Alenia Aeronautica Signs $4.5 Million Contract with IBM for ENOVIAPM to Support Process Re-Engineerig Initiative

Alenia Aeronautica, a leading manufacturer of military and civil aircraft, IBM* and ENOVIA** Corp. announce the signature of a $4.5 million, four-year contract with IBM for ENOVIApm** (ProductManager)and associated services.

Turin, Italy, July 23rd, 1998--Alenia Aeronautica will use ENOVIAPMto support aircraft development from concept design through customer support.

The decision was made after extensive evaluation of ENOVIAPM key functions such as configuration management, computer-aided design integration, workflow, data modeling and bill of materials requirements. ENOVIAPM will provide common access to entire data sets which define physical and functional characteristics of a particular aircraft. It will also support multi-disciplinary teams including design, engineering, manufacturing, procurement, customer support and others in their efforts to develop new aircraft design in a concurrent environment.

"To support our competitiveness, we are re-engineering our processes to transform the way we do business," says Giuseppe Ombra, Chief Engineering and PDM Project Manager at Alenia. "Our product development strategy is based on the concurrent engineering approach, and for this reason we see a PDM system as a fundamental tool. After reviewing the products in the marketplace we concluded that ENOVIAPMis the correct choice for us."

Alenia Aeronautica intends to implement full capabilities of ENOVIAPM over time as new projects are started. Initially, ENOVIAPMservices will be used in the Eurofighter project to manage data exchange with other European partner companies supporting the European Fighter Aircraft.

Stephen Murdoch, Global PDM II Business Director for IBM, adds, "We are extremely pleased with Alenia's decision to use ENOVIAPM. With the ENOVIA products and IBM implementation and consulting services we can help companies get to market faster with newer products. Using the ENOVIA software infrastructure means companies can digitally simulate new product development, along with necessary resources and even the physical manufacturing facility in an integrated and much faster manner."

ENOVIA Chief Executive Officer, Joel Lemke, says, "ENOVIAPMis the leading application suite in the Product Data Management category and is ideal for complex aerospace development and manufacturing requirements. It is a critical part of the ENOVIA Corporation's total efforts to bring leading PDM II solutions to customers in every manufacturing category and help them gain a competitive advantage."