Jeff Papows Joins Automation Centre Advisory Board

Lotusphere® Founder and Former Lotus Development Corporation CEO Will Provide Counsel on Company’s Popular Team Collaboration Products for Lotus Notes®/Domino®

WALT DISNEY WORLD DOLPHIN RESORT, LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL. (January 31,2002) - Automation Centre ( www.Acentre.com), a leading provider of advanced team collaboration software, today announced at Lotusphere 2002 that Jeff P. Papows, former Lotus Development Corporation CEO and one of the Lotus community’s most ardent and effective advocates, has joined Automaton Centre as a member of the company’s Advisory board.

Papows, the originator of the Lotusphere user conference, is the person largely responsible for the establishment of Lotus as a fundamental productivity tool for the modern corporation. During his seven-year tenure as chief executive at Lotus, the company’s customer base grew 2,000% to more than 50 million users; the company itself grew during the same period to employ 8,500 people. Today Lotus has more than 78 million Notes users worldwide, securing it atop the groupware industry.

"Jeff Papows is an authority not just in the technology of Lotus Notes and Domino, but also in the people and culture that has developed around those platforms. In fact, Jeff himself created much of the sense of identity Lotus users enjoy so fervently today," said Steven Birchfield, president of Automation Centre. "As an advisor to our company, Jeff will bring a truly unparalleled combination of experience and industry contacts. It’s great to have him as a part of Automation Centre."

"Automation Centre has emerged as a significant cornerstone of the Lotus Notes/Domino application environment," said Papows. "Its products enable enterprise teams to work together with exceptional effectiveness and convenience. What’s more, the company has proven itself, through its stable management and innovative products, to be a reliable source of collaboration solutions for Lotus users going into the future."

At Automation Centre, Papows will advise the company on a number of strategic and developmental issues related to overall company operations. In particular, Papows will provide counsel in the evolution of Tracker Suite®, Automation Centre’s, popular business solution suite for Lotus Notes/Domino. (A complete description of TrackerSuite can be found at www.TrackerSuite.com.

Papows currently serves as Chief Executive Officer at Maptuit Corporation, and Vice Chairman of the Board of ZixIt Corporation. Prior to his tenure at Lotus, Papows was President and COO of Cognos, Inc., where he reversed that company’s financial fortunes and turned it into a leading enterprise with significant cash flow and no debt. Also at Cognos, Papows shepherded a major secondary stock offering and managed the company through years of profitable operation.

Other executive positions held by Papows include management slots at Cullinet Software and Software International. He has been named one of Upside Magazine’s one hundred most important people shaping the digital age, and has been a frequent guest of CNN, CNBC, and Fox News. An accomplished conference speaker and industry spokesman, Papows has served as a keynote speaker for Comdex, one the world’s largest technology trade shows.

Jeff Papows holds a BS in Biology from Norwich University, and both an MA in Human Resource Management and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Pepperdine University and C.C. U. He wrote Enterprise.Com: Market Leadership in the Information Age (Perseus Books, 1998), a business text which sold over eighty thousand copies worldwide.