ATG Introduces Online Customer Lifecycle Management Application to Maximize Lifetime Customer Value.

Business/Technology Editors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 25, 2000

Real-time e-Business Scenarios Provide Next Level in Evolution of

Personalization 

Art Technology Group, Inc. (ATG) (Nasdaq: ARTG) today introduced the industry's first customer management platform featuring e-business scenarios. Dynamo e-business scenarios, the centerpiece of ATG Dynamo 5 (announced today in a separate release), offer an innovative new approach to building and growing highly personalized online relationships with consumers, business partners, suppliers and distributors.

Layered on top of ATG Dynamo's rules-based personalization engine, e-business scenarios are customized sequences of targeted interactions that create persistent and personalized business relationships. Scenarios enable companies to define, establish and manage interactions with different customer segments throughout the customer lifecycle and across multiple channels of communication, including Web, email and mobile devices. Scenarios allow business managers to define the goals of an online customer relationship and build a personalization scenario that drives future behavior and interactions to achieve them.

"Personalization was the first fundamental step in managing customer relationships on the Web, but as e-businesses' needs become more sophisticated, their expectations for truly increasing ROI are much greater," said Jeet Singh, ATG CEO and co-founder. "Companies today need a more intelligent way to manage interactions with customers and partners so that these relationships will yield value, whether by increasing revenue, reducing cost, or promoting customer loyalty and retention."

"ATG continues to advance its technology with Dynamo 5, providing a critical platform that will enable e-businesses to better manage and retain online customers," said Jeff Boyle, vice president, Critical Technologies Group of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young US LLC. "With the introduction of e-business scenarios to an already feature-rich e-commerce solution, Dynamo 5 will be one of the leading customer management platforms on which successful customer relationships are built. We are continuing to increase our training investment in ATG to meet this growing market need."

Dynamic Customer Lifecycle Management

Tapping first-generation personalization tools, today's businesses have struggled to build enduring e-business relationships that yield customer loyalty. These tools are not equipped to intelligently monitor and modify online initiatives to attract and retain customers throughout the lifecycle of the customer.

Scenarios enable businesses to establish and manage customer segments across their entire lifecycles and allow business managers to dynamically fine-tune business rules to drive optimal performance. Using scenarios to manage interactions allows businesses to develop and implement unique, flexible strategies for creating, developing and deepening both business-to-business (B-to-B) and business-to-consumer (B-to-C) relationships. Scenarios can be used to bridge multiple business divisions both online and offline and can benefit many key areas of a business that involve customer contact, including marketing, sales, operations and support.

For example, a business manager might create a scenario to remind distributors when it is time to re-order, remember their last orders, and suggest new products to try. Another scenario could be one that minimizes the load on its customer support organization by pushing relevant customer service information such as service outages, product upgrades or shipment status to users when they need it but before they ask for it.

Every e-business scenario is a customized sequence of targeted customer interactions that guide customers over time to specific goals. Scenarios include the ability to build in metrics that enable business managers to better identify how customers experience their Web site, and determine how to modify site initiatives to stimulate customer retention and e-loyalty. E-business scenarios dynamically adapt as the customer relationship evolves to build enduring business relationships for sustained competitive advantage.

"Garden.com has consistently been one of the highest rated consumer retail sites for attracting and retaining customers," said Brad Clark, vice president of Enterprise Development at Garden.com. "To stay at the top, it's critical that we continue to take advantage of the best technology available, not only to continue to enhance our customers' experience, but also to provide our managers with the tools necessary to build the strong, measureable programs that will help drive our business. Garden.com chose to be an early evaluator of Dynamo 5 because it's the most flexible package we've seen and should enable us to build a powerful solution that is unique to our offering."

Putting Operational Control in Business Managers' Hands

e-Business scenarios bring a new level of control by enabling business managers to focus on the needs of customers even as those needs change. Scenarios empower business managers to rapidly respond to changing market conditions in a fraction of the time taken by earlier-generation personalization technologies. Instead of relying heavily on IT departments to implement critical, time-sensitive changes to Web initiatives, business managers using e-business scenarios can independently provide immediate response to changing business conditions. This ability speeds cycle time for modifying online initiatives and accelerates reaction time to unpredictable business pressures.

Increasing Support and Acceptance

In support of today's news, over 60 ATG Solutions and Technology Partners, including Interwoven, Broadbase and Fort Point Partners, have announced their intent to adopt these new capabilities. Additionally, leading Fortune-class and dot-com businesses such as garden.com and living.com and are already enrolled in an aggressive beta program with plans to adopt these capabilities. (See separate releases issued today detailing software and technology vendor and integrator/developer support for Dynamo 5.)

About ATG

Art Technology Group, Inc. (ATG) is a leading provider of Internet customer relationship management and electronic commerce products and services. ATG offers an integrated suite of Java(a) application server-based products and services, as well as related application development, integration and support services. The ATG Dynamo e-Business Platform enables Global 1000 enterprises, as well as new businesses using the Internet as their primary business channel, to understand, manage and build their online customer relationships and to more effectively market, sell and support their products and services over the Internet.

The Dynamo solution is designed to provide businesses with the core platform and software tools required to develop and deploy personalized, scalable and reliable e-commerce Web sites. Dynamo is licensed to over 400 customers including 3M, American Airlines, BabyCenter, BMG Direct, Eastman Kodak, Informix, J. Crew, Network Solutions, Sun Microsystems, Target Corporation and TheStreet.com. The company is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass, with additional locations throughout North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.

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 ATG's 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 ATG's business generally may be found in ATG 's 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 Dynamo e-business scenarios will not function properly, either now or in the future; that customers will require increased integration work to implement these new capabilities; the need to adapt to rapid changes so products do not become obsolete; the possibility of errors in ATG's software; and the costs and risks associated with intellectual property infringement and litigation. ATG undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release.

Dynamo is a registered trademark of Art Technology Group. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, J2EE, 100% Pure and Java are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.