ACTIO CORPORATION DEBUTS GATEKEEPER, COMPLETES ACTIO'S COMPREHENSIVE WEB-BASED CHEMICAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

New Module Automates Process of Screening Chemical Purchase Requests; Users Now Have Complete System that Radically Lowers Costs, Complexities of Using Chemicals

HAMPTON, NH – February 14, 2005 – Actio Corporation today announced the unveiling of Actio Gatekeeper™, the newest module for its web-based CMS (Chemical Management System). With Gatekeeper, an automated system for routing and tracking chemical requests, approvals and purchases, Actio CMS becomes the most comprehensive and powerful Internet-based solution yet available for all stages of industrial chemical management.

As an ASP (Application Service Provider) solution, Actio CMS significantly lowers the cost of automating a company’s chemical management tasks—a demanding regimen that can easily cost two to ten times the actual purchase price of a chemical. Actio CMS not only lowers such costs through automation, but also provides further savings through its Internet-based software subscription model that eliminates the need to purchase highly complex applications.

Actio Gatekeeper speeds and manages the multiple processes of screening chemicals prior to purchase, tracking approvals, managing inventory, and accounting for chemicals within the company. The process begins by prescreening a chemical against Actio’s exhaustive library of government and health/safety lists; enterprises can also upload their own criteria to initiate or manage corporate objectives, such as banning carcinogens or reducing hazardous air pollutants.

Once the chemical has passed the rigorous prescreening process, a decision matrix routes the purchase request to all individuals in the enterprise who are required to review or sign-off on the purchase decision. Gatekeeper allows managers to check the status of requests at any point in the process. While the request is being routed, the CMS system places the official MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for the chemical into another CMS system component, MSDS Vault®, ensuring that employees are compliant with all OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration) requirements.

“Gatekeeper is a natural extension of our chemical management solution,” said Russ McCann, president of Actio Corporation. “Our customers have requested an expert system that manages all aspects of the chemical lifecycle. Gatekeeper rounds out our product line and offers unparalleled accountability and chemical control to our client base.”

End-to-End Management
In addition to its other product lifecycle management benefits, Gatekeeper maintains a uniquely chemical-centric view—a trait especially valuable in the biotechnology and semiconductor markets where chemicals are the primary ingredients for producing new products.

Such a capability, for example, allows users to establish a BOM (Build of Materials) containing all the chemical and non-chemical components of a product. Collaborators working at different locations can share information in a common area of the module as well as upload supporting documentation and keep an audit trail of the development process.

As to inventory management, Gatekeeper tracks inventory down to micro-locations so users know what inventory is located at what facility, who requested it, and who authorized the purchase. The process streamlines the rebalancing and repurposing of inventory and makes it easy to determine cross-utilization of chemicals across all a company’s facilities. What’s more, inventory can be synchronized with an Enterprise Resource Planning system, alleviating the need to enter historical inventory data.

Pricing and Availability
Actio Gatekeeper, an opt-in service, is immediately available to new and existing users as part of Actio’s CMS system. Pricing for Gatekeeper is based on number of users within the enterprise. For more information, visit www.actiocms.com.

About Actio Corporation

Since 1996, Actio has been helping companies and millions of their employees, in a wide range of industries, cost-effectively manage the complexities surrounding the use of chemicals in the workplace. Actio is a leading business service provider for chemical lifecycle management. Our chemical management portfolio manages all phases of the chemical life cycle, enables corporations to use a "best practices" approach to chemical handling and manages the regulatory requirements surrounding the use of chemicals in the workplace. For more information about Actio Corporation, visit www.actiocms.com.

MSDS VAULT, ACTIO REGULATOR and INTELLIGENTEXT are registered trademarks of Actio Corporation. MSDSXCHANGE, ACTIO GATEKEEPER, MSDS VAULT LABELMAKER are trademarks of Actio Corporation 2004. All Rights Reserved. Other trademark names are used only in an editorial fashion, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

COMPANY CONTACT:
Heather Kelly 719/634-8274
heather@sspr.com