Open Group Directory Interoperability Forum elects Ed Harrington Chair EPH Associates Principal Consultant & CEO to lead work in directory interoperability WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA - 28 July 2003 - The Directory Interoperability Forum (DIF) of The Open Group last week elected Ed Harrington, Principal Consultant and CEO of EPH Associates its Chairman. The members of the DIF include architects, strategists, and product managers from customers and vendors of directories and directory-enabled applications. The DIF helps them to understand and influence the market for directory-based business solutions. The charter of the DIF "is to increase customer confidence to purchase directories through the promotion of open directory standards such as the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, and specifically to: o provide testing and certification for directory servers and applications that use Open Directory Standards; o expand the market opportunity for application vendors who implement Open Directory Standards; o expand the opportunity for Open Directory Standards and help to foster the widespread adoption of Open Directory Standards; o advance the adoption of Open Directory Standards by working with standards bodies including but not limited to the Internet Engineering Task Force ("IETF") and the Distributed Management Task Force ("DMTF"). Asked about his role, Ed said "we have just had a very successful launch of The Open Group "LDAP Certified(tm)" program for vendors of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server products, but this is just the beginning. Next we have a certification program for application vendors that utilize LDAP in their solutions called "LDAP Ready (tm)". "We also need to be active in a number of growing areas such as Web Services and the directory activities there such as the DSML and UDDI. Identity Management is a key area of interest for the group along with Access Controls and Identity Federation. We will be following developments in these area very closely," concluded Harrington. For more information on the DIF at The Open Group, see www.opengroup.org/directory/

About EPH Associates LLC EPH Associates LLC is a Strategic Consulting and Market Research organization that focuses on Software and Services Markets. Its areas of expertise include the Strategic Marketing and Product areas of Identity Management, Directory Services, Messaging and Web Services. The company provides Global Vendors and Users Market Research and Consulting Advice required to Grow Revenues, Contain Costs or Meet Regulatory Requirements throughout the World. EPH Associates LLC is headquartered in Williamsburg, VA. For more information, call EPH Associates at +1.757.259.7438 or visit ephassociates.com Press Contact: Dianne Madden EPH Associates LLC Phone: +1.757.259.7438 E-mail: edh@ephassociates.com