Release Details

AspenTech Endorses FIATECH Efforts to Promote Vendor-Neutral Information Exchange in Process Engineering Design and Operations

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 23, 2007--Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AZPN), a leading provider of software and services to the process industries, today announced that it has joined the FIATECH industry consortium to promote industry standards for process engineering design and operations.

FIATECH is the only non-profit consortium focused on fast-track development and deployment of technologies designed to substantially improve how capital projects and facilities are designed, engineered, built and maintained. By joining the consortium, AspenTech will play an active role in supporting FIATECH and its efforts to create a single, vendor-neutral data exchange standard using the existing ISO 15926 framework.

If process industry vendors use neutral data exchange standards, process industry owner-operators, engineering and construction firms and other companies benefit from increased interchange of data at a lower cost. This significantly reduces plant capital costs and associated design/construct timescales, while increasing the value of information within the operational phases of the plant lifecycle.

A neutral standard such as ISO 15926 provides open access to the data stored in process engineering solutions such as AspenTech's aspenONE Process Engineering application suite. aspenONE is a highly integrated toolset for Conceptual and Basic Engineering and Engineering support to Plant Operations. It includes Aspen Zyqad, in whose repository all process equipment and cost data, plus associated deliverables created during the Basic Engineering phase of a project are stored. These data may be exchanged with the detailed design and construction information stored in systems such as Intergraph's SmartPlant Suite.

"AspenTech applauds FIATECH's leadership role in converging the many parallel activities that are being developed to create standards for data exchange for the process industry," said Charles Rieb, AspenTech vice president of product management. "AspenTech fully supports standards and industry initiatives that can be practically implemented to deliver customer value. FIATECH's efforts with ISO 15926 are achieving practical results and are supported by global, industry-leading companies."

"We are pleased to welcome AspenTech into the FIATECH consortium," said Dr. Richard Jackson, director of FIATECH. "AspenTech's membership extends the footprint of FIATECH further into the conceptual and basic design arenas as well into the areas of process operations, planning and optimization. This is of great value to the process plant design and operations community and supports FIATECH's mission to improve the entire information and technology lifecycle."

About AspenTech

AspenTech is a leading provider of award-winning process optimization software and services. AspenTech's integrated aspenONE solutions enable manufacturers to reduce costs, increase capacity, and optimize operational performance end-to-end throughout the engineering, plant operations, and supply chain management processes, resulting in millions of dollars in cost savings. For more information, visit www.aspentech.com.

About FIATECH

FIATECH (www.fiatech.org) is an industry consortium that provides global leadership in identifying and accelerating the development, demonstration and deployment of fully integrated and automated technologies to deliver the highest business value throughout the life cycle of all types of capital projects.

(C) 2007 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech, aspenONE and the Aspen leaf logo are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: AspenTech
David Grip, 781-221-5273
david.grip@aspentech.com
or
Lois Paul & Partners
Michael Parker, 781-782-5714
aspentech@lpp.com

SOURCE: Aspen Technology, Inc.