RosettaNet Press Release
TeleManagement Forum and RosettaNet Announce Partnership

Leading industry organizations align to create standards-based e-business solutions for telecommunications industry

For Release May 18, 2004

Nice, France

A major advancement towards the greater use of e-business capability in telecommunications procurement and service provisioning was made today with the joint announcement by the TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum) and RosettaNet that they will be teaming to leverage their respective standards into an integrated solution. The TM Forum is the leading industry organization focused on creation of standards for telecommunication operations and business management systems and RosettaNet is a consortium of high-tech companies focused on creating and implementing industry-wide e-business process standards for supply chain efficiency.

"The TeleManagement Forum sees great synergy in the joint work we are undertaking with RosettaNet. The alignment of the two organizations will propel the development of comprehensive standards that address critical telecom business needs," said Jim Warner, President of the TM Forum. "This partnership combines strengths from the telecom and IT industries to create a solution from which telecom service providers and their customers can derive measurable benefits."

"Over the past several years, RosettaNet has worked with the industry to enable supply chain optimization for the high technology sector, resulting in enhanced productivity and significant cost savings," said Colin Robson, vice president of RosettaNet Europe. "On behalf of the consortium and RosettaNet Telecommunications Industry Council in particular, we are pleased to announce our collaboration with the TeleManagement Forum in an effort to extend this capability and related business benefits to the broader telecommunications industry."

Representatives from the TM Forum and RosettaNet have identified two initial domains for collaboration: "Network Infrastructure Build-Out," where work will focus on the specification and development of automated interfaces between service providers and their suppliers; and

"Provisioning Flow Through" where efforts will center on automation of service provider to enterprise customer interfaces. The two organizations maintain that the addition of standardized electronic business communications capabilities between service providers and their customers will further increase efficiencies and reduce the costs of deploying future telecom services.

"This is a great day for the industry," remarked Matti Heikkila, vice president of Nokia and chair of the RosettaNet Telecommunications Industry Council. "Service providers and their suppliers can now use the RosettaNet standards with the full knowledge and confidence that they will align with TM Forum standards. The combined industry leadership of these two organizations will significantly influence the future direction and ultimate progress of business automation in the telecommunications industry at large."

About the TeleManagement Forum
For more than 15 years, The TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum) has provided leadership, strategic guidance and practical solutions to improve the management and operation of information and communications services. The TM Forum boasts 340 members worldwide including incumbent and new-entrant service providers, equipment suppliers, software solution suppliers and Systems Integrators (SIs). The TM Forum’s New Generation Operations Systems and Software (NGOSS) program is a widely accepted integrated framework for developing, procuring and deploying operational and business support systems and software. For more information, visit www.tmforum.org .

About RosettaNet
RosettaNet is a non-profit consortium dedicated to the collaborative development and rapid deployment of open, Internet-based business standards that align processes within the global trading network. More than 500 multinational and regional companies in the information technology, electronic components, semiconductor manufacturing and telecommunications industries participate in RosettaNet’s strategic standards and services development. Fortune 1000 companies worldwide have implemented RosettaNet standards, conducting B2B operations that value billions in annual revenues. Information on RosettaNet’s worldwide activities is available at www.rosettanet.org . RosettaNet is a subsidiary of the Uniform Code Council.