PRESS RELEASE

Time-Life International Selects Modus Operandi For 4-Nation European Strategic Improvement Initiative

MELBOURNE, Florida, December 12, 2000 – Modus Operandi, Inc. announced today that it has been engaged by Time-Life International to support strategic improvement initiatives throughout four European countries. The overall goal of the initiative is to strengthen Time-Life Europe’s competitive position in the marketplace by streamlining and simplifying key customer-facing business processes.

According to Time Life President Steve Janas, “In today’s marketplace, customers have higher expectations of the companies they do business with. These expectations touch every dimension of the buying experience and service after the sale. Our entire company is reinventing itself around putting the customer first, and building long-term relationships with customers. This new effort with Modus Operandi is one of a number of initiatives we have undertaken to realize our customer-focused vision, and builds on the successful collaboration we have enjoyed with Modus Operandi in our U.S. based operations.”

A key focus of the project is to improve the core order fulfillment process, from order processing through delivery. Other objectives include improving the coordination of marketing promotions and identifying requirements for information systems upgrades. The Modus Operandi team will use its powerful is/Modeler® process analysis tool to support the project objectives. Coordinating with the Alexandria, Virginia corporate office of Time Life, the Modus Operandi staff will work with the client's Amsterdam, London, Paris and Munich personnel to complete the project.

The joint efforts of Time Life and Modus Operandi will construct a baseline process model of the current environment. With this model, or business architecture, Modus Operandi will then design and evaluate improvements to the processes. The team will identify, develop and test possible solutions until it determines the best improvements for the conditions. The redesigned process will then be reflected in a new business architecture that contains detailed activity steps, cycle times and related costs. With this detailed documentation, specific changes can be communicated to the Time Life personnel who are responsible for making the changes and executing the future processes.

According to Modus Operandi Director of Enterprise Architecture and Project Manager, Donald Kennedy, “We believe the results from this effort will not only bring direct improvements to the core order fulfillment process, but will be extendable to processes throughout all of Time-Life Europe. We will especially emphasize the training and development of Time Life personnel in our process modeling methodology as we move toward successfully completing the project objectives. 

About Modus Operandi

Modus Operandi provides products and services for enterprise information integration and process improvement. The company’s solutions address both the processes and the key enabling technologies necessary to link people, processes, and systems for critical information sharing. Modus Operandi is an IBM Certified for e-business Business Partner and was named 2001 Solution Partner of the Year by Borland Software Corporation.

Additional information on Modus Operandi solutions is available from Modus Operandi, Inc., 122 Fourth Avenue, Indialantic, FL 32903. Phone: (321) 984-3370. Fax: (321) 728-3957. E-mail: inquiries@modusoperandi.com. Website: http://www.modusoperandi.com. The company maintains offices in Ft. Monmouth , NJ ; Tampa and Melbourne , Florida.