Kadro Solutions Builds an Innovative Mobile and Integrated Web Services Solution for the Industry Leader in Food Safety Auditing

RALEIGH, NC — May 20, 2002 — Kadro Solutions, Inc. today announced the development of a Food Safety Auditor System for The Steritech Group, Inc., a Charlotte, NC based food safety and environmental hygiene company. The new system is designed to automate the collection and calculation of complex audit data at the point of service using a mobile, pen-based computer application, and then synchronizing the data with a Web-based system for analysis, reporting, and notification.

The Steritech Group Inc., the industry leader in food safety consulting and auditing, conducts extensive audits for their clients, covering industry and government regulatory requirements for food safety and security. Data accuracy and timeliness in delivery of information to Steritech's clients was an important factor in the design of the system due to the fact that many audits typically take hours to perform for larger hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, and food processing facilities. Steritech hired Kadro Solutions to fully automate their auditing system, and to develop a mobile solution which further improves service and operational efficiency.

"One of the challenges we faced at Steritech was developing a custom data collection system that was able to meet the rigorous demands of our field auditors and clients," said Kit Whitley, Steritech's Marketing Manager. "Thanks to Kadro Solutions, we were able to successfully deliver a solution. Working under pressing time constraints, the Kadro Solutions staff provided superior technical expertise, equipment recommendations, and helpful suggestions that enhanced our original vision and produced, in the end, a premium software solution."

Before starting the audit, the mobile application is used to download specific information about the customer's work order, location, audit form, tests to be performed, and auditing policies. The system is fully configurable; audit forms are dynamic depending upon customer specific criteria. Once at the point of service, the auditor uses the mobile application's pen computer interface, including handwriting recognition software, for collecting data and free-form text. The information gathered includes audit item scoring, notes about each item deducted, notes about the audit, results of all tests performed, and the name and signature of the auditor and location manager.

At the end of the audit, Steritech's food safety auditors review the results with the customer and then synchronize their handheld computer over a secure interface to the system's web application server for uploading the completed audit data.

Steritech's customers are the real beneficiaries of the new system. By using a secure extranet interface, Steritech's customers can view, analyze and download data about their completed food safety audits. Additionally, the customer is notified when the audit is complete via email or text-based pager.

The mobile component for this system is developed in Sun Microsystems' Personal Java and deployed on Fujitsu PenCentra 200 hand held computers using the Microsoft Windows CE operating system. The web applications are built on Kadro Solutions' e-Business application framework, KadroWorks, using Java servlets.

"Steritech's Food Safety Auditor System is a great example of how effective mobile computing and Web-based applications can be integrated to provide an end-to-end solution," said Rick Johnson, President and CEO of Kadro Solutions. "By extending our e-Business application framework, KadroWorks, to support a field service mobile application, we have developed the components for applying this technology for auditing, inspections, and work order management for a variety of needs and industries. The team at Steritech was fantastic to work with and it's great to see the Food Safety Auditor System in action."

About Kadro Solutions:
Kadro Solutions delivers innovative, enterprise-class software and managed services to help companies establish core e-Business offerings including Internet, intranet and mobile computing solutions. Kadro Solutions offers custom software solutions as well as the following applications: KadroWorks is a highly scalable and reusable, component-based J2EE architecture and framework that encompasses sophisticated techniques for supporting multiple, interacting web application services. Kadro Merchant is a suite of e-Commerce application services for retailers, wholesalers or distributors. Kadro Merchant enables any business to sell their products online, as well as manage their online catalog and inventory, product promotions, and up-sell and cross-sell capabilities.

For more information on Kadro Solutions, please visit www.kadrosolutions.com or call 1-877-256-2217.

Kadro Solutions is an employee owned company headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

About The Steritech Group, Inc.:
Steritech is recognized as the leader in the food safety and environmental hygiene field (serving a number of the largest and most successful organizations in North America). Its sophisticated range of food safety products and services is designed to assist food service operators in achieving the highest level of food safety and sanitation possible. Steritech's team of microbiologists, biologists, food scientists, and other food safety professionals provide comprehensive food safety and sanitation audits, pest prevention and technical support and training. Steritech has pioneered the development of Web enabled food safety management systems, integrating innovative technologies such as bar coding, hand-held data capture and sensoring.

For more information on Steritech, please visit www.steritech.com or call 1-800-868-0089.

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