Release Date: 5th April 2004

Icona appoint Majenta as exclusive UK automotive reseller

Following the recent release of aesthetica™ Version 1.0, Icona Solutions Ltd announce the appointment of Majenta Solutions Ltd as their exclusive UK automotive reseller.

Dr David Belford, Executive Chairman of Icona said.

"This appointment is part of our strategy for achieving rapid penetration of aesthetica™ into the automotive sector. Majenta is an ideal partner with an established reputation in the automotive industry and the ability to provide high quality technical and customer support. It is a natural fit".

Icona, founded in 2003 as a spinout company from the University of Leeds, has developed leading edge software to visualize the impact of manufacturing variation on product quality. The initial target market is the global auto industry.

For the first time, engineers are able to review the effects of manufacturing variation on the appearance of a vehicle or assembled component, such as an instrument panel, through the increased use of computer based virtual prototypes rather than life sized real models. The use of aesthetica™ is complementary to industry standard visualization and dimensional tolerancing products.

Founded in 1995 and based in Brentwood, Essex, with offices in Coventry, the UK's automotive and manufacturing industry heartland, Majenta Solutions Ltd. provides turnkey mechanical computer-aided design and manufacturing (MCAD) solutions, services and expertise to UK product development and manufacturing companies, many of them in the automotive industry.

With annual revenues of around £10 million, Majenta Solutions' product offerings from leading, world-class software developers and hardware manufacturers encompass conceptual design, detailed engineering design, visualization, manufacturing, reverse engineering, simulation and product data management.

Mike Reading, Majenta's Sales and Marketing Director, said,

"aesthetica™ is one of the most exciting new products we have seen for some time. It fits well into our existing software portfolio and enables us to offer our customers in the UK automotive industry an additional tool to significantly improve efficiency in the design process and enable critical decisions involving aesthetics to be taken at a much earlier stage in the cycle."

About Icona

Founded in the UK in early 2003 as a University of Leeds spin-out company, Icona Solutions grew out of pioneering work undertaken at the School of Computing, University of Leeds as part of a Government-funded (EPSRC) project called VITAL (Visualisation of the Impact of Tolerance Allocation). The four-year project involved close collaboration with the automotive industry. The project’s team leader, Dr. John Maxfield, later joined Icona Solutions as founder and technical director.

Since the original proof-of-concept work of the team at the University of Leeds, Icona Solutions has undertake research and development to significantly extend the functionality to the software, with the result being aesthetica™.
Icona Solutions has developed significant added functionality to the software, with the result being aesthetica.

The company is currently establishing technical support, training and sales operations to serve the global automotive industry.

About Majenta

Founded in 1995 and based in Brentwood, Essex, with offices in Coventry, Majenta Solutions Ltd. provides turnkey MCAD solutions, services and expertise to product development and manufacturing companies, many of them in the automotive industry, in the UK.

With annual revenues of around £10 million, Majenta’s software and hardware offerings from leading, world class developers and manufacturers encompass conceptual design, detailed engineering design, visualisation, manufacturing, reverse engineering, simulation and product data management.

In addition to providing software and hardware, either on their own or as fully configured turnkey solutions complete with all appropriate peripheral devices, Majenta Solutions provides on-going technical support, both on its customers’ sites and via its help-desk operation, plus user training and systems and business process consultancy services in order for its customers to reap the greatest benefits from its systems.