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Aspect Development Announces New Vice President - Automotive Business

11 October 1999

Aspect Development Announces New Vice President - Automotive Business

   Steven W. Kester, Former Head of Andersen Consulting's Global Automotive
             Supply Chain Practice Joins Aspect Development, Inc.

    MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 11 -- Aspect Development, Inc.
today announced the appointment of Steven W. Kester, formerly
responsible for Andersen Consulting's global automotive supply chain practice,
as Vice President - Automotive business, reporting to Bob Evans, President &
COO.
    "Rapid changes in the automotive industry have created a growing set of
opportunities for Aspect in the product development, sourcing, procurement and
operations areas of auto manufacturers and their suppliers worldwide," said
Aspect president and COO Bob Evans.  "Steve is precisely the leader we need to
build on our success with existing automotive customers like Ford, Dana,
Navistar and Visteon, and take this to the next level."
    Kester began his career at General Electric Company as a design engineer
in their aerospace business.  He then spent 5 years at Deloitte & Touche in
their supply chain strategy practice.  Joining Andersen Consulting's supply
chain practice in 1994, he most recently was the director of their global
automotive supply chain practice.  Kester has worked across a variety of
industries and companies including such automotive leaders as DaimlerChrysler,
Ford, Harley-Davidson, Deere & Co. and others.
    "Three trends will drive the global automotive industry over the next few
years," said Kester.  "First, we expect to see further mergers, acquisitions
and alliances at both the manufacturer and supplier level.  Aspect's Inbound
Supply Chain Management solutions are particularly well-suited to
rationalizing components and sources in these situations and driving out
redundant costs as the consolidation occurs.  Next, the Internet has clearly
ushered in the era of eCommerce across the automotive industry.  Our
eProcurement solutions support the effort to reduce indirect material (often
called "MRO") costs and achieve a greater degree of collaboration between OEMs
(Original Equipment Manufacturers) and their supply base.  Finally, the race
is on to accelerate the product development process.  Our eDesign solution has
already proven it's ability to not only get products to market 25-50% faster,
but to reduce the direct material costs of these products as well.  I have
been particularly impressed by Aspect's blue chip automotive customer base and
believe that there is substantial growth potential in this global industry
over the next few years."
    Kester holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia
Tech and an MBA from the Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania.  He
will be based in Atlanta.

    About Aspect Development, Inc.
Aspect Development, Inc. is the global leader in e-Business solutions for
Inbound Supply Chain Management.  Aspect's solutions reduce product cost and
operations expense and speed new product introduction by providing strategic
decision support for product development, procurement, and operations to
companies in all industries.  Aspect's solutions combine its enterprise
software, content products and rapid deployment services, to deliver a large
value proposition quickly, at low risk.  Aspect's eDesign, eSource and
eOperate solutions are being used by many of the largest companies worldwide
to optimize their inbound supply chains; to provide the information bridge
between product development, procurement and operations; to collaborate
closely with the supplier base; and to technology-enable and automate best
practices such as strategic sourcing, e-procurement, design for supply chain,
design reuse, and lifecycle management.  AspectWeb is a leading B-B knowledge
portal through which Aspect delivers the world's most complete and current
content on production components and MRO materials and supplies to customers
and partners.

    eXplore, eXplore2000, eDesign, eSource, eOperate, Aspect eContent, Aspect
eSupply, and AspectWeb are trademarks of Aspect Development.  All other
trademarks or registered trademarks belong to their respective holders.