GE Information Services Creates New Business-To-Business Internet Commerce Company GE Invests in Two New Business Units Under GE Information Services ORLANDO, Fla., March 6 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ -- Affirming its commitment to e-Business, GE Information Services announced today a new strategic direction for the company that includes the creation of two new companies, GE Global Exchange Services(TM) and GE Systems Services(TM). Backed by a significant investment from General Electric, these new companies will provide the most comprehensive services for global business-to-business Internet commerce available in the market today. GE Global Exchange Services will focus on four key growth markets: Internet Data Exchange (IDE); Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) software; procurement software and services; and trading partner Exchanges. GE Global Exchanges' technology will be integrated with vertical industry expertise to create complete Internet commerce solutions for businesses of all sizes across multiple industries, enabling 100% of their trading communities to transact business online. The mission of GE Systems Services is to provide the global operations infrastructure to support GE Global Exchange Services Internet commerce solutions in a Six Sigma quality environment. "GE Global Exchange Services is positioned to become the global powerhouse for business-to-business Internet commerce services," said Gary Reiner, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for General Electric. "Historically, GE Information Services has added tremendous value with buy- side e-commerce solutions. Its extranet portfolio, for example, includes state-of-the-art applications such as demand forecasting, invoice inquiry, auctions, reverse auctions, and the like. Under this new structure, it will expand into the sell-side of e-commerce to complete its solutions set for customers." GE Global Exchange Services will inherit from GE Information Services the world's largest electronic trading community of more than 100,000 trading partners, 1,500 skilled employees, and EC Service Center joint ventures in key locations around the globe. GE Global Exchange Services will deliver solutions that meet the key customer requirements for Internet commerce strategies -- speed, simplicity, scalability, reliability and value -- by utilizing a new technology infrastructure, the Internet Component Architecture (ICA). In addition, through strategic alliances and equity investments, GE Global Exchange Services will partner with companies that offer best-of-breed applications to interface with ICA and enhance the company's product portfolios. "The Internet is key to enabling millions of small- and medium-sized businesses currently without e-commerce capabilities to join our global trading community," said Harvey Seegers, president and CEO of GE Global Exchange Services. "The transformation of GE Information Services into two dynamic operating divisions working closely together will deliver unsurpassed value to our customers worldwide with products and services designed with open systems and Internet technologies." GE Global Exchange Services' go-to-market efforts will be led by four new vice presidents: * Otto Kumbar, vice president of Internet Data Exchange services, oversees the TradeFusion(TM) portfolio, which will provide Internet Data Exchange capabilities that support all major data formats and protocol types required for business-to-business Internet commerce with on-net translation capabilities. * Steve Scala, vice president of software solutions, oversees the AppFusion(TM) portfolio, a powerful suite of integration brokers that provide rich XML support and the most robust data-transformation capabilities on the market. In addition, Scala is responsible for procurement software which includes Purchasing Expert, a procurement software solution that has been very successful in Europe and will be made available for American and Asian markets in June. * Bob Brooks, vice president of trading partner Exchanges, manages FastFusion(TM) -? the company's portfolio of trading partner exchanges ?- and will leverage GE Global Exchange Services' expertise in community management and the Internet component architecture to grow the company's existing trading partner exchanges by adding new applications and services. * Jan Malasek, vice president of business development, is responsible for partnerships and strategic alliances. Under Malasek's leadership, GE Global Exchange Services will establish strong relationships with other business-to-business e-commerce providers to provide complete integrated solutions for our customers. GE Systems Services consists of more than 500 employees around the world, with major centers of operation in Maryland, Ohio, Amstelveen, and Hong Kong. In addition to the global data and processing centers, GE Systems Services manages the global network infrastructure as well as the global client service help desks. The President and Chief Operating Officer of GE Systems Services is Jim Macioce. GE Information Services is the holding company for these new companies; however the 'Information Services" brand is being retired from the marketplace. The company's website is located at http://www.geis.com. About GE's e-Business Initiative GE is transforming its traditional "brick and mortar" businesses to new e-business models. In 1999, e-Business became an official GE initiative, joining Six Sigma, Globalization and Services as the key growth strategies for the Company. In its first year, GE's e-business initiative yielded more than $1 billion in online sales. For 2000, the Company's e-Business strategic direction is three-fold: ensure that every GE business has a Customer Web Center offering the highest quality service, sales and support online; migrate internal procurement and supplier resources to the web to take advantage of increased productivity and cost savings; and develop new technologies and services that will contribute to online sales growth. The Company's website is located at http://www.ge.com. For more information, visit: http://www.geis.com http://www.ge.com/news SOURCE GE Information Services CONTACT: Amy MacDonnell of GE Information Services, 407-939-8574 or 301-340-5271; or Pam Wickham of GE Corporate Communications, 203-373-3061 Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/306146.html or fax, 800-758-5804, ext. 306146 Web site: http://www.geis.com http://www.ge.com/news