Acta, Forrester and Ernst & Young Launch National Tour to Help `Close the eCommerce Gap'; Free Seminar Series Aims to Make `eCommerce real'.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 12, 2000

Acta Technology, Inc. (Acta(TM)), a leading provider of data-caching solutions for eCommerce and business intelligence, announced today that it has teamed up with Forrester Research and Ernst & Young for a national seminar tour on "Closing the eCommerce Gap." The four-city tour will call attention to the data integration gap that has hampered the development of business-to-business eCommerce.

Acta also announced that it has hired Phil Brotherton, a former marketing executive at Hewlett-Packard, as Vice President of eCommerce. Brotherton, one of the tour's featured speakers, will discuss Acta's e2e (enterprise-to-eCommerce), a data infrastructure for integrating back-end systems with front-end Web applications.

Also on the tour will be Laurie Orlov, a senior analyst for eCommerce at Forrester Research. Orlov will discuss "ERP eCommerce Realities." Gregg Clark, a partner at Ernst & Young (a leading systems integrator) will advise attendees on how they can strategically migrate their businesses to the Web.

Dates for "Closing the eCommerce Gap" include:

February 15  -- San Francisco, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel
March 2      -- Chicago, at the Westin Michigan Avenue Hotel
March 3      -- Boston, at the Marriot Cambridge Hotel
March 22     -- Houston, at the Doubletree Hotel/Allen Center

Tour Goals: Raise Awareness & Present Solutions

"Closing the eCommerce Gap" is designed for a broad audience, including executives responsible for driving eCommerce strategy and IT managers in charge of data warehousing or SAP.

The tour, said Brotherton, will help companies "make eCommerce real" by demonstrating how they can connect their back and front-end systems.

"The top item on our agenda is to raise awareness," said Brotherton. "Everyone knows that business-to-consumer (b2c) sites are suffering--witness all the Christmas failures in the news over the past month. But scant attention has been paid to the fact that b2b eCommerce is facing the same problem. Most commercial Web sites, whether they are b2c or b2b, simply are not ready for prime time. The back-end systems and the front-end eCommerce sites are disconnected."

According to AMR Research, in a survey of 800 US companies between $30 million and $80 billion in size, 88 percent have a corporate Web site but only 18 percent of those sites provide simple features such as the ability to grant customers and vendors access to billing and order status.

"These are essential features for b2b eCommerce--they form the basis of customer and vendor relations--yet the vast majority of b2b sites don't have them," said Brotherton.

Brotherton will also discuss how Dell Corporation and Maxtor (an Acta customer) are benefiting from Acta's e2e architecture.

"If your business is like Dell's, you need to be joined at the hip with your customers and suppliers--online, in real-time. Your customers want online access to product availability, configuration, and pricing information. e2e is helping deliver this kind of information, by intelligently combining Acta's ERP data extraction technologies with features essential for eCommerce--scalability, 24x7 access, and minimal impact of ERP systems."

Acta recently announced the general availability of Acta Customer Billing eCache for SAP R/3(TM) (NYSE: SAP). The product--the first in Acta's e2e product suite--will enable companies to strengthen their customer relationships by securely providing online access to billing data.

About Acta Technology

Acta Technology, Inc., the leader in eCommerce data-caching solutions, provides enterprise-to-eCommerce (e2e) Internet infrastructure. Acta e2e dramatically speeds and enriches eCommerce and business intelligence by providing real-time and historical data integration with excellent response times.

Acta is an active member of the SAP Complementary Software Program (CSP) and PeopleSoft Global Alliance Program. ActaWorks has been certified by PeopleSoft, and the Acta SAP BW interface has been certified by SAP. Customers include Chevron (NYSE: CHV), Guinness, Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HWP), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Monsanto (NYSE: MTC), Shell Chemical Company, and other Global 1000 companies. Acta is headquartered at 1001 Elwell Court, Palo Alto, CA 94303, and has international offices in London, Frankfurt, Paris, and Amersfoort (the Netherlands). Sales and partnership inquiries should be directed to Acta's toll-free phone number 1-888-613-3282. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.acta.com.

Note to Editors: Acta and e2e are trademarks of Acta Technology, Inc. All other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.