Boehringer Ingelheim Deploys BackWeb's Offline Solution for the Plumtree Corporate Portal

Global Pharmaceutical Company Now Provides Field Employees With Anytime Access to Critical Competitive, Product and Sales Information

SAN FRANCISCO AND SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 15, 2003— Enterprise Web leader Plumtree Software (Nasdaq: PLUM) and offline Web software provider BackWeb Technologies (Nasdaq: BWEB), announced today that Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world's 20 largest pharmaceutical companies, has successfully deployed BackWeb's offline solution with its Plumtree-powered employee portal, PortalUK. Boehringer Ingelheim is now giving its UK sales and field employees offline access to enterprise applications and critical sales, marketing, regulation and product development information in the portal.

Since one third of Boehringer Ingelheim UK's employees are part of a field force with intermittent connectivity, Boehringer Ingelheim needed a solution that would allow employees to access and make changes to information presented in the portal when offline, with essentially the same personalized user experience as online. The integrated Plumtree and BackWeb solution met the need and is helping Boehringer improve productivity, accelerate business processes and react to new business opportunities more quickly and effectively.

"The deployment of PortalUK represents a major milestone in our goal to provide employees at all levels of the company with access to all of the applications and information they need to meet their objectives," said Kamy Missaghi, CIO of Boehringer Ingelheim. "The success of this initiative hinges on ensuring that the portal environment is as useful and as relevant to our extensive mobile workforce as possible. We immediately recognized offline portal access as a way to meet this objective."

Boehringer Ingelheim selected Plumtree to provide employees with a single point of access to applications and information from across the enterprise. Using the portal, Boehringer Ingelheim staff members can search for, view and publish up-to-date data on product development, regulation, sales and marketing, and can work with business intelligence information from Cognos and Boehringer's financial planning tools. Bringing the information together in one Enterprise Web environment saves time and enables key decision-makers to make fully informed decisions.

Boehringer Ingelheim selected BackWeb to expand the reach and value of the portal by providing offline access. With this offline functionality, Boehringer Ingelheim field employees can take all of their portal information and capabilities on the go. They are also able to reduce time spent online searching for and reading information, often on slow modems, since information relevant to their jobs can immediately be downloaded for their offline portal use.

Boehringer Ingelheim has big plans for the portal and the BackWeb® Offline Access Server™ and intends to soon give employees access to expense and timesheet tracking applications from the portal and video clips of product demonstrations.

"As customers build rich, business-critical applications in the portal, they increasingly need to offer employees, partners or customers offline access to those applications," said Glenn Kelman, vice president of marketing and product management at Plumtree. "As Boehringer Ingelheim's successful deployment shows, Plumtree's integration with BackWeb's offline solution extends the value of our customers' portals to a new audience of mobile workers, driving ROI."

"Boehringer Ingelheim's deployment of BackWeb's technology showcases the importance of integrating offline capabilities into the portal right from the get-go," said Bill Heye, vice president of professional services for BackWeb. "By providing offline access from the beginning, companies are able to increase the utility and often the ROI of their portals, especially for their mobile users."

Why BackWeb's Offline Access Server for Plumtree?
Boehringer Ingelheim chose BackWeb for its experience integrating with the Plumtree Enterprise Web Suite, its open architecture, and its enterprise scalability. Boehringer Ingelheim was also looking for a solution that would provide rapid time-to-value, installing quickly and making a significant impact on the business.

About Plumtree Software
Plumtree Software is the Enterprise Web leader. Plumtree's mission is to create a comprehensive Web environment for employees, customers and partners across the enterprise to interact with different systems and work together. Plumtree's Enterprise Web solution consists of integration products for bringing resources from traditional systems together on the Web, foundation services such as collaboration, content management and search for building new Web applications, and a portal platform for delivering these Web applications to broad audiences. Plumtree's independence and its Web Services Architecture allow this solution to span rival platforms and systems, helping maximize customers' return on their existing technology investments. With offices in more than a dozen countries, Plumtree has licensed over 550 customers, including Boeing, Ford Motor Company, Procter & Gamble and the U.S. Navy. For more information, visit Plumtree on the Web at www.plumtree.com