BackWeb "Delivering" Portal Technology to the Next Level

New BackWeb® ProactivePortal™ Capabilities Maximize Partner, Customer and Employee Interaction with ‘must have' Portal Content

Washington, D.C.- June 25, 2001 — BackWeb Technologies (Nasdaq: BWEB), leading provider of industry-recognized push technology, today announced its official entry into the enterprise portal market with its ProactivePortal products and integration services… products and services built upon BackWeb's customer-proven push technology. BackWeb made the announcement at Washington D.C.'s Portal World Show. The company will combine its Proactive™ delivery technology with enterprise portal technology, elevating portals to the next level by bringing critical content directly to users' desktops and wireless devices. BackWeb ProactivePortal capabilities empower companies to maximize their portal investments by ensuring ‘must have' content is not ignored by their extended enterprise of customers, suppliers, partners, employees and offline users.

"Industry estimates show that Global 2000 companies are budgeting multi-million dollar IT projects for integrating ‘must have' content into passive enterprise portals. BackWeb brings six years and six versions of our patented Polite® push technology to the portal market, filling the communication void that is costing companies millions of dollars," said Eli Barkat, chairman and CEO, BackWeb Technologies. "By leveraging BackWeb's push technology experience with portal technology, we are ensuring critical content does not get ignored and customers realize a more compelling ROI on their portals."

"While the present generation of portal products provides a powerful communication gateway to access enterprise information, processes, and applications, the passive nature of these portals creates a regular setting where critical information does not always reach the audience for which it is intended," said Gene Phifer, vice president, research director for Gartner. "In order to maximize the portal ROI, next generation portals must add proactive delivery capabilities that enable offline access and robust proactive notifications."

Portals continue to be a sought-after technological resource for companies to share and disseminate select information to customers, partners and employees. Industry analysts predict the portal market will grow from $2 billion in 2001 to $6.2 billion in 2003. Yet, the traditional portal as a gateway to information is not enough. Recent research by Bain and Company shows that, of companies currently implementing portals, over 50 percent considered proactive notification and offline access as important components of a portal strategy. Clearly, companies have declared a real need for Proactive technology and offline portal access, and BackWeb's Polite delivery and notifications technology address critical portal needs such as portal stickiness, emergency communications, and enterprise video communications. This proven technology is fueling the ROI success of major companies such as Cisco, IBM, Guidant, Hewlett-Packard and Nortel.

"To deliver a positive user experience, a business must manage all aspects of handling content and access through the portal as well as the creation, management and delivery of the content," said Edward Harbour, IBM Director, WebSphere Foundation Extensions Marketing. "The IBM WebSphere software platform is leading the industry with solutions that enhance a customer's ability to deliver the robust, completely integrated capabilities required by next-generation e-businesses. We are pleased to add BackWeb's Proactive delivery technology to the WebSphere platform, which gives an enterprise portal solution the ability to deliver ‘must-have' content to the right people, at the right time and maximize its ROI."