Leading Heavy Equipment Manufacturer to Put CAD Interoperability Solution into Production

MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Feb. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Proficiency, the innovator in engineering supply chain collaboration, has signed an agreement with Caterpillar Inc. to deploy its Collaboration Gateway to facilitate greater interoperability between Caterpillar's mechanical design systems. Under the agreement, Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT - news) will use Proficiency's CAD interoperability product to enhance engineering collaboration and streamline the product development process. The deployment follows the successful conclusion of Caterpillar's pilot and beta testing of the Collaboration Gateway.

"The addition of Caterpillar to our growing customer list is an important milestone for Proficiency," said Scott Berkey, president and CEO of Proficiency. "Caterpillar is an original member of Proficiency's industry advisory program, along with other strongly interested companies that review and advise us on product strategy. Now, Caterpillar is implementing the Collaboration Gateway, and we are fully committed to a successful deployment."

The Collaboration Gateway is the first stand-alone product that enables users to share assembly and part models without loss of design intelligence (features, history and constraints), without the delay and intellectual property risks inherent with outsourced re-mastering services and without costly and error-prone human intervention. Proficiency began shipping its CAD interoperability product in September 2001.

About Proficiency

Proficiency is the innovator in engineering supply chain collaboration. The Company's Collaboration Gateway allows development teams within manufacturers and their suppliers to efficiently collaborate on the design of complex products. A privately held company headquartered in Marlborough, Mass., Proficiency has secured almost $40M in venture capital investment led by Concord Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and Carmel Ventures. The Company has numerous patents pending in engineering information representation technology. For more information on Proficiency, please visit www.proficiency.com.

Proficiency and Collaboration Gateway are trademarks of Proficiency, Ltd. All other products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.