WASHINGTON, D.C. and PITTSBURGH, PA USA (July 11, 2001) - In an effort to promote ecommerce between the United States and Mexico, the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce today announced that it has selected printCafe™, the operating system for print™, for its "Wiring the Border" project. The "Wiring the Border" project was created under an Executive Order signed by President William Jefferson Clinton, in response to the shared vision of President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox, to bring NAFTA into the Internet age. "The ‘Wiring the Border’ project will give small and medium-sized businesses along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border the equipment and skills they need to gain access to the lucrative world of business-to-business electronic commerce," said U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce president Al Zapanta. "I’m pleased to announce that printCafe has been selected to help pioneer the important print sector within our overall bilateral trade effort." printCafe is a leading developer of supply chain management software for the printing and publishing industry. The Pittsburgh, PA-based company provides print management systems for commercial printers and also provides custom-branded and configured Web sites for the procurement of print across all facets of the print supply chain including large corporate print procurement organizations, printers, and printers’ smaller print buyers. printCafe was selected by the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce and Cornerstone Communications Group, LLC, the business development company also selected by the Chamber of Commerce for the "Wiring the Border" project. The Chamber of Commerce and Cornerstone chose printCafe to serve as the marketplace engine for businesses in the border region seeking to buy print through the Web from printers seeking to e-enable themselves through the "Wiring the Border" initiative. Practical Technology Solutions Enable Small-to-Large Trading Partner Relationships "printCafe’s software will enable small-to-large trading partner relationships via the Web," said Marc Olin, president and Co-CEO of printCafe. "These companies are varied in size and deploy disparate levels of technology, making procurement by phone and fax cumbersome. printCafe will supply the Chamber with an e-procurement Web site that delivers an exact match to ‘Wiring the Border’ objectives, by enabling trade between participating small to mid-sized enterprises on either side of the border. We are especially pleased that large buy-side companies with a strong presence in the border region will have the opportunity to utilize printCafe technology in conjunction with many small and medium-sided businesses." Large companies and organizations operating in the U.S.-Mexico border region include General Electric, Bank of America, the U.S. Department of Defense, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Delphi Automotive Systems, Boeing, Texaco, ExxonMobil, Roadway Express, Mattel, and Lucent Technologies, among others. The first area of trade to go online in "Wiring the Border", powered by printCafe’s software, will be in graphic arts commerce. The business-to-business site will unite producers and buyers for virtually any type of printing and graphic needs. Other areas of trade will be added to the initiative in coming weeks and months, such as e-procurement systems for office supplies and products. "printCafe has exactly the right software technology, administrative, technical and support teams and the right insights to the entrepreneurial spirit, to make the "Wiring the Border" initiative a success. We are proud to have printCafe as a key member of the team," said Virgil Horton, Cornerstone’s chief executive office and chairman. About the "Wiring the Border" Project (www.usmcoc.org) "Wiring the Border" entails private/public partnering with the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce to increase sustainable economic development along the Southwestern United States Border. With in-kind contributions from several of its key members such as IBM, Telmex, Prodigy, CompUSA, and others, the US-Mexico Chamber of Commerce is implementing the "Wiring the Border" initiative to create a virtual network of 400 small-to-medium sized enterprises in the region. The objective of this project is to identify businesses along the Southwestern border which have the greatest likelihood of increasing sales, revenues, profits and employment in the private sector, if Web-enabled, by having basic hardware, software, telephony, connectivity, and access to online procurements, credit, capital, new business, and environmental research. The US-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, and its alliance partner, Cornerstone Communications, plans to conduct marketplace seminars in key border communities to introduce companies along the border to the buying offices of large businesses and the federal buying community.