BackWeb Introduces Offline Access Server Version 4

ProactivePortal Server name changed to reflect expanded capabilities; New development environment enables quick and easy offline deployment

San Jose, Calif.—November 11, 2003—BackWeb Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: BWEB), a leading provider of offline web software, today introduced the BackWeb® Offline Access Server™ Version 4. Previously available as the BackWeb ProactivePortal® Server, BackWeb has changed the name of its flagship product to reflect expanded product capabilities in offline enabling different web applications, including portals, intranets, extranets, or any ASP, ASP.Net or J2EE application. A key innovation in Version 4 is the new BackWeb Developer Studio, a visual integrated development environment (IDE) that greatly reduces the effort required to extend web applications for offline use.

The BackWeb Developer Studio is a visual development environment that enables web developers to extend, test and deploy web-based enterprise applications for offline use without changing the way the application works. The BackWeb Developer Studio greatly reduces development risk by integrating with the web application front-end in a way that isolates it from the underlying application development architecture, be it J2EE, .NET or any other web platform.

In recent months, BackWeb has experienced increasing demand for its ProactivePortal Server offering, with recent customer wins including: ConAgra Foods, Centocor, KLA Tencor, and Pioneer Natural Resources. The name ProactivePortal Server has been changed to Offline Access Server in response to direct market interest and added capabilities in offline enabling various enterprise applications beyond portals.

Lam Research Corporation, a Fremont, California-based semiconductor process equipment supplier, is using BackWeb's technology to both reduce costs and improve overall business processes associated with managing and delivering key company documents and information to its employees. The Company plans to use the new Offline Access Server's expanded features and new developer environment for future offline projects.

"In the last several months, BackWeb has seen increasing interest from customers and prospects to offline enable intranets and web applications such as CRM and PLM in addition to enterprise portals," said BackWeb Chairman and CEO Eli Barkat. "These companies are viewing offline enablement as a key to the expanded utility and increased ROI from web applications as 24/7 access to important corporate content becomes a business necessity. With Offline Access Server, Version 4, BackWeb customers now have a standards-based and visual environment to quickly deploy and modify their offline applications."

The BackWeb Developer Studio within Offline Access Server, Version 4 includes:

Visual, standard, Eclipse-based development environment tailored for both online and offline;
Complete, end-to-end testing environment from the online web to the offline web;
Extendable OTML (Offline Tagging Markup Language) rules for fast offline enablement of any web application;
Extendable offline processing logic using pre-processing scripts, written in JavaScript; and
Integrated, pre-defined rules to accelerate development for leading web platforms, including Plumtree, BEA, IBM and SAP Portals.