Press Releases : 2006

Oblicore Launches Oblicore Contract Center and Oblicore Guarantee 3.5

Boosting Visibility and Control over the Delivery of IT-Enabled Services, New Capabilities Drive ITIL Best Practices, Simplify Deployment, Increase Performance and Reduce Total Cost of Ownership

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - June 28, 2006 - Oblicore, a leading provider of Service Level Management software and best practices, today announced the launch of Oblicore Contract Center!" and Oblicore Guarantee!" 3.5. Oblicore Contract Center is a new Web-based service catalog and contract management product that streamlines the definition and management of IT-enabled services and service contracts. Oblicore Guarantee 3.5, the latest release of the company's flagship offering, includes integration and reporting enhancements that promote broader and deeper deployment, while lowering total cost of ownership.

With the introduction of Oblicore Contract Center, Oblicore is addressing a large portion of the enterprise IT services market that is still in the early stages of adopting ITIL-based service delivery processes. These enterprises can deploy Contract Center in five days and begin gaining greater visibility and control over their IT-enabled services while safeguarding their investment with a clear upgrade path to a full Service Level Management solution as their needs evolve.

"By giving enterprises the means to create service catalogs easily and in alignment with ITIL, Oblicore is helping enable process and contract standardization, both of which promote alignment between IT and business units, as well as efficiencies and cost savings," said Lisa Erickson-Harris, research director with Enterprise Management Associates. "At the same time, Oblicore provides an entry-point in preparation for its more sophisticated and full-featured service-level management application, easing the anxiety for IT users and creating a win-win situation for Oblicore and its customers."

Oblicore Contract Center

Oblicore Contract Center provides businesses with a secure and collaborative repository for defining and managing IT-enabled services and related service agreements or objectives. It supports and encourages the adoption of ITIL by providing a library of pre-defined content base on ITIL service delivery best practices. This includes contract templates and terms and conditions for IT, business service and outsourcing contracts.

By implementing Contract Center, businesses can achieve greater standardization of service offerings as well as compliance with internal and external reporting regulations. As a result, Contract Center dramatically reduces the time, effort and fees associated with contract creation and service provisioning.

Oblicore Guarantee 3.5

With the launch of Oblicore Guarantee 3.5, Oblicore is providing large enterprises and service providers with greater capabilities for large-scale deployments, while lowering total cost of ownership. The new release provides enhanced interoperability with corporate portals, wizard-driven data adapters and one-touch report customization.

"Lufthansa Systems is realizing significant benefits from Oblicore Guarantee; benefits we will build upon with Oblicore Guarantee 3.5," said Walter Isselhard, director of customer service support, Lufthansa Systems AG. "Of note to Lufthansa Systems is the new feature that streamlines report format customization. This capability will reduce the time and effort required for creating customer-centric reports, making it much easier for us to implement more customer contracts within Guarantee, helping us realize even more value from our investment in Oblicore."

Portal Interoperability

Oblicore Guarantee 3.5 uses Microsoft Web Parts and Web services for integrating key functions in Sharepoint and other corporate portals, providing:

• Role-based access - leverages LDAP and single-sign-on; simplifies user access by eliminating the need for users to log into Oblicore or become familiar with Oblicore interfaces.
• Accesses to static and dynamic reports - enable drill-down for root cause analysis
• Access to Oblicore Report Creation Wizard - allows users to configure and run reports through the portal.
• Integration with Oblicore Alerts - pushes Oblicore system alerts through portal alarm mechanism.
• An integrated "cockpit view" of organizational activity.

Data Adapter Wizard

To streamline integration, Oblicore Guarantee 3.5 incorporates:

• Data Adapter Wizards - a new Web-based interface that provides a step-by-step, guided adapter creation process that saves time and eliminates configuration errors.
• Expanded Data Adapter Library - Oblicore offers customers a library of over 60 pre-configured adapters for many popular applications and data formats.

One-Touch Report Customization

The one-touch report customization feature simplifies mass customization of reports so service managers can adjust report parameters or design elements on-the-fly. The feature reduces time and effort required for meeting customer-specific requirements and streamlines the configuration of new customer contracts and related reporting requirements, promoting broader and deeper deployment of Oblicore Guarantee.

"Many businesses take a phased approach to the challenge of optimizing service delivery, adopting ITIL and implementing a service catalog as a starting point," said Bernd Leger, vice president of marketing, Oblicore. "Oblicore Contract Center meets their immediate needs, while offering the option of migrating to a full-fledged Service Level Management platform as their internal processes mature."

Availability

Oblicore Contract Center is available immediately; Oblicore Guarantee 3.5 will be available in August 2006.

About Oblicore

Oblicore is the leading Service Level Management software provider dedicated to delivering service-level management, business service management and sourcing management solutions that drive business success. The company's flagship product, Oblicore Guarantee!", is leveraged by blue-chip customers around the world, ensuring critical IT-powered business processes are delivered in a manner that is compliant and predictable reducing costs, improving operational performance and increasing shareholder value. Both service providers and enterprises alike rely on Oblicore's business-focused, top-down approach to maintain compliance with SLAs, to increase customer retention and acquisition, and to keep critical business processes running smoothly. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts with offices across the U.S., Europe, Asia and Israel, Oblicore is backed by a strong, global investor base. For more information, please visit http://www.oblicore.com.