United States | Change

IHS Appointed to eCl@ss Steering Committee

IHS to Be U.S. Representative Agent

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., and COLOGNE, Germany – January 22, 2007 – IHS (NYSE: IHS - www.ihs.com), a leading global provider of critical technical information, decision support tools and related services, today announced eCl@ss has appointed IHS to serve on its steering committee. IHS will also be the eCl@ss representative in the U.S. eCl@ss e.V. (www.eclass.eu) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the creation and promotion of a new standardized material and service classification designed to facilitate efficient data exchange between suppliers and their customers. eCl@ss is the international standard for unified and consistent classification of products, materials and services along the entire supply chain.

On the steering committee, IHS joins other prominent global corporations in providing guidance to eCl@ss regarding further development and promotion of its eCl@ss classification. IHS was chosen because of its extensive experience in providing customers with data classification and cleansing services. IHS, through its IHS Intermat Solutions offerings, has specialized in helping companies standardize and enrich their data used to identify a wide variety of industrial Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) materials including pipes, valves, seals, bearings, supplies and associated plant equipment. IHS Intermat Solutions parts optimization software tools are used daily in over 2,000 plants in 31 countries and are compatible with many leading EAM/ERP systems.

“We work closely with customers from various industries to optimize and manage their parts and materials databases, so we recognize the importance of accurate classification and identification of materials, products and services,” said Paul Evenson, Senior Vice President, Parts Information Management, IHS. “IHS has the unique opportunity to leverage this experience to help eCl@ss users standardize purchasing, reduce inventory and increase productivity.”

Friedhelm Hausmann, Chairman of the Board of eCl@ss, and Project Leader of Purchasing Strategy at Audi AG, sees standard classification of materials, products and services as essential. “We have found that the exchange of product data is a critical part of e-business. Product selection, business transactions and maintenance procedures rely on accurate data. IHS and its IHS Intermat Solutions offerings will help advance eCl@ss as a spend-analysis enabler, and facilitate effective communication of product and services information worldwide, even without knowledge of foreign languages.”

In addition to serving on the eCl@ss steering committee, IHS will act as the eCl@ss representative agent in the U.S., from the IHS office in Houston, TX.

About IHS (www.ihs.com)
IHS (NYSE: IHS) is a leading provider of critical technical information, decision-support tools and related services to customers around the world. Our data and services are used primarily by the energy, defense, aerospace, construction, electronics, and automotive industries. IHS translates the value of our global information, expertise and knowledge to enable customer success and create customer delight on a daily basis. Ranging from governments and large multinational corporations to smaller companies and technical professionals in more than 100 countries, customers rely on our offerings to facilitate decision making, support key processes and improve productivity. IHS has been in business for more than 45 years and employs more than 2,500 people around the world.

About eCl@ss
eCl@ss e.V. is a non-profit organization which defines, further develops and markets the cross-industry and international classification standard of the same name. eCl@ss is being accepted by customers worldwide as the international standard for the classification and identification of materials, products and services. eCl@ss is financed by the contributions of the members of eCl@ss e.V., and can be accessed free of charge in several languages at www.eclass.eu.

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