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Lithonia Lighting Selects Datalliance Vendor Managed Inventory

CINCINNATI-(Business Wire)-September 4, 2008 - Datalliance, the leading independent provider of vendor managed inventory (VMI) and other e-commerce services, announced today that Lithonia Lighting, an Acuity Brands Inc. lighting business, has selected the Datalliance Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) service. For more than 60 years Lithonia Lighting has provided the industry’s broadest line of commercial, industrial, institutional and residential fixtures. Lithonia Lighting will initiate their VMI program implementation with a pilot distributor site and then will roll out VMI to a select base of distributors who have expressed interest in the benefits of VMI.

Lithonia Lighting has identified VMI as strategic technology to help them enhance their electronic partnership with key distributors. “VMI will give us better visibility of actual product sales for each distributor,” stated Amra Boucher, Manager E-Business Services, Lithonia Lighting. “This detailed sales information will help us evaluate and fine tune our product offering to determine the most profitable mix of products for individual distributors. In addition to increasing sales for both Lithonia and our distributors, we expect that our distributors will benefit from VMI by decreasing inventory levels, increasing turns, and reducing stockout situations.”

George Stringer, VP Distributor Value Stream, Lithonia Lighting, explained, “We looked at several VMI options, but it became clear very quickly that Datalliance was the best solution for us. They have a great reputation in the industry and are trusted by our distributors who are already doing VMI. The Software as a Service model employed by Datalliance is a perfect fit for our strategy. A quick implementation time frame and no significant investment in hardware and software is very appealing to us.”

“Lithonia Lighting’s commitment to VMI is another indication that VMI is growing quickly as a business practice in the electrical industry,” said Tom Hoar, Director, Electrical Industry, Datalliance. “In addition to being seen as an e-commerce initiative, VMI is now also being recognized as an important vehicle for growing sales.”

About Acuity Brands, Inc. and Lithonia Lighting

Acuity Brands, Inc. owns and operates Acuity Brands Lighting. With fiscal year 2007 net sales of approximately $2.0 billion, Acuity Brands Lighting is one of the world's leading providers of lighting fixtures and related products and services and includes brands such as Lithonia Lighting(R), Holophane(R), Peerless(R), Mark Architectural Lighting(TM), Hydrel(R), American Electric Lighting(R), Gotham(R), Carandini(R), SpecLight(R), MetalOptics(R) and Antique Street Lamps(TM). Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Acuity Brands employs approximately 7,000 associates and has operations throughout North America and in Europe and Asia.

About Datalliance

Datalliance is the world’s largest independent VMI service provider, processing over $4.8 billion in orders, 10.2 million SKUs, and 25,300 locations. Delivered as a managed service via the Internet using the ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) model, Datalliance VMI makes it easy for suppliers and their customers to establish effective VMI relationships that fully align business objectives, improve collaboration, and streamline supply chain operations. Datalliance serves leading Fortune 1000 companies in a number of different industries. For more information about Datalliance and VMI, visit www.datalliance.com.

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