Release Details

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 6, 2003--

Aspen Engineering Suite(TM) incorporates new communications standard to improve data sharing and enable more effective collaborative engineering and economic evaluation

Aspen Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: AZPN) today announced the release of its enhanced Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) technology, featuring substantial improvements in collaborative engineering and economic evaluation. The new FEED solution, part of the Aspen Engineering Suite (AES(TM)), is based on updated versions of the Aspen Zyqad(TM) and Aspen Icarus(TM) products, and improves knowledge management and engineering productivity by enabling more effective sharing of process and economic data from conceptual design through detailed engineering and plant operations.

"Information is a critical asset at Fluor, enabling us to deliver the best solutions to our customers and make superior business decisions," said Bob Armstrong, Vice President of Fluor Corporation. "The latest Aspen Engineering Suite products play a key role in helping us to create and then manage high quality engineering and economic data, allowing us to generate measurable benefits for both our own company and our customers."

"With the latest versions of Aspen Zyqad and Aspen Icarus, we are creating a new standard for FEED by enabling our customers to maximize returns throughout the lifecycle of their process assets," added Manolis Kotzabasakis, Sr. Vice President of AspenTech's Engineering Business Unit. "Our collaborative engineering and economic evaluation products have been shown to improve engineering productivity by up to 30 percent, and our latest solution will enable companies to extend those benefits by enhancing communication between owner/operators, Engineering & Construction companies and equipment vendors."

Aspen Zyqad 12.0 is planned for release in the first quarter of 2003, and includes a number of key innovations aimed at improving collaborative engineering workflow and automation. At the heart of these changes is a new data model that enables process information to be shared efficiently across different organizations, avoiding data re-entry from paper documents and reducing error rates by up to 50 percent or more. The Common Core Data Model (CCDM) standard has been developed in collaboration with several of AspenTech's key clients and software partners, and provides a comprehensive data model for the representation of core process, stream and equipment items, supporting inter-organizational data management and collaboration. In addition, the Aspen Zyqad engineering database allows data transfer to third-party systems like Intergraph's SmartPlant P&ID, allowing FEED information to be efficiently transferred into the detailed engineering process.

The Aspen Icarus12.0 solution for economic evaluation, which is already available, permits a company to assess the economic viability of alternative process designs prior to capital commitment. This latest version features updated economic evaluation data and an expanded scope. Aspen Icarus integrates with simulation and equipment design applications and with the Aspen Zyqad engineering database, allowing highly efficient collaboration in the creation of the FEED package.

With the improved management of process engineering knowledge via these enhancements to the Aspen Engineering Suite, manufacturers, technology licensors, and engineering contractors can work together to significantly improve capital effectiveness, reduce time-to-market and increase production efficiencies.

The Aspen Engineering Suite is an essential element of AspenTech's solutions for Enterprise Operations Management in the process industries. These are integrated, enterprise-wide solutions that combine engineering and manufacturing/supply chain technologies to help companies optimize the way they engineer and run their manufacturing and supply chain operations.

About AspenTech

Aspen Technology, Inc. is a leading supplier of enterprise software to the process industries, enabling its customers to increase their margins and optimize their business performance. AspenTech's engineering solutions, including Hyprotech's technologies, help companies design and improve their plants and processes, maximizing returns throughout their operational life. AspenTech's manufacturing/supply chain solutions allow companies to run their plants and supply chains more profitably, from customer demand through to the delivery of the finished products. Over 1,200 leading companies rely on AspenTech's software every day to drive improvements across their most important engineering and operational processes. AspenTech's customers include: Air Liquide, Aventis, Bayer, BASF, BP, ChevronTexaco, Dow Chemical, DuPont, ExxonMobil, GlaxoSmithKline, Lyondell Equistar, Merck, Mitsubishi Chemical, Shell, Southern Company, TXU Energy and Unilever. For more information, visit www.aspentech.com.

Certain paragraphs of this press release contain forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For this purpose, any statement using the term "will," "should," "could," "anticipates," "believes" or a comparable term is a forward-looking statement. Actual results may vary significantly from AspenTech's expectations based on a number of risks and uncertainties, including: AspenTech's lengthy sales cycle which makes it difficult to predict quarterly operating results; fluctuations in AspenTech's quarterly operating results; AspenTech's dependence on customers in the cyclical chemicals, petrochemicals and petroleum industries; AspenTech's need to hire additional qualified personnel and its dependence on key current employees; intense competition; AspenTech's dependence on systems integrators and other strategic partners; changes in the market for e-business solutions for AspenTech's customers; increased governmental regulation and taxation of e-commerce and the Internet; information security and privacy concerns relating to e-commerce; and other risk factors described from time to time in AspenTech's periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AspenTech cannot guarantee any future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. Moreover, neither AspenTech nor anyone else assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any forward-looking statements. AspenTech undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release.

AspenTech, Aspen Engineering Suite, Aspen Zyqad, Aspen Icarus and the aspen leaf logo are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc., Cambridge, Mass.

--30--MB/bo*