San Ramon, CA – January 5, 2005 – Relevant Business Systems, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software provider to leading Aerospace & Defense, Engineer-to-Order, Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul, Contract Manufacturers and other project-based firms, announced today that New Wave Research purchased and has completed implementation of Relevant Business System’s enterprise software.

New Wave Research is a 15-year old, privately held firm that manufactures and services laser-based systems for the microelectronics and analytical instrumentation industries. The company operates several divisions, has plants in California and Montana, and is in the process of integrating operations in Europe and Asia.

Dave Thayer, Relevant’s New Wave Account Manager, describes New Wave as “a lean, aggressive company bent on eking every last drop of technology out of their new ERP system. New Wave pushes to the limit, using many of our product’s features - as many as any customer I can recall. It’s challenging and a lot of fun to work on.” Yulin Fang, New Wave’s ERP implementation Project Manager, says “We keep asking for more, and Relevant keeps filling the bill”.

New Wave’s aggressive stance has served them well in the marketplace. They are the market leader in their niche and are growing rapidly. When New Wave decided to upgrade to fully integrated enterprise software, they were looking for a product that both fit their current budget and would support their rapid growth. Relevant’s proven scalability was the first attribute that caught New Wave’s attention.

New Wave’s business model also called for advanced functionality in:

• Forecasting and Inventory Management
  New Wave operates both manufacturing and after sales/service businesses. Part numbers and requirements overlap, but usage rates are independent. Relevant’s Materials Resource Planning (MRP) works within the framework of Project Control to provide New Wave with a tool that segregates requirements for their manufacturing and service operations by forecasting and planning to two separate “global projects”.
  
  New Wave’s products are 80% standard, 20% custom. Final products are configured or engineered-to-order on dimensions such as laser wavelength, voltage, etc. New Wave uses Relevant’s Model Configurator to create orders for stock and custom products, starting right at order entry, and is now discussing plans to integrate forecasting and MPS with the configuration process.

New Wave’s lean initiatives call for reduced safety stocks. New Wave believes Relevant’s forecasting and inventory control capabilities will allow them to meet their lean goals without increasing shortages or jeopardizing turn times.

• Multi-Division/Multi-Company Requirement
  In order to maintain centralized control of design and engineering changes, regardless of which division will produce and ship, all New Wave engineering occurs in New Wave’s Fremont facility. Relevant provides extensive interplant capabilities throughout all applications. With Centralized Engineering active, New Wave’s central engineering division can establish records that other divisions will access without having to duplicate or maintain them.
  
  Similarly, a centralized order entry acts as a clearinghouse for incoming sales requests while other divisions fulfill and ship orders.

Yulin Fang believes “Speed to market is New Wave’s competitive advantage”. Ms. Fang expects Relevant’s implementation to shave the company’s turn around times while increasing the company’s efficiency.