Admiral Insurance Selects Marimba For Its Software Distribution And Inventory Management

Business Wire, June 18, 2002

Business Editors/Technology Writers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 18, 2002

Marimba's Desktop/Mobile Management Products Help to Reduce Help Desk

Calls and Improve End-user Quality of Service

Marimba, Inc. (Nasdaq:MRBA), the Software Change-Management Company, today announced that Admiral Insurance, one of the UK's leading insurance providers, has implemented Marimba's Desktop/Mobile Management products across its entire network to manage and audit the roll-out of new and upgraded software. The implementation covers Admiral's PC IT infrastructure and replaces the incumbent management solution. Compared to Admiral's previous management solution, Marimba will help to significantly reduce the administrative costs of application management, while simultaneously improving end-use quality of service.

Admiral was looking for a change and configuration management system that could provide detailed inventory information, speed-up software rollouts, and was easy to use and understand. Marimba was chosen following a trial period during which the software was proven to hit all of these criteria and performed particularly well within the Admiral IT infrastructure.

Paul Connah, Admiral's network manager, comments, "Our previous system was just too complex and intensive on resources. It used up too much network bandwidth, too much server capacity and too many man-hours to make it the long-term answer for efficient software upgrades. We reached a stage where we reverted to the age-old remedy of upgrading by hand, machine by machine - again a very time consuming process. Marimba's software managed to achieve in weeks, what the previous solution couldn't accomplish in 18 months."

Marimba's Desktop/Mobile Management products are being used by Admiral to support a variety of mission-critical applications and to improve efficiency by enabling the applications to be rolled-out, updated, and maintained, instead of pre-loading them from static images. These products also help to minimize administrative inconvenience, even in the case of bandwidth intensive jobs, which are normally scheduled for times when the network is in least demand. With Marimba's built-in network-friendly efficiencies, systems administrators can manage the changes and updates when they are needed and required rather than when it is possible.

Upgrades are performed seamlessly to the end-users. Connah explains, "It was really important to us that Marimba worked transparently. Our help desk deals with 9,000 calls a month and many of those are from users inquiring about a status bar that's moving on their screen. We find that the less users know about the transparent delivery of application updates, the less they worry and the less they call us - another bonus. Of even higher value is Marimba's ability to self-heal the managed end-points. To have users execute a self-heal before calling the help desk has also resulted in a considerable drop in support calls. This function may also be automated in the future."

Adrian Rayner, Marimba's European vice president said, "The situation that Admiral came across is similar to many of the companies we work with. When they see Marimba's Change-Management products in action, they are surprised that one piece of software can handle their software management so effectively and simply."

About Marimba

Marimba, Inc., the Software Change-Management Company, is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. Marimba's Desktop/Mobile Management, Server Management, and Embedded Management product families allow Global 2000 companies to better manage their IT resources, increase operational efficiency and reduce IT costs. Additional information is available at www.marimba.com.

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbors created by these sections. These forward-looking statements include Admiral Insurance's planned use of Marimba's Desktop/Mobile Management products to distribute, inventory and manage applications across its entire network, in order to reduce help desk calls and the administrative costs of application management and improve end-user quality of service; certain other technical and performance benefits Admiral Insurance expects to achieve with Marimba's Desktop/Mobile Management products; and the expectation that Admiral Insurance will make Marimba's products part of its standard infrastructure. Those results are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the remaining time and effort required to complete Admiral Insurance's deployment, which could be greater than expected; technical challenges specific to Admiral Insurance's implementation, which could impact whether Admiral Insurance is able to achieve expected benefits with Marimba's products; and other business factors particular to Admiral Insurance and Marimba which could impact whether Admiral Insurance continues to use Marimba's products in the future. Actual results may differ materially due to these and other factors. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties described from time to time in Marimba's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see the Risk Factors described in Marimba's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Marimba assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.