Double-Digit Increases in First Quarter Customer Annuity Subscriptions Reflect the Instant—and Ongoing—Advantage of Arena BOM and Engineering Change Management Software

Small and mid-size manufacturers select Arena for its low cost, ease of adoption and speed in solving critical issues

Foster City, Calif., May 13, 2009 — Arena Solutions, a provider of on-demand software that helps small and mid-size manufacturers manage their complex and constantly changing product record, today announced another quarter of growth with annuity subscriptions increasing by more than 14 percent for its first quarter, ending March 31, 2009, as compared to the same period the year prior. Despite the challenging economy that has companies tightening their belts and restricting activities not directly related to short-term performance, Arena Solutions grew its renewing installed annuity subscription base 104 percent in Q109, demonstrating the central role Arena plays in helping customers safeguard their businesses and position themselves for greater success in the economic recovery.

New customers selected Arena to address their bill of materials (BOM) and engineering change management challenges. They note the application’s low acquisition cost, ease of adoption and speed in solving critical product development issues, with the majority of Arena deployments complete and beginning to deliver value in weeks. Like others before them, most of these new customers are transitioning away from ineffective spreadsheet software and choosing instead to manage their mission-critical product data in Arena, which connects with key systems like CAD, EDA, PDM and ERP and improves the link between organizations and their supply chains.

In the first quarter, Arena continued its focus on removing financial and implementation obstacles, making the application simpler than ever to adopt. With the web-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) architecture, nearly half of the customers that went live on Arena in the first quarter completed the entire deployment process in eight weeks or less. Half of those customers participated in the new Quickstart program and went live in less than 30 days. While implementations that include a fully automated integration with an enterprise resource management (ERP) system take a little longer, all Arena deployments are significantly faster, easier and less costly than traditional client/server application implementations.

“In the first quarter, we saw a growing number of manufacturers feeling more bullish on their prospects for growth—and viewing Arena as an essential investment to help get them there,” said Ken Bozzini, chief financial officer of Arena Solutions. “Smart companies know that cost-cutting alone will not get them through these economic times; instead they’re focused on making strategic investments that can start delivering value right away. That’s what they get with Arena, in part because it helps companies reduce product and development costs, but also because it improves productivity, enables more effective supply chain collaboration and ultimately helps speed time to market.”

Innovative companies bringing change to their industries continue to select Arena as a strategic tool to help them succeed and grow. Among the many new companies to join the Arena community in Q109 are:

• CK Technologies, a leader in engineered plastic systems and components for the commercial truck and bus markets;
• Neato Robotics, a company intending to use robotics and artificial intelligence to free people from household chores;
• CoolIT Systems, a company pioneering a new standard in computer cooling;
• Convey Computer Corporation, an organization changing high-performance computing with the world’s first hybrid-core computer; and
• S3C, a company that designs, manufactures and sells next-generation wired and wireless sensors for automotive and industrial customers.

During the first quarter, Arena Solutions also continued expanding strategic partnerships. In February, the company formalized its longstanding relationship with NetSuite amid growing interest among NetSuite users to start using Arena. Adoption began right away; several manufacturers now enjoy using Arena and NetSuite as an integrated SaaS solution for product record management and ERP.

Other significant highlights of Q1 2009:

• The company went live with the Winter ’09 release of Arena. With 30 new enhancements—including a new Arena-SolidWorks Integration—Winter ’09 strengthened the position of Arena as the central hub of the product development process.
• Arena surpassed its 99.5 percent service level agreement for the 12th consecutive quarter, with 99.98 percent uptime in Q1 2009 and a continued commitment to building and delivering the most secure, reliable, collaborative BOM and change management solution available.

About Arena Solutions
Arena Solutions enables small and mid-size manufacturers to deliver quality products to market on time and on budget. Arena provides a collaborative environment for centralizing, controlling and analyzing complex and constantly changing product information, including bills of materials (BOMs), part specifications and change orders.

The repository for the product record, Arena sits at the epicenter of the broader product lifecycle management (PLM) landscape, connecting with systems like CAD, EDA, PDM and ERP and linking organizations with their supply chains. With its on-demand, software-as-a-service (SaaS) approach, Arena is a low-risk, rapid-return proposition that makes enterprise-class functionality available to companies that would otherwise have to contend with manual, time-consuming and error-prone product data management processes.

Founded in February 2000, Arena Solutions is headquartered in Foster City, California. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.arenasolutions.com.

Contact:
Jennifer Bomze
media@arenasolutions.com
1.650.513.3539

Arena and Arena Solutions are trademarks of Arena Solutions, Inc., Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. All rights reserved. Other product and company names are the property of their respective holders.