Autodesk, evesham Expand BigFix Deployment of Proactive Customer Support; Industry's First Proactive, Automated Technical Support System Solves PC Problems Before They Happen.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 5, 2001

BigFix, Inc., pioneer of the proactive technical support system that automatically fixes computer problems, today announced that Autodesk(R), the world's leading design software and digital content company, and evesham(R), a United Kingdom PC manufacturer that recently rated number one in customer support, have expanded their deployment of the BigFix(R) i-prevention(TM) solution with the BigFix Assisted Support Technology (BFast) and BigFix Development Environment (BDE). The patented BigFix system enables manufacturers to drastically cut their technical support costs by automatically fixing hardware and software problems in their user base.

BigFix, Inc. licenses its technology to PC makers and software publishers to help them more effectively automate support, reduce help desk burden and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

PC manufacturer evesham received a "Best Customer Support" award from PCW Magazine in the UK after deploying the BigFix solution to provide its users with technical support that proactively fixes software bugs and conflicts. The company also won the "PC Service" award from PC Pro. Both the PCW and PC Pro awards were derived from reader votes.

"We built our reputation on providing customers with the best product support in the industry," said Richard Austin, managing director at evesham. "We implemented the BigFix system in less than a month and have been able to significantly reduce redundant customer inquiries to the call center. The system has also allowed us to form closer and more meaningful ties with our customers by providing them with software updates and product information as quickly as they become available. We've seen our customer satisfaction level reach new heights with the BigFix solution."

Since its deployment of the BigFix solution, Autodesk has adopted the proactive support model across its product line, including its flagship, AutoCAD 2002. Autodesk's help desk technicians will use the new web-based BigFix Assisted Support Technology to remotely inspect the configuration of users' PCs to help pinpoint the root cause of a conflict or a bug. The information gathered by the system would be leveraged to author Fixlet(R) messages which would seek and neutralize all occurrences of the same problem in the user base. Autodesk has adopted BigFix Development Environment as its new integrated development system for the creation, maintenance, testing and propagation of Fixlet messages in a multi-author setting.

AutoCAD 2002 is an extremely powerful and sophisticated application used by top engineers worldwide who need immediate fixes to problems as they arise. With the BigFix solution, Autodesk is able to provide these professionals with an even higher level of customer support, and in the process, enable these customers to work on time-critical projects without downtime.

"Until now, customer support has been an essentially reactive process, helping users only after they have failed," said BigFix, Inc. CEO David Hindawi. "Our proactive i-prevention system allows hardware and software manufacturers to automatically detect and prevent the occurrence of failures on millions of PCs, with an investment of just a few hours."

The patented BigFix system works by constantly monitoring the state of a comprehensive collection of hardware and software characteristics on the user's PC, ranging from processor performance and available hard disk space to application version numbers, device drivers and registry keys. When the BigFix client software detects a set of characteristics that indicates a known problem, it alerts the user with a Fixlet(R) message and offers to fix the problem with a click of a button.

The BigFix client sits discreetly on the desktop and only alerts the user when a failing condition develops. The user simply clicks the BigFix icon in the system tray, reads the Fixlet message and then clicks the action button to authorize the fix. With the BigFix system, support staffers can finally leverage their Knowledge Base to automatically address all instances of a known problem across a user base.

About evesham.com

Based in Evesham, Worcestershire, UK, evesham.com is one of the most successful indigenous personal computer manufacturers in the country. A private company, it was founded in 1983 by Richard Austin, the current managing director. The company currently employs 520 people and recorded a turnover of 84 million Pounds Sterling in the year 1999/2000.

evesham.com systems are both built-to-order and available from stock, and include the Evolution, Axis and Evolve desktop PCs, Voyager high-performance notebooks and a comprehensive range of Intel server solutions. evesham.com also sells a wide range of market-leading peripherals. All evesham PCs and servers are manufactured at the company's headquarters in Evesham, Worcestershire and are supplied with three years warranty and lifetime technical support. For more information about evesham.com, visit www.evesham.com.

About BigFix, Inc.

BigFix, Inc. was founded in 1997 to deal with the looming crisis in technical support -- a world with a billion computing devices, running thousands of software products, interacting with thousands of hardware products and producing an endless number of bugs and conflicts that threaten to outstrip the industry's ability to provide an acceptable level of customer service. The BigFix(R) i-prevention(TM) solution -- patented, implemented and in use worldwide -- is a highly proactive and dynamic technical support technology that is revolutionizing the industry by solving PC problems before they cause failures. Headquartered in Emeryville, BigFix, Inc. is privately held and venture funded. Visit our website at www.bigfix.com.

Note to Editors: BigFix(R) is a registered trademark and "Fix it before it fails(TM)," i-prevention, Fixlet(R) and the BigFix logo are trademarks of BigFix, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.