ADVISORY/IDG's ITworld.com Launches On-Demand Webcast 'Microsoft - ROI: Return on Intranets - Getting Immediate Business Value from Your Current Intranet Investments'.

Business/Technology Editors

ADVISORY...for Thursday, May 30

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

DATE:     May 30, 2002

LOCATION: http://www.itworld.com/jwc/ITWITWPRA01//WC/microsoft/sps/reg

TOPIC:    ITworld, the pioneer on-demand webcasts, launched its latest
          webcast program, "Microsoft - ROI: Return on Intranets -
          Getting Immediate Business Value from Your Current Intranet
          Investments." A corporate Intranet is an essential component
          to any business operation, but it is also one of the most
          costly and complex. Individual components that make up the
          corporate Intranet may be well managed and supported by a
          dedicated staff, however the corporate Intranet as a whole
          often does not provide adequate support to the individual
          knowledge workers who depend upon it.

          Many customer organizations find the following points to be
          painfully true:

            --The only way for users to locate a document is to know
            where it was last saved.

            --The only way for users to find a document they didn't
            write is to ask the author for it.

            --Every time a Web-based solution needs to be created, it
            has to be written from scratch.

            --The only way to communicate or deliver training to a
            geographically dispersed audience is to host a physical
            event, which incurs significant travel and event costs.

            --When attempts are made to organize documents and other
            content into knowledge management solutions, users find
            such systems too cumbersome actually to use.

          Of those who watched this webcast:

            --Viewers represent 50 states within the US

            --Over 75 countries are represented from around the globe

SPEAKERS: Hear what research company, Nucleus Research, has to say
          about the High Tech industry's concerns with traditional
          corporate Intranets. Microsoft's Product Manager for
          SharePoint, Ali Byrd, will cover traditional Intranet
          inefficiencies and the ways to correct them with SharePoint.

WHY:      Join Microsoft as they discuss the inefficiencies of
          traditional corporate Intranets and analyze the issues of
          costs, productivity loss, and employee turnover. Microsoft
          will offer an alternative approach in the form of the
          SharePoint Portal Server and the Microsoft Solution for
          Intranets - an Intranet Portal Solution. Understand how
          SharePoint Server and the Microsoft Solution for Intranets
          can help organizations:

            --Improve efficiency through faster, better-informed
            decision-making capacity and improved employee
            satisfaction

            --Improve business processes through customer and partner
            collaboration tools, seamless business process
            integration, and rapid access to dynamic business
            information

            --Make it easier for employees to access, distribute, and
            share information in real time through streamlined
            collaboration practices, rapid information discovery, and
            dynamic data integration

            --Increased returns on information technology investments
            with improved manageability, reliability, security, and
            training, organizations

          WEBCAST AVAILABLE 24x7 ON-DEMAND AT:
          http://www.itworld.com/jwc/ITWITWPRA01//WC/microsoft/sps/reg

WHO:      ITworld.com is an online publisher of news, educational
          content and broadband interactive media for the IT
          community. As a producer of daily IT news, dozens of topic
          specific newsletters, leading IT white papers, and a wide
          variety of webcast programs, ITworld delivers measurable,
          performance-based results for marketers by building
          customized lead generation programs around the distribution
          of content. At the core of ITworld.com lies its webcast
          broadband interactive marketing platform; a suite of fully
          integrated production, hosting and audience development
          services that bring webcast marketing to a new level.
          Pioneering the next generation of IT information delivery,
          ITworld.com is changing the way you view IT.

SPONSORED
BY:       Microsoft

CONTACT:  For more information about this new webcast, contact:

          Media:                         Product / Marketing:
          Donna Ruane                    Jennifer Devine
          Principal                      Marketing Communications Mgr.
          The Portico Group              ITworld.com
          [e-mail]     [e-mail]
          781.674.0192                   508.303.9735

          Or visit this on-demand webcast anytime at:
          http://www.itworld.com/jwc/ITWITWPRA01//WC/microsoft/sps/reg