IONA ORBIX E2A WEB SERVICES INTEGRATION PLATFORM POWERS PREMIER FARNELL B2B TRADING SOLUTION

Multiple Electronic Purchasing Systems Linked using Orbix E2A

Waltham, MA - June 17, 2002 - IONA®, the leading e-Business Platform provider for Web Services Integration (NASDAQ: IONA), today announced that Premier Farnell, the global marketer and distributor of electronic components and industrial products, has completed the roll-out of a B2B trading solution using IONA's Orbix E2A™ Web Services Integration Platform. Orbix E2A Web Services Integration Platform has enabled Premier Farnell to link its ordering system with the multiple electronic purchasing systems of its customers. The solution has been implemented at Premier Farnell locations in the United Kingdom and the United States.

To support its B2B trading solution, Premier Farnell required a platform that would work with all customers' current electronic procurement systems, whether SAP, Oracle, Ariba, Commerce One, or custom technologies. The platform also had to have the ability to accommodate whatever systems customers might switch to in the future. Following an extensive vendor selection process, Premier Farnell chose IONA's Orbix E2A Web Services Integration Platform - Collaborate Edition because it's standards-based design and service-oriented integration architecture delivered immediate and long-term efficiency, performance and scalability benefits that proprietary solutions from B2B/EAI vendors could not offer.

"We needed a system that would translate all of our customers' electronically generated purchase orders into 'Premier Farnell speak," said Charles Ewen, eBusiness Development Manager, Premier Farnell. "It needed to offer completely personalized integration for each customer, yet not so unique that each customer connection would take months and cost thousands to build or could not be easily leveraged in new ways in the future."

"Using Orbix E2A Web Services Integration Platform, any database, application, network, or operating system can be leveraged to improve and streamline existing business processes and deploy new collaborative applications quickly and cost-effectively," said Bob Potter, executive vice president of business operations at IONA. "With their implementation of Orbix E2A, Premier Farnell has joined our more than 4,500 customers that have come to appreciate and rely on the efficiency and flexibility benefits that are inherent with the implementation of standards-based, service-oriented integration solutions like Orbix E2A."

Orbix E2A - the Next Generation of Service-Oriented Integration Solutions
The Orbix E2A Web Services Integration Platform, announced in November 2001, is a complete enterprise-class business-to-business and enterprise application integration solution. The first 100% standards-based, services-oriented Web Services Integration platform, IONA Orbix E2A provides the tools and the management services required for reliable, scalable, and secure dynamic data exchange, business process automation, and composite applications. The Orbix E2A Web Services Integration Platform is available in three editions: XMLBus, Partner and Collaborate.

The Orbix E2A Application Server Platform is the most deployed, heterogeneous application server in the industry. Orbix E2A Application Server Platform combines the scalability of CORBA and the productivity of J2EE, with Web services standards. The Orbix E2A Application Server Platform provides the management services required for reliable, scalable, and secure applications. The Orbix E2A Application Server Platform is available in three editions: J2EE Technology, Standard and Enterprise.

IONA's Orbix E2A product lines benefits from the company's commitment to open standards. IONA is an active member of the Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) Organization and the SOAPBuilders Forum-independent organizations dedicated to the promotion and interoperability of Web services standards. IONA recently hosted the SOAPBuilders Interoperability Lab Round III at its Waltham, MA headquarters. At the event, IONA's Orbix E2A XMLBus demonstrated superior support and interoperability across WSDL and with all SOAP encoding styles. IONA is also an active member of other industry standards bodies including the W3C, OASIS, OMG, RosettaNet, and UCCnet.

About Premier Farnell
Formed in 1996, Premier Farnell plc is a global, business-to-business, small order, high service distributor of electronic components and industrial products to the design, maintenance and engineering sectors. Premier Farnell operates in 22 countries and trades in over 100, with 5,000 employees worldwide. Companies within the Premier Farnell Group include Farnell, CPC, Buck & Hickman, Kent, Newark (USA), MCM (USA) and Akron Brass (USA). For additional information visit our Web site at http://www.premierfarnell.com

About IONA
IONA is the leading e-Business Platform provider for Web Services Integration with more than 4,500 customers worldwide. IONA Orbix E2A™, which consists of the award-winning Orbix E2A Web Services Integration Platform and Orbix E2A Application Server Platform, enables the flow of information across disparate systems and the liberation of application assets for new business opportunities.

Founded in 1991, IONA® (NASDAQ: IONA) is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company had revenues of $181 million in 2001 and employs more than 800 people in more than 30 offices worldwide. For additional information about IONA, visit our Web site at http://www.iona.com.

IONA, IONA Technologies, the IONA logo, Orbix, E2A, End 2 Anywhere, End To Anywhere, Orbix E2A, IONA E2A, IONA e-Business Platform, iPortal Application Server, SureTrack, IONA XMLBus, Adaptive Runtime Technology, Orbacus, Orbix/E, IONA University and Total Business Integration are trademarks or registered trademarks of IONA Technologies PLC and/or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks that may appear herein are the property of their respective owners.

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