Menlo Park, Calif. February 19, 2003 — Skire (www.skire.com), the leading provider of Web-based facility lifecycle management solutions for process industries, today announced the availability of a new white paper examining the strategic role of technology in the design, procurement, construction and operations of process facilities.

This white paper examines the key business drivers for companies in process industries, the historical shortcomings of technology solutions, the key principles of a facility lifecycle management solution, and the challenges ahead in user adoption and implementation.

"Making enterprise decisions regarding applying Web-based systems to the facility lifecycle challenge is becoming an ever-present concern for Fortune 500 leaders in process industries," says Massy Mehdipour, chief executive of Skire and author of the paper. "This paper provides these companies with a decision-making framework, helping them to understand the strategic underpinnings of solutions which extend beyond mere product features."

The white paper is available free of charge at www.skire.com/solutions/whitepaper.asp.

About Skire
Skire Inc. is the leading provider of Web-based facility lifecycle management solutions for process industries. Skire's Unifier™ is an integrated suite of Web-based applications that addresses the entire facility lifecycle, from pre-project planning to post-construction operations and maintenance. All critical facility lifecycle processes such as, equipment data management, design collaboration, work packages, RFI's, change orders, cost and schedule control, procurement, and work orders, are optimized and integrated through Unifier™. The benefits of the Unifier™ system are increased enterprise efficiency, reduced project and operating costs, enhanced visibility, and improved time-to-market.

UnifierT™ is a truly unique solution in the marketplace because it was designed from the ground up from the owner's perspective and based upon Skire's deep industry knowledge gathered over the last 15 years while successfully managing many of the world's most complex projects and facilities. Unifier's modular, component-based architecture utilizes a powerful workflow engine and form manager to ensure a system that is both flexible to meet customers' specific business processes, and extendable to allow for integration with existing enterprise applications. Skire's customers represent Fortune 500® market leaders from the semiconductor, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, government, and other sectors.