Newport News Shipbuilding Chooses ENOVIA e-business solutions and IBM Global Services to Optimize Design, Development and Construction for New Ships

Newport News Shipbuilding, IBM and Dassault Systemes (NASDAQ:DASTY) today announced that ENOVIA e-business solutions along with IBM Global Services will be used to optimize and support design, development and construction of all future ships.

Newport News, Virginia, March 24, 2000--ENOVIA e-business solutions help companies speed product innovation while simultaneously managing the huge amounts of data generated in the development process, by enabling collaboration between teams that are often located in multiple locations. ENOVIAPM is a part of the ENOVIA Portfolio**, a set of solutions that help manufacturers gain competitive leadership by allowing them to electronically manage all aspects of the product life cycle. IBM’s Engineering Solutions business unit and IBM Business Partners worldwide sell, market and support ENOVIA e-business solutions.

The ENOVIAPM solution will be used for product data and document management and will act as an interface to both the engineering and manufacturing software used by Newport News Shipbuilding. The ENOVIAPM software will track more than four million parts, two million designs, drawings and revisions and another two million bill-of-material configurations.

It is expected that more than 1,000 Newport News Shipbuilding employees will use the ENOVIAPM e-business solution when in full production. To minimize any impact on operational activities, the implementation will be initiated in stages and is expected to be completed within the next year.

"The configuration management features and the tight linkages to our CAD and ERP software made ENOVIA the obvious choice for us," said Steve Hassell, chief information officer, Newport News Shipbuilding. He later added, "With such a huge project we are especially pleased about the end-to-end support we are getting from IBM Global Services."

Newport News Shipbuilding chose ENOVIA as part of an extensive re-engineering effort. One key goal is to reduce production delays by helping product designers access information on existing parts and designs using a central repository, thereby minimizing or eliminating the time it takes for redesigns.

Scott Hopkins, vice president digital enterprise sales, IBM Engineering Solutions added, "Newport News Shipbuilding is a leader in designing, building and maintaining military and commercial vessels. With such a large enterprise and complex logistics, software alone is rarely sufficient to deliver corporate-wide benefits -- that's why IBM e-business solutions include substantial implementation support. The double-win combination of ENOVIA and IBM Global Services will help ensure Newport News Shipbuilding will reach even higher levels of efficiency and competitiveness."

Joel Lemke, Chief Executive Officer of ENOVIA Corp., said, "ENOVIA is a proven solution that can handle the largest requirements from a company like Newport News Shipbuilding. We're proud to be playing a role in its drive for more efficiency and lower costs."