Pressroom

• Dr. Martin Hardwick - President and CEO
• Lesli Garnett - Chief Financial Officer
• Dr. Dave Loffredo - Vice President of Product Development

ORGANIZATION
STEP Tools, Inc. is a privately-held company founded and incorporated in 1991. The company's product development, sales, and marketing activities are managed at the corporate headquarters in Troy, New York. STEP Tools is the prominent developer of professional software products for STEP-NC manufacturing and STEP-integrationn. Their integrated suite of tools and libraries cover every aspect of STEP (Standard for Product Data Exchange) implementation. STEP Tools sells its technology to leading software developers, Fortune 500/1000 companies and major universities involved in engineering and manufacturing disciplines.

Over one million CAD stations include product data applications built with ST-Developer, the company's flagship product used in the development of STEP translators of Unigraphics Solutions, CADKEY Corporation, Bentley Microstation, Integraph, Alibre, SGI Alias Wavefront, Bridgeport Controls, Tecnomatix and Boeing DCAC/MRM.

CORPORATE FOCUS
STEP Tools is the driving force behind the Model Driven Intelligent Control of Manufacturing program also known as the "Super Model" Project. The program is supported by an Advanced Technology Program Award issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department's Technology Administration.

The Super Model project will deliver a quantum leap in technology and automation for manufacturing, and replace antiquated programming languages and processes. The end result will be STEP-NC, an Internet-ready, integrated design and manufacturing database used to convey information throughout the company and supply chain. STEP applications on the Web have the capacity to reduce the costs of production planning and manufacturing control for a supply chain by 30% or more.

The Super Model project has garnered international attention from prime manufacturers and trade media in anticipation of the tremendous productivity gains in manufacturing. The Super Model project is a three year program that will extend the STEP standard into manufacturing and numerical control machining. This effort effectively enhances STEP design data with manufacturing information, such as stock features, tool requirements and manufacturing process sequences. STEP Tools has been working on developing and deploying STEP-NC since 1999 and continues to gain momentum.

The company is also working on two other synergistic data integration programs: 1) Harvest from the National Shipbuilding Research Program, and the 2) WSME (Web-based Smart Modeling Environment) project for the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command. Both programs will result in STEP-enabled programs to improve the manufacturing efficiency of shipyards in the United States.

In summary, STEP Tools is focused specifically on developing STEP-enabling software for the worldwide manufacturing industry. The company's mission is simply, "STEP Made Easy". To support this objective, STEP Tools has developed specialized applications, translators, and libraries to aid in the implementation of STEP and the emerging STEP-NC standards. These software toolsets drastically minimize the effort needed to move applications and databases into compliance with current international data standards.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
STEP Tools, Inc. is the full-service veteran in this vertical industry and the undisputed forerunner in developing STEP-enabling technologies. STEP Tools retains the intellectual property rights for their innovations in STEP-NC and other projects, which hold commercialization potential in both military and commercial markets.

The company has always taken a leadership role in developing STEP ISO standards. Dr. Martin Hardwick, president and CEO, is the team leader of the STEP Manufacturing group. Dr. David Loffredo of STEP Tools was appointed as the deputy lead of STEP Implementation Methods. STEP Tools has also lead two subcommittees, and is the editor of three parts of STEP specifications.

As the STEP data standard continues to gain momentum worldwide, STEP Tools is setting the stage for a major breakthrough in manufacturing. The Super Model project has estimated that STEP-NC will reduce the time required to define a part program by about 35%, reduce the number of drawings that have to be sent from design to manufacturing by about 75% and decrease the time required to machine parts on CNC tools by about 50% for small to mid-sized job lots. STEP-NC will also make CNC systems safer and easier to use.

The company has created a world class Industrial Review Board (IRB) for its Super Model project and works closely with the most progressive companies involved in manufacturing. The 94 member IRB represents all sectors of the industrial marketplace and includes premier companies such as The Boeing Company, IBM Corporation, Lawrence Livermore, Lockheed Martin, General Motors Powertrain, General Dynamics Land Systems and more.

The fully scalable STEP Tools product line enables companies to leverage state-of-the-art STEP and STEP-NC technology to facilitate the managing, sharing, and exchanging of engineering product data inside and outside the manufacturing enterprise. Their software provides an open architecture, which supports modification and enhancement by third-party developers and customers. STEP Tools products also reach the most CAD users in the marketplace via the combined user base of its major CAD/CAM vendor customers.

CONSULTING SERVICES
The technical staff at STEP Tools provide a combined 50 years of experience in engineering data management and product data structures. The company offers consulting services ranging from developing data translators for engineering and business systems, to using the latest information technology solutions to define and implement an enterprise database integrating business processes and applications. Previous projects include:

• developing the proper environment to implement STEP-NC technology
• developing product data management systems to manage STEP data
• developing geometry translators for CAD systems
• retrofitting existing databases and developing new databases
• developing tools to manage the integration of engineering information
• developing extensions to STEP so that organizations can add their own information
• adapting the STEP infrastructure to better fit processes of an enterprise
• participating in high profile projects to develop STEP standards for the Internet.

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
STEP Tools pro-actively pursues strategic partnerships that have resulted in state-of-the-art technology integration, numerous vertical market application solutions, and exclusive distribution alliances. STEP Tools is a member of the following projects and consortia:

• National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols Consortium (NIIIP)
• Integrated Product Processing Initiative (IPPI)
• The New York State Center for Advanced Technology (CAT)
• Rensselaer Laboratory for Industrial Information Infrastructure

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
STEP Tools communicates with its customers and prospects primarily through its Web Site. Newsletters, articles, tutorials, online manuals, free data translation services are just a few features found on the STEP Tools home page.

• Telephone: (518) 687-2848
• Fax: (518) 687-4420
• World Wide Web: http://www.steptools.com
• E-mail: info@steptools.com

DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS
STEP Tools products are sold directly in the U.S. and Canada, and distributed through a network of international resellers. Through free demonstrations available on the company web site, prospects and customers can sample STEP Tools products and literature. For more information on products and services, call 518-276-2848.

PRODUCT LINE
The full range of STEP Tools software products can be found on our products page. In addition, STEP Tools supplies in-house or on-site professional training courses and top-level STEP consultants to support STEP and STEP-NC implementations