ISP 2000, Amsterdam March 15, 2000 -- Smarten Software, a leading European publisher of customer care and billing software for internet service providers announces today the availability of Smarten R2, the end-to-end, real-time, integrated services management system for Internet Service Providers. Smarten Software's Smarten R2 customer management and billing software provides Internet Service Providers, telecommunications providers and businesses offering online services with a complete solution for the effective billing and management of customers according to their usage of subscribed services.

Smarten R2 software has been developed in the last three years specifically for ISPs, incorporating the latest web-based object-oriented technology to offer the real competitive advantages of flexibility and scalability for Internet based operators. Smarten R2 is a three-tier, browser-enabled application providing integrated, end-to-end Customer Care and Billing functions for the Telco market. It is specifically designed to support various business models through all processes: Fulfillment, Maintenance and Billing.

Managing Director of Smarten Software, Claudio Vaccarella says: "In a world offering many different solutions, the old client/server paradigm is not the best choice in terms of flexibility. Smarten R2 is designed to be rapidly customized to fit different business models, price policies and all the factors that can affect the successful operation of an SP. Smarten R2 enables operators to bring new services to the Internet marketplace quickly, to improve customer profitability and satisfaction, while reducing costs by managing services in real time."

"Service providers now require new generation Customer Care and Billing Software which can accommodate scale while retaining flexibility. Prompt reply to customer enquiries, real-time provision of subscriber services along with real- time and interactive billing are all provided for in Smarten R2 and are essential factors for the success of the IP operator in the new media marketplace. Smarten R2 enables the operator to harness the demand placed upon them by the Internet"

The Smarten R2 platform is a highly modular system with an advanced and flexible object-oriented architecture built upon the following main modules: Customer Care/Self Care module; Provisioning module; Authentication/Authorization services Module; Service Usage Data Collection module (Accounting); Rating/Billing module; Billing and Payment module.

Smarten R2's Customer Care integrates sales management, order handling, problem handling and customer self-care, while the Smarten R2's billing subsystem, offers a highly advanced billing presentation. In addition to bill presentation, the system provides self-care facilities, including, navigation into personal data and contract data; access to personal accounting data; billing on demand of the personal accounting data and a request facility to send the invoice by e- mail to a dynamically defined address. Smarten R2 also supports multi-currency, billing cycles of variable duration (even daily billing) and invoice customization.

Smarten R2 enables companies dealing in the online business to come to the marketplace faster, providing them with the means to implement new marketing strategies and handle massive increases in traffic and volume in a scalable manner. Smarten R2's highly scalable multi-threaded infrastructure allows the system to support high volumes of transactions and CDRs (Customer Data Records) at the same time and fits the needs of both big corporations, managing online services for millions of subscribers and emerging Internet companies providing services to a more limited number of users. Smarten R2 can therefore work to scale on multiple CPU based platforms, while its distributed architecture allows it to also be implemented to scale on large computer networks.

Smarten R2 is an Integrated Service Management application which meets the Telemanagement Forum's (formerly Network Management Forum) requirements for the standardization of Service Provider business processes. Smarten R2 leverages with all state-of-the-art multithreaded products such as SUN JAVA, IONA Orbix and Versant OODBMS and incorporates XAACTusage to enable accurate pricing models and customer bills based on actual usage.

About Smarten Software
Smarten Software designs, develops, markets and supports customer care and billing systems for the rapidly evolving online business market. Smarten Software's Smarten R2 customer care and billing solution enables real-time management of current and next generation services by ISPs, telecommunications providers and corporations offering online services, in addition to emerging Internet businesses. Smarten Software is already utilised by many IP based operators in Italy and can count Albacom, FST, Netbusiness and Wind amongst its partners. Smarten Software was founded in January 1999 as a start-up company, based upon two years previous experience of working on projects for ISP service management centres. Smarten Software has entered strategic channel alliances with the as SEMA Group and Brain Force in addition to technological partnerships with the likes of IONA Technologies, Versant Object Technology and Xacct Technologies. Smarten Software's headquarters are based in Rome, Italy. Smarten can be found on the World Wide Web at: http://www.smarten.com.

About IONA Technologies
IONA Technologies, Inc., is the leading vendor in the object middleware market, supplying application integration to thousands of market leaders in industry sectors from telecommunications to manufacturing. Since its foundation in 1991, IONA has remained committed to excellence and innovation in software development and product support. Its continued efforts to supply solutions to business needs have seen IONA grow every year to become a global company providing the highest levels of service to their customers. IONA Technologies is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ stock exchange (IONAY). IONA's Orbix product range, first launched in 1993, has an unrivaled record of achievement in the industry. More information is available at: http://www.iona.com

About Versant Corporation
Versant Corporation (NASDAQ: VSNT) is a leading provider of high-performance, enterprise database management systems in complex data and distributed computing environments. Versant solutions are used across a broad range of industries including telecommunications, financial services, health care, energy and the emerging market for intranet and transactional Internet applications. The Versant OODBMS and its related products offer distributed enterprises large- scale reliability, scalability and performance for mission-critical applications within existing computing environments. Versant is headquartered in Fremont, California. Additional information about Versant and its products may be obtained via the World Wide Web at: http://www.versant.com

About XACCT Technologies
XACCT Technologies, Inc., founded in May 1997, is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA. The company develops and markets a new class of intelligent software solutions that enable Service Providers and enterprises to accurately account and bill for network services and applications. XACCT markets its software directly and through network systems integrators to Network Service Providers and Fortune 1000 companies. A privately held corporation, XACCT is funded by venture capital investors. More information is available at: http://www.xacct.com. XACCTusage and XDR are trademarks of XACCT Technologies, Inc.