BackWeb Technologies Gaining Industry Analyst Support For ProactivePortal™ Technology

Gartner, META Group, Delphi Group and Yankee Group deem Offline Access and Notification Critical Capabilities For Customers' Portal Investments

San Jose, CA.- July 30, 2001 — BackWeb Technologies (Nasdaq: BWEB), a leading provider of ProactivePortal™ technologies and push infrastructure for the enterprise, today announced significant industry support for its recent entry into the enterprise portal market. BackWeb is applying its delivery, notification and patented push technology toward the enterprise portal space, providing integral third-generation portal capabilities, including offline access and Proactive notifications.

The portal market is expected to grow from $2 billion this year to $6.2 billion in 2003 (META Group) and industry research indicates that companies with portals already in place have declared Proactive notification and offline access as "must-have" additions to a portal strategy. As portals move into the third generation phase, it has become evident that in order for a company to get its intended ROI of the portal, the portal content must get noticed and used. BackWeb's Offline products ensure that critical portal content is delivered, notified and used by offline workforces such as mobile users in the sales force, field service, and management teams. BackWeb's Proactive notification relays critical content to the intended recipient via numerous devices (cell, PC, PDA) until he/she responds to the message. BackWeb's proven technology has already translated to ROI success for Cisco, IBM, Guidant, Hewlett-Packard and Nortel, among others.

Industry analysts recognize BackWeb's potential contribution to the enterprise portal market:

"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 already provide a wealth of features enabling companies to aggregate their ‘Must Have' content to the Web. The missing link is insurance that this critical information reaches - and is viewed by - the targeted recipients." said Nancy Tubb, Delphi Group Senior Analyst. "In today's economic climate, where IT accountability is scrutinized & demonstrable ROI is a necessity, companies will demand a next-generation portal that ensures the right people at the right time interact with critical information both online & offline."

"As portal implementations take on more business critical roles within (and beyond) organizations, features such as offline access and proactive delivery will become must-have requirements," said David Yockelson, senior vice president of electronic business strategies, The META Group. "Portal frameworks that provide robust proactive capabilities can ensure that critical content is read and acted upon. Such complimentary functionality will help portals achieve maximum ROI."

"More and more of today's workforce are mobile, using multiple means of communication, including cell phones, PDAs, laptops and wireless devices. Information needs to be mobile as well, seeking out the user to deliver critical content," said Sheryl Kingstone, an analyst with the Yankee Group. "Portal technologies that proactively deliver information, not only make a company's portal interactive, but ensures that time-sensitive data is read, processed and acted upon, translating to significantly increased ROI."

Editor's Note:
BackWeb will be releasing its financial results for the second quarter of 2001 as well as discussing its strategy and vision for the ProactivePortal market on its earnings conference call Tuesday, July 31. A conference call will be held following the earnings release on Tuesday July 31, 2001 at 5:30 a.m. PT. Those wishing to join should dial 415-228-3886, passcode "BackWeb," at 5:15 a.m.

A live Webcast of the conference call will also be available via the company's website at www.backweb.com. A replay of the call will be available starting one hour after the completion of the call until August 7, 2001. To access the replay, dial 402-998-0772.