Proforma Joins Forces with The Ken Orr Institute

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (Jan. 14, 2002)– Proforma, a leading provider of enterprise-wide modeling and simulation tools, announces a strategic partnership with business technology research provider Ken Orr to create the Next Practice (NP) Development Environment. Together the companies promise to deliver clients unprecedented rapid Concept to Code: Business Models to working Prototype in just six weeks.

Developing sophisticated IT applications has become more and more important in today’s world. As people look at systems failures, one of the major things they find missing is high-quality requirements. Because of the pressures for speed coupled with the time involved in developing traditional requirements, the requirements process is often short changed—a new approach to developing requirements is now available. The Ken Orr Institute (KOI) has developed the “Next Practice” development environment, which contains the methodology and tools for delivering rapid prototypes that truly meet business objectives.

“We’ve been working on NP for some time now,” said Ken Orr, Chief Scientist at KOI and a recognized researcher on systems and software engineering, “and we’ve been able to develop a methodology and tool set that makes it possible to visualize systems requirements the same way that architects and engineers can visualize buildings and products using CAD/CAM tools.”

“Organizations need to respond quickly to changing business scenarios and requirements, and business systems have to keep pace.” “The combination of power tools and the Next Practice Methodology allow organizations the agility they need now,” said Ron Pellegrino, president of Proforma. Proforma’s comprehensive ProVision product suite provides the business modeling tools for the NP Development environment. ProVision is an integrated business process and simulation modeling toolset. It helps business and information technology professionals succeed in modeling, evaluating and improving the business processes and system components of the enterprise.

The Next Practice development environment combines a streamlined, iterative requirements approach with the latest in business modeling, database design and prototyping tools. The result is a framework for defining requirements that mimics the high-speed interaction of agile methods with the ability to provide up-to-date, computer-generated diagrams and documentation. Using the Next Practice approach, organizations can model their business requirements and quickly deploy a functional prototype within six weeks.

Contacts: Proforma Linda Pellegrino, 248.356.9775 lpellegrino@proformacorp.com

The Ken Orr Institute Paige Orr, 758.228.1200 paigeorr@kenorrinst.com

About Proforma Proforma provides business-modeling software, consulting and training services that help organizations visualize, analyze and implement business processes. This improves performance through the design of more competitive, efficient and cost-effective processes. Stored within the ProVision Workbench™ software suite, the resulting business and process models become an organization’s documented best practices and provide the knowledge base for process improvement and management, ISO9000 and quality initiatives. Proforma’s solutions guide companies through significant events such as the transition to e-business, mergers and acquisitions, globalization and new product development. Founded in 1994, Proforma counts many of the Fortune 500 companies among its customers, including General Motors, American Express, Kmart, EDS, Andersen and J.D. Edwards. For more information, go to www.proformacorp.com.

About The Ken Orr Institute The Ken Orr Institute is one of the leading systems/software research organizations in the world. Founded by Ken Orr in 1988, KOI has continued the work on “business focused” Warnier-Orr software methodologies and tools begun at Ken Orr & Associates. Over the past decade, KOI has focused on bringing the latest in business thinking (business process analysis, data warehousing, workflow management and knowledge management) into systems mainstream. KOI provides consulting in a number of areas: IT strategic planning, requirements engineering, data warehousing, knowledge management, and the semantic web. For more information go to www.kenorrinst.com.