ATG Powers Harvard Business School Publishing with Online Initiatives; ATG Commerce Delivers Greater Levels of Self-service and Personalization

Business Wire, Dec 16, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 2002

ATG (Art Technology Group, Inc., Nasdaq: ARTG), a leading developer of online CRM applications for commerce, portals, and relationship management, today announced that Harvard Business School Publishing (HBSP), a leader in the publication of business management information, has successfully re-launched its educational commerce site www.harvardbusinessonline.org using ATG Commerce.

With access to leading authors and content experts, HBSP offers students, teachers and corporate executives a complete catalogue of printed, digital, and eLearning resources. Despite the success of the six-year-old site, however, HBSP was eager to leverage emerging technology to extend greater self-service and personalization functionality to its online customers. Rather than continuing to invest in resources that would improve the existing infrastructure, HBSP determined it would be more beneficial to focus its long-term goal on creating a digital publishing platform. To accomplish this, HBSP chose to develop new criteria for the site and build a substantially different infrastructure that would keep pace with the company's strategy for growth in the online space.

"In order for HBSP to service our customer base, the site had to offer not only the flexibility to grow with our customers, but also enable us to adapt to changes in the marketplace," said Jeri Schefts, director of business systems for HBSP. "With HBSP's long-term goal of digital publishing, the scalability and personalization capabilities afforded by ATG Commerce will allow us to continue moving toward that goal."

Dimension Data, the integration partner brought in by HBSP to build the site, completed the design and specification phases and got the site up and running in five months. One of the key differentiators in the decision-making process was ATG's Scenario Personalization(SM). Through the use of Scenario Personalization, HBSP is able to cross-sell and up-sell products, provide different page views and gear marketing efforts to specific users based on their preferences and prior spending habits. For example, in setting up roles, Harvard Business School and other authorized faculty are allowed to view everything from teaching notes to case studies that are inaccessible to other users.

"The re-launch of HBSP's site is illustrative of second-generation online initiatives where companies create a strategic advantage that drives future business growth and strengthens customer loyalty," said Matt Price, vice president of product marketing, ATG. "ATG's personalization technology will enable HBSP to leverage its online presence and significantly improve its position in the marketplace."

About Harvard Business School Publishing

Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard Business School Publishing is a wholly owned, not for profit subsidiary of Harvard University. HBSP publishes for the general, professional, and academic markets. Its offerings include the widely-respected Harvard Business Review, books from the Harvard Business School Press, the newsletters Harvard Management Update, Harvard Management Communication Letter, and Balanced Scorecard Report, a range of conference programs, a line of multimedia products for management development, videos, simulations, course books and cases. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.harvardbusinessonline.org

About ATG

ATG (Art Technology Group, Inc.) is a leading developer of online CRM applications that deliver an integrated, personalized experience for customers, partners and employees: the frontline of every business. Customers around the globe rely on ATG for the frontline applications that help build and manage mutually beneficial relationships. Deployed on the industry's most popular application servers, ATG solutions for commerce, portals, and relationship management are ideal for integrated e-business initiatives across the enterprise.

Today, ATG has delivered solutions to blue-chip companies worldwide, including Aetna Services, Inc., Alcatel, American Airlines, Barclays Global Investors, Best Buy, BMG Direct, Eastman Kodak, Ford Motor Credit, HSBC, J. Crew, Sun Microsystems, Walgreen Company, and WellsFargo and government organizations including the United States Army and the USDA. The company is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with additional locations throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information about ATG, please visit our Web site at www.atg.com.

(C) 2002. ATG and Art Technology Group are registered trademarks of Art Technology Group, Inc. Scenario Personalization is a service mark of ATG. All other product names, service marks, and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important risk factors affecting business generally may be found in periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Risk factors related to the subject matter of this press release include the possibility that the ATG product deployment will not be successful, significantly enhance the user's Internet experience or handle user volume; that Harvard Business School Publishing will not continue to use the products; that it will not maintain or enhance the customer's brand; the need to adapt to rapid changes so products do not become obsolete; the possibility of errors in ATG's software products; the risks and costs associated with intellectual property and other litigation; and the possibility that the solution will not make customer implementations faster and more flexible.