, to serve new markets, and to improve existing partner and customer relationships. The integration of EMPARTweb provides dealers with parts lists and illustrations for Kawasaki's Jet Ski(TM) watercraft, motorcycles, ATVs and generator lines. Nearly 4 million customers and Kawasaki dealers have visited the website since its rollout. The EMPARTweb-powered catalog section of the site averages over 27,000 visitors per month, with over 340,000 parts illustrations viewed since the site went live.
    "On behalf of all of us at Kawasaki, I want to share with ARI our appreciation for a job well done," said Roger Peterson, vice president of information systems at Kawasaki, on the one year anniversary of the site's launching. "Thanks in part to all of ARI's hard work and the quality and ease of integration of ARI's parts catalog with the Click Commerce channel management software, Kawasaki was not only the first in the industry to launch a B2C e-Commerce site, but the first to do it successfully."
    "It's great to get this kind of feedback," said Brian E. Dearing, chairman and chief executive officer of ARI. "Kawasaki is a flagship customer and was the first customer to use our EMPARTweb electronic catalog as part of the B2C side of e-Commerce. We are also pleased to have worked with Click Commerce, who created this very comprehensive B2B/B2C site. We look forward to providing Kawasaki the parts cataloging tools they need now and in the future to help make their website a continued success."
    Dearing indicated that EMPARTweb is part of ARI's suite of electronic catalog products and services. "We believe our catalog suite is the best available for parts explosion style catalogs," Dearing said. "A key reason for the quality of our offering is our many, many years of experience in electronic parts management and our relationships with over 100 manufacturers. We offer both Web and CD-based catalog viewer software, as well as common publishing software that feeds both environments. Furthermore, our publishing and catalog consulting services are second to none. Our strategy is to provide a single, integrated family of electronic catalog products and services that allow manufacturers to publish their data once and then use the resulting data for both the Web and CD."

    Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A., sells Kawasaki brand power products, motorcycles, Jet Ski(TM) watercraft, ATVs, and MULE utility vehicles. The company, with corporate headquarters in Irvine, California, employs over 600 people in the United States, with over 400 of them located at the Irvine headquarters.

    ARI Network Services, Inc. is a leading provider of PRM/e-Commerce solutions for sales, service and life-cycle product support in the manufactured equipment market. ARI currently serves over 100 manufacturers and 20,000 dealers in more than 100 countries in 12 segments of the worldwide manufactured equipment market including outdoor power, recreation vehicle, floor maintenance, auto and truck parts aftermarket, powersports, marine and construction. The Company builds and supports a full suite of multi-media electronic catalog publishing and viewing software for the Web or CD. ARI communications systems provide a global electronic pathway for parts orders, product registrations, warranty claims and other transactions between manufacturers and their networks of sales and service points. ARI currently operates three offices in the United States and one in Europe and has sales and service agents in Australia, England and France providing marketing and support of its electronic catalog and dealer communications products.