Accenture & Bowstreet join forces to create e-business solutions forfinancial services industry

[Ann Kelly <akelly@bowstreet.com>]

Accenture and Bowstreet join forces to create e-business solutions for
financial services industry

Organizations form alliance to help clients extend their market reach by
linking partners and suppliers on the Internet


LYNNFIELD, MA, and NEW YORK, April 30, 2001 - Accenture and Bowstreet
(www.bowstreet.com) have formed an alliance to work together to deliver
e-business solutions to financial organizations around the world. 

The alliance will provide financial services organizations with the means to
link partners and suppliers on the Internet, create new customizable web
services, and personalize product offerings. Accenture's expertise in
strategy, business process and information technology will be complemented
by Bowstreet's next-generation Business Web Factory - a platform for
discovering, assembling and delivering dynamic applications composed of
plug-and-play web services. 

As part of the alliance, Accenture will deploy the Business Web Factory at
financial services client sites worldwide. Bowstreet's vendor-neutral
Business Web Factory enables business people to rapidly customize and
proliferate web services without technical programming. This in turn enables
companies to respond to new or changing business demands by dynamically
linking partner and client systems together, resulting in reduced business
costs and faster time to market. 

For example, a large property and casualty insurance company could use the
Business Web Factory to sell policies to thousands of agents over the
Internet and improve the speed with which it responds to requests for
pricing and underwriting. Each agent requires customized policies to reflect
different geographies, state laws and contracts, and by using the Business
Web Factory the insurance company could create customized "business webs"
for every agent - private sites accessible over the Internet that display
tailored information. This eliminates the costly, time-consuming process of
hard-coding individual sites.

"The financial services industry is characterized by constantly changing
products individually tailored to diverse audiences through multiple
distribution channels," said Kate Fessenden, research director, Enterprise
XML, for the Aberdeen Group in Boston, Mass. "The combination of Accenture's
integration power and Bowstreet's technical agility holds great potential
for helping financial services providers use the Internet to reach their
partners and ultimately their customers." 

Under terms of the agreement, Accenture will be a global preferred
implementation and solution provider of Bowstreet software for the financial
services industry. A team of Accenture professionals will be established to
deploy the Business Web Factory. To showcase business webs, the Business Web
Factory has already been installed at Accenture Solution Centers in the
United States, and eventually may be installed at Accenture's Solution
Centers around the world. 

The companies are currently developing joint opportunities at more than a
dozen top-tier financial services organizations. Accenture and Bowstreet
also are extending their services to other industries beyond financial
services.

"Successful financial services organizations of the future will be those
that can use the Internet to link their partners and suppliers quickly and
to achieve economies of scale, as well as rapidly expand into new business
areas," said Colin Davies, global managing partner in Accenture's Financial
Services B2B eCommerce practice. "By teaming with Bowstreet, we can help our
customers do just that. This relationship underscores Accenture's commitment
to providing innovative B2B eCommerce solutions to clients, in part by
developing a network of inter-related businesses and alliances."

"Customer satisfaction in the 21st century will depend heavily on the
services you provide and the quality of your partner relationships," said
Bowstreet president and CEO Bob Crowley. "We're joining forces with the
world's most formidable consulting and integration partner, and a thought
leader in web services. Our customers stand to reap tremendous benefits from
Accenture's vision."

About Accenture
Accenture is the world's leading provider of management and technology
consulting services and solutions. More than 70,000 people in 46 countries
deliver a wide range of specialized capabilities and solutions to clients
across all industries. Under its strategy, Accenture is building a network
of businesses to meet the full range of client needs - consulting,
technology, outsourcing, alliances and venture capital. Accenture's home
page address is http://www.accenture.com.

About Bowstreet
Bowstreet, recognized as a leader in web services by industry analysts,
enables businesses to transform themselves from hard-wired enterprises into
fluid, purpose-driven "business webs." Bowstreet's pioneering web services
automation system, the Bowstreet Business Web Factory and Business Web
Portal Solutions (including enterprise information sharing, eCRM, syndicated
storefronts, corporate intranets, partner extranets and supply chain
collaboration), brings massive economies of scale to e-business. Bowstreet
empowers IT people to create reusable application models that business
people can then "mass-customize" and manage - without programming - for
customers, partners and employees. More information may be found at
www.bowstreet.com or by calling 781-586-7100.

# # #

Bowstreet is a trademark of Bowstreet, Inc. All other company names and
product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies or owners. 

Contact:	

Ann Kelly					
Bowstreet					
603-559-1557					
akelly@bowstreet.com	

Janet Sparre		
Accenture
917-452-0710	
janet.a.sparre@accenture.com

Tim Munroe 					 
Beaupre & Co. Public Relations Inc. 		
603-559-5820					
tmunroe@beaupre.com