MENLO PARK, Calif. -- November 15, 1996 -- Versant Object Technology Corporation (NASDAQ: VSNT) and OpenCon Systems, a leading telecommunications system integrator, today announced delivery of fully object-based electronic bonding (EB) applications, a practical demonstration of the value of industry standards. As their first fully object-based EB project, OpenCon and Versant supported GTE in delivering GTE's latest commercial offerings in the GTE product portfolio of EB-compliant solutions.

The initial EB application for trouble administration allows carriers to share information across carrier boundaries to isolate and repair network problems more quickly. This capability translates directly into improved up-time and faster mean-time-to-repair, dramatically improving service delivery to customers. The application is currently in production amongst some of the largest local exchange carriers (LECs) and interexchange carriers (IXCs) in North America and is currently being tested for deployment throughout Europe.

"After careful evaluation of ODBMS products in the market, GTE elected to use Versant in commercial deployment of GTE's EB solutions," said Susan Weese, product manager at GTE Telephone Operations. Kim Lewis, senior consultant, business/product development at GTE continued, "We recognized that Versant's unique architecture supported the scalability and performance characteristics dictated by the demanding needs of the telecommunications industry. The Versant ODBMS was essential for the successful implementation of our commercial EB applications."

"Electronic bonding applications are a critical part of the standards-based network infrastructure allowing service providers, including Internet Service Providers (ISP's), to work together to do business," said David Banks, president and CEO of Versant. "More and more telecommunications functionality is being defined and implemented in software and Versant is a clear leader in this space. The work that Versant and OpenCon did with GTE and will do for other service providers is continuing proof of our dominance of the network infrastructure."

EB applications allow carriers to share information across their networks and systems, improving their ability to deliver high-quality services across carrier boundaries. Using an object-oriented architecture, EB managers can adapt to handle existing and new communications protocols, including Bellcore's TL1 and OSI CMIP, allowing standard element and network management platforms to communicate with each other seamlessly. The NMF, formerly known as the Network Management Forum, has been a leading force in driving a single definition of EB across the industry. The flexibility of EB, combined with the platform and system scalability provided by the Versant ODBMS, provides a more secure and cost-effective management environment than can be approached by today's operational support systems.

"We chose to work with the leader in the object database market," said Dr. Jonathan Ma, president and founder of OpenCon Systems. "Versant has the most advanced technology and deepest commitment to the telecommunications industry, allowing OpenCon to leverage our common strengths. It is increasingly clear to us that those who are not working with the Versant ODBMS are being left behind." Versant and OpenCon are working closely together to leverage the Versant ODBMS in the development and deployment of additional EB applications.

Future EB solutions will have direct impact on service management and customer care. For example, a real-time service recently defined by the industry, Primary Interexchange Carrier/ Customer Account Record Exchange (PIC/CARE), will allow service providers to market their current services to new customers as well as market new services to existing customers. Using EB, cut-over will not take days or hours - service and provisioning will happen in a matter of seconds. The service provider increases billings and profits while the customer receives superior service.

The Versant ODBMS is the leading object database at work in the telecommunications industry. Its distributed client/server architecture provides the advantages of more traditional database technology with complete support for the object-oriented applications prevalent in telecom. At the network level, Versant provides a robust distributed engine keeping network topologies and management information bases (MIB) up and available for 7 x 24 operation. For service and business management, Versant handles the complex and ever-evolving service and customer definitions along with the high transaction engine required by today's service providers. As a member of NMF, Versant has long committed to delivering on emerging standards that foster interoperability between systems and reduce the overall cost-of-ownership for telecommunications solutions.

About OpenCon Systems

OpenCon Systems, Inc. is a privately held corporation based in Piscataway New Jersey. The firm has been delivering Bellcore-certified quality systems for equipment providers of SONET, SDH, SGDLC, and OSI/TMN-based systems since 1991. Additional information about OpenCon Systems can be found at http://www.opencon.com.

About Versant Object Technology

Versant Object Technology is a leading provider of object database management systems for multi-user, distributed environments. Versant offers a complete product line including the Versant ODBMS, the Versant Fault Tolerant Server, programming language interfaces to both C++ and Smalltalk, ODBC-based legacy data integration, and a family of customer support services.

Additional information about Versant and its products may be obtained from the company's SEC filings, visiting the company's Web site at www.versant.com and by contacting the company directly.

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