Intuitive celebrates 10th year as enterprise solution provider for small and mid-size manufacturers

Kirkland, Washington ? April 1, 2004 ? Intuitive Manufacturing Systems, a leading provider of enterprise resource planning software for small and medium-sized manufacturers, announced today its 10-year anniversary.

?In 1994, we had to decide between the status quo of a PICK/UNIX system and putting a Windows wrapper around that old technology, or making the bold step of completely reengineering the product in the Windows environment. We obviously chose to be on the leading edge of technology in 1994 and now, ten years later, Intuitive is continuing this vision by leading the market into the new generation of software technology: Microsoft .NET.?, said Sara Gillam, Intuitive CEO. ?We are proud to have been delivering state-of-the-art solutions to our customer base for the past ten years and we are looking forward with excitement towards our next ten.?

In 1994, the founders of the ERP vendor PRO:MAN sold all interest in the company and started new, forming Intuitive. Since then, Intuitive has pioneered the development of enterprise software for small and midsize manufacturers around the world. The flagship product, Intuitive ERP, was uniquely designed from the ground up with 100 percent pure Microsoft technology and with well-established manufacturing practices in mind. The relative youthfulness of the company provides an organization and a development environment free from the burdens of supporting legacy systems; however, the company is founded on a solid foundation of thirty years of experience in manufacturing systems.

Intuitive''s first product, MRP9000, was built around the concept that the software should support standard business cycles and that the underlying technology should be flexible and affordable. Standard manufacturing and accounting practices such as those prescribed by APICS and GAAP were the building blocks of the product. The marriage between the founder?s depth of experience and the performance of Microsoft technology allowed Intuitive to quickly deliver very sophisticated solutions and economic value to small and midsize manufacturers. The product has since matured into a complete ERP software system designed to manage all aspects of a manufacturing organization.

Intuitive continues to support advances in technology and is currently building the next generation of manufacturing enterprise software using pure Microsoft .NET technology. After 18 months of research and development, on June 29, 2001 Intuitive completed a prototype of its Microsoft .NET architectural framework and released a plan to convert the entire Intuitive ERP product ?every feature, every line of code?to pure .NET technology.

With the release of Intuitive ERP 6.0 in December 2002, the second phase of this plan was complete. Intuitive ERP 6.0 was the first ERP product to release several areas of functionality built on a 100 percent Microsoft .NET managed code architecture. Intuitive ERP 7.0, released in early 2004, boasts over 50 percent of product functionality in pure .NET. Intuitive is now positioned to be the clear frontrunner in bringing the groundbreaking capabilities of .NET-based software to the manufacturing industry.

Today, Intuitive has over 900 customers worldwide, in industries ranging from aerospace to bicycle parts and circuit boards to boat docks. Intuitive ERP is installed in over 20 countries, is available in 16 languages and is fully multi-currency enabled.

About Intuitive

Intuitive Manufacturing Systems offers intuitive and flexible enterprise solutions that help small and midsize manufacturers achieve greater operational efficiency and profitability by integrating business processes on an enterprise-wide level.

Since 1994, Intuitive has been a technology leader, dedicated to providing our customers with software solutions that add value to their business. Intuitive?s enterprise solution is designed to deliver superior functionality, rapid implementation, high levels of usability and a technology standard that is unmatched in the industry.

Intuitive?s enterprise solution is supported by a network of direct offices and business partners worldwide to provide the software and services to solve today?s business problems. Learn more at www.intuitivemfg.com.

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