February 24, 2003, New Windsor, NY – GretagMacbeth today announced new NetProfiler Version 1.5, a breakthrough technology that allows instruments of virtually all makes and models to agree. NetProfiler is an Internet application that remotely monitors, calibrates, adjusts and certifies a network of spectrophotometers. This technology, proven effective within the GretagMacbeth Color-Eye brand, now expands to a broader range of spectrophotometer brands to provide an industry first – a universal color measurement standard. Until now, inconsistent color measurement has been the biggest obstacle to supply chain color management. NetProfiler enables effective global supply chain color management among networks of disparate instruments. According to Ken Boyle, vice president/general manager, Color & Appearance Division, “NetProfiler allows accurate supply chain communication by removing instrumental variances in color measurement. For example, no one disputes measurements from a ruler. If you say something measures two centimeters, then it’s understood what two centimeters represent regardless of the brand of ruler used. However, until NetProfiler, that same standardization didn’t exist among color measurement instruments, primarily due to variations in optical precision and instrument settings among manufacturers. NetProfiler literally characterizes all spectrophotometers to a single virtual standard eliminating instrumental variances.” From cost savings to quality assurance, numerous companies are benefiting from this innovative service including global leader GE Plastics, an early adopter of NetProfiler and a pioneer of six-sigma quality control. NetProfiler has been vital to their state-of-the-art ColorXpress managed services program that quickly provides accurate, consistent, precolored engineered thermoplastics to customers from some 70 facilities throughout their supply chain. “With NetProfiler, we’ve experienced significant improvement to the gage repeatability and reproducibility for our color measurement systems. With these outstanding results, we have specified that all GE Plastics manufacturing and technology sites, worldwide, use NetProfiler,” remarks Jody Johnson, GE Plastics Global Color Technology Leader. An integral step towards global supply chain color management, NetProfiler is part of the Communication component of GretagMacbeth’s new Enterprise Color Management (ECM) program. In the past, supply chain color management has been ineffective due in part to lack of universal measurement standards. This lack of standardization means that measurements from one instrument differ on another instrument, making color communication nearly impossible. And because of the sensitivity of optics to environmental conditions such as heat and humidity, standardizing a global supply chain on a given make or model doesn’t resolve the problem. With NetProfiler 1.5, essentially any spectrophotometer used throughout a supply chain can be calibrated remotely via the Internet to measure within a much tighter tolerance. It eliminates instrumental variations and enables accurate supply chain color management on a global scale by standardizing all color measurements to a known virtual standard. Equally as appealing are the cost savings associated with fewer service calls. This alone, according to GretagMacbeth’s Boyle, has saved thousands of dollars in annual service calls and downtime associated with sending instruments out for calibration service. NetProfiler 1.5 is available for a variety of popular instrument brands and is sold on an annual subscription basis. Contact 1-800-622-2384 (North America) or 1-845-565-7660 (outside of North America), or visit www.gretagmacbeth.com for more information.