HotSamba Signs Partnership Agreement With RightNow Technologies; Partnership Enables HotSamba to Add Award-Winning Web Customer Service to its ASP E-Commerce Service

Business Wire, April 10, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

BOZEMAN, Mont.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2000

RightNow Technologies (http://www.rightnowtech.com), a leading provider of Web customer service systems, today announced it has signed a strategic partnership agreement with HotSamba, a leading global provider of business-to-business electronic commerce solutions for the durable goods manufacturing and distribution supply chain.

As part of the agreement, HotSamba will incorporate RightNow Web, the industry's best-selling Web customer service system, into HotSamba's Rapid Commerce(TM) service. Rapid Commerce is the first sell-side, hosted ASP (application service provider) service for mid-market durable goods manufacturers and distributors. Rapid Commerce provides customers with a professionally created Website and electronic catalog, site hosting, and site/catalog maintenance. By integrating RightNow Web within the Rapid Commerce service, HotSamba will be able to build a comprehensive Web customer service system for their clients that combines Web customer self-help, e-mail management and live customer interaction features.

"Web-based customer support functionality is essential for any business-to-business electronic commerce Web site," said Robert Onesto, president and CEO of HotSamba. "We chose to work with RightNow Technologies because they are a leader in the category, and their award-winning technology helps us get our clients up and running in a matter of days. We are excited about using RightNow Web as our customer service solution."

"We're pleased to be working with HotSamba," said Greg Gianforte, founder and CEO of RightNow Technologies. "As part of their Rapid Commerce service, RightNow Web will reduce customer support costs for HotSamba's clients, while greatly enhancing the online support experience for the end-customers. RightNow Web is an ideal solution for any business-to-business electronic commerce company who values their customer relationships."

RightNow Web Has Largest Installed Customer Base

With over 500 customers, RightNow Web has the industry's largest installed customer base for Web customer service systems. RightNow Web helps customer service professionals proactively reduce the amount of incoming telephone calls and support e-mails by helping customers help themselves. RightNow Web operates under the principle that most customer questions are repetitive in nature and can be predicted with great accuracy. The system works by presenting users with a dynamic selection of frequently asked questions (FAQs). As visitors interact with the system, they rate the effectiveness of published FAQs, helping to prioritize solutions for future customer questions.

For questions that are not addressed by the published knowledgebase, RightNow Web makes it easy for customers to submit new questions. When support personnel respond to the questions, they can publish the question and the answer into the FAQ knowledgebase, thereby making the solution easily accessible to future visitors. RightNow Web was the first Web customer service system to leverage real-world customer input to anticipate future customer questions.

In February, RightNow Technologies announced RightNow Web 3.1, a major upgrade to the company's flagship Web customer service suite. RightNow Web 3.1 builds upon the system's award-winning customer self-help capabilities by integrating new features for e-mail management, live customer interaction and service contract management. On February 14, 2000, PC Week gave RightNow Web 3.1 their coveted Analyst's Choice Award (http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,2436143,00.html), and on March 24, 2000, an Internet.com review presented RightNow Web with a 5-Star rating, their highest achievable rating.

About HotSamba

HotSamba is the leading global provider of business-to-business e-commerce solutions for the durable goods manufacturing and distribution supply chain. The company develops vertically focused, Web-based software and services that help manufacturers and distributors more efficiently and cost effectively conduct business with trading partners, while making it faster and easier for their customers to purchase vital operating resources. HotSamba is located in Schaumburg, Illinois and can be contacted by phone at 1-800-847-5564, or through its Web site at http://www.hotsamba.com. HotSamba, netMarketsource, and Rapid Commerce are trademarks of HotSamba, as established under the HotSamba and InterWare, Inc. names. Other product and company names mentioned or referenced in this and other HotSamba documents may be trademarks of their respective owners.

About RightNow Technologies

Founded in 1997, RightNow Technologies automates customer service and technical support operations for Internet-connected organizations. RightNow Technologies' customers include Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Nortel, PictureTel, Sprint, TDK, Vivitar, Xerox and over 500 other organizations. RightNow Technologies is located at 601 Haggerty Drive, Bozeman, MT 59715, and can be reached by phone at 888-322-3566, by fax at 406-522-4227, by e-mail at info@rightnowtech.com or on the Web at http://www.rightnowtech.com.