New NetExpert performance-based pricing puts service providers in driver's seat OSI's unified management architecture enables performance-based pricing in the OSS market.

M2 PRESSWIRE-24 March 2000-OSI: New NetExpert performance-based pricing puts service providers in driver's seat OSI's unified management architecture enables performance-based pricing in the OSS market (C)1994-2000 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:23032000

FOLSOM, Calif -- Objective Systems Integrators (Nasdaq: OSII), the leading provider of software solutions for unified network, service, application, and process management, announced today its new performance-based pricing policy. The pricing is tiered, system-wide, performance licensing based upon operating ranges of transaction processing.

Performance-based pricing offers service providers lower entry-level costs, improved operating margins, increased cash flow, and more predictable future operating costs. It also lowers transactional unit costs as system volume increases to match a service provider's business growth and expansion.

"Performance-based pricing gives a service provider the perfect opportunity to fully understand how to manage its ongoing and future operational costs and match them to business goals," said James T. Olsen, OSI vice president marketing. "OSI is leading the Operations Support System (OSS) market in establishing performance-based pricing, which positions us to be a growth partner with our customers. The company's integrated solutions under our Unified Management Architecture (UMA) give our customers a clear growth path as they expand their operations, integrate new technologies, and grow their business. Now, with our performance pricing, OSI enables them to cost their operations in the same way. This is an important step in our strategy to make UMA a standard in communications networks."

e-Communications Transforms Network Environment

Historically, the industry has forced service providers to procure software based on the licensed number of hosted processors. The major drawback, especially in environments that require high performance and distributed processing, is that software performance and system architectures tend to be artificially limited, and additional expense is necessary to expand the system coverage often without gaining any increase in transaction processing. In today's "Internet-driven" world, traditional business methods no longer fit. Networks are now driven by e-communication, they are distributed, and they are virtual. The products and business structures that enable them must reflect this prevailing environment.

e-Communications Requires a New Pricing Model

OSI's progressive performance pricing removes client/server instance-based pricing and opens the use of all NetExpert solutions to any deployment configuration a network or application provider requires-with unlimited gateway clients and servers. It mirrors the software industry's trend of basing the cost of software applications and solutions on the value actually derived from their use by each individual customer.

Chris Simon, OSI vice president, global market management, described the benefits this brings to OSI's customers. "We have made the flexibility and power of UMA affordable for entry-level customers. They no longer have to turn to short-term tactical solutions; they can deploy an integrated system for service assurance, delivery and usage-one that will grow with them as their business expands. UMA offers the unique ability to manage, filter, optimize, and control a service provider's transaction-processing environment.

"We have also found performance-based pricing to be very attractive to our current customers as they expand their operations and customer base through new technologies and business strategies. They now have unrestricted use of NetExpert servers and gateways, so they can configure their systems for maximum scale and performance. This creates an unshackled-growth operations environment for service providers who compete in the fast-paced global communications market. In addition, our performance pricing goes hand-in-hand with our entry into the ASP market this quarter, as these e-business companies price their own services on a usage basis."

About OSI

Objective Systems Integrators (http://www.osi.com) offers advanced software solutions for automating the management of dynamic communications services, networks, devices, applications, and business processes.

OSI's family of products is built on its Unified Management Architecture (UMA), for integrated, cost-effective management of service delivery, assurance, and usage. With the UMA, service providers can differentiate themselves in the marketplace by providing high levels of service, automating the processes that link back office operations to the network, and maintaining flexibility for growth and change. OSI's Reference Platform Model (RPM), which consists of Sun Microsystems carrier-grade servers and Oracle Corporation databases, is intended to meet today's requirements for network scale and rigorous performance through its integrated architecture and leading technology.

More than 250 customers around the world have installed OSI's open NetExpert-based unified management systems in wireline, wireless, IP/data, and Application Service Provider environments. OSI (Nasdaq: OSII) has headquarters in Folsom, California with offices worldwide.

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