CINCINNATI and MINNEAPOLIS, May 15-- Prograde and Four51 announced today that Prograde will adopt Four51 as its enterprise e-commerce solution. The company will extend Four51's functionality to its entire customer base and to its suppliers. The two companies will initiate joint sales, marketing, implementation, and training activities immediately to engage Prograde's customers and suppliers with the program. Prograde is the first distributor organization to extend Four51 to its entire customer and supplier base. "We've enjoyed great success with Four51," said Dan Schroer, Prograde's president. "Because of the e-commerce services we're now able to offer with Four51, we've been able to do two things: extend our relationships with existing customers and, even better, win business from large, national accounts." Prograde decided to extend Four51 functionality to its customers and suppliers as soon as Four51 released its WildFire(SM) XML transport module and jointly announced with TopForm software the two companies' interoperability initiatives. As a leading TopForm user, and now as a leading Four51 user, Prograde intends to automate inbound and outbound order processing between its customers and suppliers with Four51, while instantly and seamlessly passing transaction data into its back office through TopForm's WebEC. "These capabilities represent a huge opportunity for us to create substantial efficiencies for ourselves and our trading partners," continued Schroer. "Automating and standardizing order processing between our customers and suppliers is a major benefit. But, by automating our corresponding back-office processes with TopForm, these two systems working together will create a huge strategic advantage." "Working with Prograde has been a great experience," said Barry Brown, Four51's senior vice president of operations. "They are definitely on the cutting edge when it comes to pursuing the benefits and advantages these kinds of tools can offer. We're very pleased to have the opportunity to help them succeed with technology and continue to grow their business." Prograde is actively presenting Four51 to its customers and suppliers, and Four51 is coordinating with Prograde for implementation and training. Prograde plans to have its entire customer and supplier base enabled with Four51 by June 15, 2001.