English Welsh & Scottish Railway awards Quintiq contract

('s-Hertogenbosch, 28 January, 2004) EWS (English Welsh & Scottish Railway), Britain's leading rail freight operator, has signed a contract with Quintiq, supplier of advanced planning, scheduling & supply chain optimization software, for the delivery of an enterprise wide planning software solution. 650 locomotives, 16,500 wagons and 2500 train crew are part of what will be scheduled and optimized using the Quintiq software.

The implementation has started and is being carried out by Quintiq's implementation partner Ab Ovo. The scope of the implementation program is defined such that all planning stages from real-time execution, to short term and to long term planning are taken into account. The final application comprises an integrated enterprise wide planning for all locomotives, wagons, train crew, maintenance and yard planning. The first phase of the implementation is expected to be completed mid 2004.

Guy Mason, Chief Information Officer of EWS comments: "We selected Quintiq and Ab Ovo based on their well proven solutions and expertise, which have been delivering benefits to the railway industry for many years."

"EWS, already a leader in its industry, can gain measurable competitive advantages through streamlining logistics operations with this initiative," said Arjen Heeres, COO of Quintiq,"We look forward to partnering with the EWS team to start delivering on the great benefits that can be gained by rail planning and execution."

English Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS)
English Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS), Britain's leading rail freight operator, moves over 100 million tonnes of freight each year and runs over 8,000 trains each week. EWS employs over 6,200 staff across Britain. EWS hauls bulk freight; intermodal; international traffic via the Channel Tunnel; mail and parcels; infrastructure maintenance for Network Rail; special passenger trains; and carries out train maintenance and driver hire. www.ews-railway.co.uk

Quintiq
Quintiq offers a standard software solution to virtually any planning, scheduling and supply chain optimization problem. Its breakthrough technology empowers companies with flexible solutions, enabling them to exactly model their business and optimize it fully, delivering bottom line value. Please visit www.quintiq.com for more information.

Ab Ovo
Ab Ovo is located in the Netherlands, with its main location in the heart of Europe's main distribution gateway, Rotterdam. Ab Ovo is an ICT total solutions provider and has an exceptionally strong presence in travel, transport and distribution-both land, sea and air oriented- as well as manufacturing industry. Please visit www.ab-ovo.nl for more information about its activities and references.

For more information: Martijn van Gils, Marketing Manager, Tel. +31-(0)73 6910739 e-mail: martijn.van.gils@quintiq.com.