Endeca Selected As Exclusive Provider of Guided Navigation For New IBM DB2 Search Software

Business Wire, Dec 13, 2004

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- New Partnership Gives IBM Ability to Offer Next-Generation Information Retrieval Capabilities to IBM Enterprise Customers

Endeca, the leading provider of advanced search and Guided Navigation(SM) solutions, announced today a new exclusive partnership with IBM to bring the next-generation capabilities of Endeca's Guided Navigation to IBM DB2(R) Information Integrator customers. According to the terms of the deal, IBM will offer Endeca's software to customers seeking the ability to integrate search and navigation capabilities for improved usability and access to disparate enterprise content. The integrated solution will be offered as a key, premium component to IBM's recently unveiled DB2 Information Integrator (DB2 II) OmniFind Edition, formerly code named Masala.

IBM's DB2 Information Integrator (DB2 II) OmniFind Edition, announced in late September 2004, provides enterprise search middleware for powering intranets, extranets, and corporate public web sites.

A patent-pending technology, Endeca's Guided Navigation represents an information retrieval breakthrough that leverages characteristics of data to categorize results and present valid refinement and exploration options in the form of navigational links. This next-generation functionality - which has rapidly become a must-have for enterprise search software -- can be used to organize and refine long lists of search results or can be used as a stand-alone querying mechanism to help users find relevant content with a few simple clicks of the mouse.

More about the Endeca and IBM relationship:

Endeca is an IBM Advanced Business Partner and is a preferred provider for IBM's WebSphere Commerce Group -- Endeca is the Advanced Search and Guided Navigation option for WebSphere Commerce. The highly successful partnership with WebSphere Commerce has resulted in joint wins at customers such as Hallmark, JC Whitney, Toys 'R' Us, The Discovery Store, The Children's Place, Brady Corporation, and Ritz Interactive.

IBM is also an Endeca customer, using Guided Navigation to power several hardware "product finders" on IBM.com. This Endeca-powered feature has proved to be incredibly successful -- generating a 50 percent increase in browser-to-buyer conversion rates. IBM has since purchased several additional Endeca solutions for use with partner, customer and employee-focused applications.

"Our close relationship with IBM has delivered substantial gains for both companies - and for the customers of both companies," said Jim Baum, president and COO of Endeca. "This new partnership will give IBM customers access to the premier Guided Navigation solution on the market, while giving Endeca substantially greater access to organizations that have invested heavily in IBM-powered information integration solutions."

Endeca Search and Guided Navigation solutions help knowledge-centric organizations in government, financial services, manufacturing, information publishing, business-to-business commerce and retail maximize the value of their content, catalog and enterprise information assets. Endeca is used worldwide in a wide range of enterprise and customer applications including Knowledge Management, CRM, customer and employee self-service, analytics, catalogs, directories, and portal integration.

About Endeca

Endeca's award-winning Search and Guided Navigation solutions help organizations to integrate, discover, and navigate enterprise data to solve business problems associated with information overload. Endeca's customers include a wide range of enterprises including retailers (Barnes & Noble, CompUSA, 1-800-Flowers, and BMG Music); finance (Putnam Investments, MFS Investments, and Quick & Reilly); business-to-business companies (IBM, Arrow Electronics and CDW); content delivery (World Book and IHS) and government (In-Q-Tel and the Library of Congress). In 2004, the AlwaysOn Network named Endeca one of the top 100 private companies in North America. Endeca is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. More info: www.endeca.com or info@endeca.com.

Endeca, Endeca InFront and Endeca Navigation Engine are registered trademarks, Endeca ProFind is a trademark and Guided Navigation is a service mark of Endeca Technologies, Inc. All other product and service names mentioned herein are or may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies or organizations.