Mentor Graphics Earns Support Center Practices Certification for Fourth Consecutive Year

July 23, 2003

WILSONVILLE, Ore., July 23, 2003 – Mentor Graphics Corporation has been recognized for excellence in delivering technical support services to its customers with certification under the prestigious Support Center Practices (SCP) Certification program. For the fourth consecutive year, Service Strategies Corporation awarded certification to Mentor Graphics after extensive audits of multiple support centers. In 2000, Mentor Graphics was the first electronic design automation (EDA) company to receive the recognition and today Mentor remains the only EDA company with SCP Certification. SCP Certification further demonstrates the consistent, high-quality support Mentor Graphics provides to its customers worldwide.

SCP Certification, an internationally recognized standard created with the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) and a consortium of leading technology companies, defines best practices for delivering world-class technology support. The program quantifies the effectiveness of customer support, establishes a foundation to build on existing quality processes, and provides a clear focus on measurable results. Certified organizations must demonstrate their continued commitment to high performance standards through annual re-certification audits. To confirm that Mentor Graphics met the requirements of the more than 100 business elements defined in the SCP Certification program, comprehensive on-site audits were conducted in several Mentor Graphics locations in North America and Europe.

“SCP certification quantifies the effectiveness of customer support based upon a stringent set of performance standards and represents best practices in the industry,” said John Hamilton, President of Service Strategies Corporation, which is responsible for administering the SCP Certification program. “Mentor Graphics performance continues to demonstrate the company’s dedication to delivering high quality customer support.”

“Our continued investments in call tracking systems, Web-based customer information systems, customized support options and new support offerings allow Mentor Graphics to provide thousands of customers around the world with responsive and reliable support, delivered when and where they need it,” said Tom Floodeen, vice president and general manager, customer support division, Mentor Graphics. “Our SCP certification, and the continuous improvement of our audit scores year-over-year, confirm the quality of our team’s efforts on behalf of our customers.”

Award Winning Customer Support
Mentor Graphics global customer support organization offers leading customer support solutions online, by phone and in-person. The company’s full-service customer support Web site, SupportNet, recently received the “Ten Best Web Support Sites” award from the Association of Support Professionals (ASP), making Mentor the first EDA company to win this award. Mentor’s customer support division is the only five-time winner of the Software Technical Assistance Recognition (STAR) Award in the Complex Support category from the SSPA. This prestigious award recognizes companies that consistently provide a superior level of support for software used in high-end, mission-critical applications in fields such as engineering, science, telecommunications and other technical environments. For more information on Mentor’s award-winning support services, visit www.mentor.com/supportnet.

About Mentor Graphics
Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq: MENT) is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products, consulting services and award-winning support for the world’s most successful electronics and semiconductor companies. Established in 1981, the company reported revenues over the last 12 months of about $600 million and employs approximately 3,500 people worldwide. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777; Silicon Valley headquarters are located at 1001 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, California 95131-2314. World Wide Web site: www.mentor.com.

About Support Center Practices (SCP) Certification
The Support Center Practices (SCP) Certification program was developed to address service quality issues that affect the rapidly growing technology support industry. The SSPA and forty of its member companies created the program along with Service Strategies Corporation. These companies contributed their insight and perspective into defining the key elements required for delivering World Class support. The SSPA represents over 21,800 service executives in over 2,500 support centers worldwide. SSPA gives service and support professionals opportunities to share ideas, discuss developing trends and network with their peers. For more information about SSPA, visit http://www.thesspa.com. Service Strategies Corporation is responsible for administering the SCP Certification program and conducting on-site certification audits. For more information about SCP Certification, contact Service Strategies Corporation at 858.674.4864, email info@servicestrategies.com, or visit http://www.scpcertification.com/.

Mentor Graphics is a registered trademark and SupportNet is a service mark of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.