Metalinfo Launches Atlas of World Metals; Risk-Free Trial Available at www.metalinfo.com

    CHICAGO--Sept. 16, 2002--based Metalinfo has announced a breakthrough in its software division that will create the world's most powerful online interactive metal-information portal. The upgrade makes it possible for companies on either side of the supply and demand chain to instantly access and match up detailed proprietary and society metal standards with the single click of a computer mouse.
    The new resource, called "Atlas of World Metals (TM)," will be launched on the company's Website (www.metalinfo.com) on September 16, 2002. Anyone interested in test-driving the new product for free may do so by visiting the website and obtaining a free password that remains valid for three days. No credit card or billing information will be collected, making it a true risk-free trial.
    "This product is the goal we have been working toward since we started," said Scott Swarm, president and CEO of Metalinfo and Eagle International Software, the Chicago company that has been the leading provider of informational technologies for the metal industry for the last 14 years. "We've been making incremental improvements on a regular basis. With this enhancement, it's like we've located the final piece to an interactive supply-and-demand puzzle."
    The software enhancement enables Metalinfo's powerful online search engine and extensive databases of global society standards and unique company profiles to "talk" to each other. The Metalinfo databases contain more than 160,000 global metal standards, more than 150,000 company profiles and thousands of dimensional tolerance standards. The data on standards and profiles is now dynamically linked so that companies seeking any types of metals can instantly locate prospective suppliers; suppliers in turn can identify companies that may be in need of their products.
    "In the past, Metalinfo users have been able to match company to company, grade to grade and standard to standard," Swarm said. "Now, we've finally been able to create a common language, so that anyone can search and access data from any point -- supplier, grade, spec or standard. Our objective has been to utilize the full potential of the Internet as a communications tool for the industry, and this is a major step in that direction."

    The Atlas of World Metals is available in three formats: 1) as an online membership; 2) fully customized for a corporate Intranet; or 3) on CD.

    Started in 1988, Metalinfo has more than 2,500 client in more than 100 countries. In addition to its online informational services and CD products, Metalinfo also offers customized solutions to companies' problems and needs. These include creation of custom Intranet, Extranet and public website solutions.