The Spanish Connection, Inc. Announces Alliance With HP to Offer Joint Solutions on the Internet; The Spanish Connection, Inc. to Become Channel Partner in HP Covision Program

Business Wire, June 14, 1999

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 14, 1999--

The Spanish Connection, Inc. has been selected by Hewlett-Packard Company as one of its new Covision channel partners to offer joint solutions over the Internet for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer eCommerce transactions.

The HP Covision Program is worldwide over the Internet, integrating leading Internet applications; HP technology; and services from selected Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Application Service Providers (ASPs), such as The Spanish Connection, Inc.

The Spanish Connection (www.spanishconnection.com) is an Internet portal site targeted at the rapidly growing bi- and trilingual Internet markets in Latin America and the United States. Spanish, Portuguese, and English speaking individuals and businesses can use The Spanish Connection to seamlessly access the World Wide Web for free e-mail, eCommerce shopping, B2B communications and transactions and related special interest topics. The Spanish Connection is also the most complete Latin-American search engine directory to go on-line.

A key focus of the HP Covision Program is to deliver solutions through selected channel partners such as TSC to help small and medium-size businesses (SMEs) successfully utilize the Internet. Covision services range from basic connectivity and Web-site development to sophisticated electronic-commerce applications, both business-to-business and business-to-consumer.

TSC provides a full range of Internet services to SMEs consistent with the Covision strategy. For example, TSC works with Exodus (www.exodus.net), another HP Covision Partner, to provide reliable, state of the art Web-hosting services to Latin-American countries. TSC also provides powerful e-commerce applications that facilitate a company's transition to a business model that leverages the Internet, as noted below.

TSC Selects Perigis eBusiness Software

The above announcement with HP follows quickly on the heels of an agreement reached last month between The Spanish Connection and Perigis Corporation of Los Altos, Calif. (www.perigis.com). TSC becomes one of the first ASPs to select Perigis Corporation's new "Perigis@biz(TM)" Web-centric commerce chain software. The Perigis product is internet-architected, offers powerful workflow and messaging capabilities and is built completely on the Microsoft NTTM "stack." Based on the leading edge technology in products such as the "Perigis eBackbone Server(TM)", TSC will be able to host and support an eCommerce Web site that fully integrates business-to-business (B2B) I-Commerce as part of a Company's infrastructure, including full compatibility with and support for Microsoft "biztalk"(TM) (www.biztalk.org).

"Perigis@biz(TM)" and its full range of Supply/Demand chain eCommerce applications are one of the key strategic components of the TSC eCommerce solution set. "@biz provides TSC with a Web-centric architecture that is scalable, flexible and easily customized. It provides TSC with an industry-leading, hosted eCommerce solution, and it is the best solution for the needs of the emerging Latin American eCommerce market," stated John Gallivan, CEO of TSC.

According to The Spanish Connection, it is estimated that by the Year 2000, Latin America will have 35 million Internet users in a potential world-wide market where approximately 400 million people speak Spanish, including 29.6 million in the United States.

For more information, The Spanish Connection, Inc. can be reached by e-mail through its Web site at (www.spanishconnection.com).