BackWeb to Hold Web Seminar on Next Generation Portals

Leading Gartner Portal Analyst to Discuss How to Increase Value and Impact of Corporate Portals

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 10, 2001 – BackWeb Technologies (Nasdaq: BWEB), a leading provider of ProactivePortal™ technologies and push infrastructure for the enterprise, announced today that leading Gartner analyst and portal expert Gene Phifer will discuss the future of portals with BackWeb CEO, Eli Barkat, in an upcoming Webinar. The company is registering participants now for a cyber seminar on "Next Generation Portals – The Proactive™ Experience," which will take place on Wednesday, July 25th at 7am PST and 10am PST.

"In today's age of information overload, there is a new attention economy defined by the tremendous volume of information bombarding people and the small amount of time to devote mindshare to it," said Eli Barkat, chairman and CEO of BackWeb Technologies. "With companies fighting the battle for attention, a corporate portal that will provide offline portal information and proactively send the right people the right information when and when they need it, is essential."

The portal market is expected to grow from $2 billion this year to $6.2 billion in 2003 (META Group). Yet with all the money being invested in building portals and creating rich content, the content is often ignored due to information overload. This imbalance is costing organizations millions of dollars in lost revenue and business opportunities every year.

"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."

The Webinar will address:

The role of advanced offline and notification features in emerging third generation portal technology
Maximizing the ROI of enterprise portals
How portals can control information overload by proactively delivering critical portal content that guarantees end users' interaction
Which platforms and technologies organzations will use to develop, deploy and manage Internet portal sites

Bob Braham, vice president of marketing for BackWeb, will moderate the discussion between Gene Phifer and Eli Barkat. The Webinar will be an interactive forum, and participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and get answers. Registration is available online at www.backweb.com or by calling (888) 800-1115.