Sterling Commerce Cited as a Leader in Order Management Hubs by Independent Research Firm

Sterling Order Management Recognized as One of the Leading Solutions That Support the Delivery of A Perfect Order


COLUMBUS, OH--(Marketwire - November 19, 2008) - Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) company, today announced that it has been named a Leader by Forrester Research in its November 2008 report, The Forrester Wave™: Order Management Hubs, Q4 2008. This placement demonstrates Sterling Commerce position as a leader in helping companies transform their business by delivering the right balance between business process expertise and order hub infrastructure.

Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of eight leading order management solutions in a 152-criteria evaluation. The report stated, "Of all the vendors evaluated, Sterling Commerce earns the highest marks for overall product vision. Strong customer references and a rich go-to-market strategy earn Sterling Commerce a top-two showing for corporate and go-to-market strategy. Forrester clients with a hodge-podge of existing systems often seek Sterling Commerce's solutions as the source of truth for orders. Forrester believes this solution should be considered in all vendor shortlists, especially for customers in retail, manufacturing (e.g., high-tech, industrial, home improvements goods, and software), communications, and distribution/logistics."

Sterling Order Management orchestrates global order and service fulfillment across the extended enterprise to help companies improve cross-channel efficiencies and customer responsiveness. Key differentiating capabilities of Sterling Order Management include its intelligent sourcing engine that helps companies reduce costs by determining the most efficient and least costly location to fulfill an order, and a process modeling engine that reduces time-to-value by providing the flexibility to model and manage all processes shared across the extended enterprise.

In highlighting the importance of order management hubs, the report states, "Enterprises that deliver perfect orders drive a direct correlation to positive stakeholder satisfaction scores. Despite the payoff, success in consistently delivering a perfect order eludes many enterprises because existing systems lack the flexibility to deftly move orders across the end-to-end order management cycle."

"This is industry-leading research by Forrester, and we're proud to be named a Leader in this report," said Cory Wiegert, vice president, application product line, at Sterling Commerce. "This recognition reflects the strengths of Sterling Order Management in enabling companies to transform their business to achieve the perfect order through its process-centric capabilities, a service-oriented architecture, and end-to-end management capabilities that put the customer at the center."

The report continues, "Sterling Commerce leads among all the vendors evaluated for overall support of end-to-end order management processes. Another area of strength includes the top core application foundation."

Sterling Order Management is part of Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Suite, a unique set of applications for managing the entire process of inquiry to cash that removes the barriers to successful customer and supplier interactions by providing a single end-to-end view of multi-channel selling and fulfillment operations. The suite allows companies to present a unique buying experience for their prospects, customers and partners in all the ways they sell -- Web, call center, store and field sales. In addition, it provides companies with control over the entire fulfillment lifecycle -- from order management, to warehouse operations, to transportation and delivery, to supply management, to returns and settlement.

About Sterling Commerce

Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) company, helps customers thrive in a global economy by connecting their business communities, processes, people and technology. More than 30,000 customers worldwide use Sterling Commerce solutions for business process integration, multi-channel selling, supply chain fulfillment, and payments management to optimize business performance inside and outside their enterprise. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Sterling Commerce has offices in 24 countries around the world. More information can be found at www.sterlingcommerce.com.

Contact Information: For more information, contact: Julie Redard Sterling Commerce (978) 513-6386 Jamie Leicht Fleishman-Hillard (619) 237-7711