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Arena Solutions and Avnet Electronics Marketing Partner to Facilitate and Accelerate the Adoption of On-Demand PLM Solutions for Manufacturers Worldwide

Partnership kicks off by providing manufacturers with new, value-added enterprise service for rich integrated content

Foster City, Calif., June 20, 2006 — Arena Solutions, the leading provider of on-demand product lifecycle management (PLM) software for manufacturers of all sizes, and Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas, the leading global distributor of electronic components and an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT), today announced a strategic agreement. The companies will sell and market each other’s tools and services that will enable manufacturers and their global suppliers to improve their overall design- and supply-chain effectiveness. Together, Arena and Avnet will provide a complete solution for an innovative, integrated on-demand PLM and component content offering, and will market the solution to both Arena’s and Avnet’s customers.

The combined design- and supply-chain solution will provide manufacturers with a unique, value-added enterprise service that exposes and integrates rich content from Avnet’s Prómiere group with critical product data in Arena PLM. Avnet Prómiere offers the most accurate and complete database of electronic component content in the industry through an existing content reseller relationship with IHS Parts Management, Inc. (IHS), the leading provider of critical technical information and decision support tools for a broad range of industries. The content available from Avnet Prómiere includes both purchasability data from Avnet Electronics Marketing and parametric and analytical data, along with documentation from IHS. The combined content database consists of rich data for over 19 million unique electronic components including, but not limited to, critical end-of-lifecycle data, Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and environmental regulation information, product change notifications and part specification data.

The combined offering enables manufacturers and their global suppliers to easily and intuitively integrate dynamic content from Avnet Prómiere directly into their Arena PLM solution with a single click. Now, manufacturers can be assured that the most current data is used in all of their design, sourcing and procurement business processes. For example, a manufacturer now has real-time visibility into a component’s end-of-life data, which has traditionally been very difficult to manage, so they can make better informed decisions on when to replace that part or exclude it altogether from an engineering design.

“PLM applications address the core product needs of our customers. When evaluating PLM partnership opportunities, Arena Solutions was the obvious choice,” said Glenn Bassett, vice president, Strategic Business Development, Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas. “Their on-demand model ideally matched what our customers have been asking for — a cost effective, easy to use, and secure PLM solution that enables them to access our purchasability and parametric content helping them keep pace with rapidly evolving market demands.”

In addition, as manufacturers enter a new era in responsible manufacturing and are forced to comply with regulations such as RoHS and Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE), it is critical that this content be built into the product record. Through Avnet and Arena’s combined offering, manufacturers can have immediate access to the most current environmental data -within the context of the engineering design and Bill of Materials (BOM) — for more effective collaboration and product development. Now a customer can have immediate visibility into their BOM, quickly identify which components aren’t RoHS compliant and source an alternative component — all from a single interface.

“This partnership provides a clear example of the powerful, new solutions that can be created by combining on-demand functionality with strong channel management capabilities,” said Jeffrey M. Kaplan, managing director of THINKStrategies, Inc. and the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Showplace. “As a result of this new relationship, manufacturers and their supply-chain partners can more easily integrate and leverage real-time product component data to ensure higher productivity, better compliance and greater effectiveness.”

“Avnet is the world’s largest distributor of electrical components because they recognize the value of providing innovative solutions to their customers,” said Michael Topolovac, CEO of Arena Solutions. “We’re proud to work with a similar-minded thought leader to create a powerful, value-added solution for managing and integrating critical product data. Together, we are enabling companies to move toward a new model of product development and environmentally responsible manufacturing that is the future for the manufacturing industry. This solution is just the beginning. We’ve forged a strategic partnership that will continue to deliver constant innovation and value to manufacturers of all sizes.”

About Avnet
Avnet enables success from the center of the technology industry, providing cost-effective services and solutions vital to a broad base of more than 100,000 customers and 300 suppliers. The company markets, distributes and adds value to a wide variety of electronic components, enterprise computer products and embedded subsystems. Through its premier market position, Avnet brings a breadth and depth of capabilities that help its trading partners accelerate growth and realize cost efficiencies. For fiscal year ended July 2, 2005, Avnet and the recently acquired Memec (closed July 5, 2005) generated combined revenue in excess of $13 billion in the past year through sales in approximately 70 countries. Visit http://www.avnet.com/.

About Arena Solutions

For over a decade, Arena has been redefining PLM with a suite of cloud applications that enable engineering, manufacturing and their extended supply chains to work better together—from first prototype to full-scale production. Arena helps innovative manufacturers bring better products to market faster with cloud PLM offerings that speed prototyping, reduce scrap and help manufacturers collaborate on product changes with strategic partners across the globe.

Arena cloud PLM products simplify bill of materials (BOM) and change management, and offer manufacturers the right balance of flexibility and control—at every point in the product lifecycle. PartsList and PDXViewer are lightweight single-user applications that allow manufacturers to move quickly and efficiently while designing, documenting and sharing a prototype. When scaling to production and beyond, the Arena core application provides full PLM functionality so manufacturers can control revisions, manage the engineering change process and selectively share accurate, up-to-date BOMs with partners, suppliers and contract manufacturers.

Founded in February 2000, Arena Solutions is headquartered in Foster City, California.

To learn more about Arena Solutions:

Contact:

Michelle LaVery
Arena Solutions
media@arenasolutions.com
1.650.513.3567

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