B-Tree Systems Receives $3 Million In Additional Investment Capital; Changes Name to TestQuest and Defines New Strategic Focus.

Business Editors

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)

June 9, 2000

Shifts Focus to Support the Millions of Emerging

Mobile Devices Accessing the Internet

B-Tree Systems announced today it has changed its name to TestQuest to reflect the company's new focus on providing functional testing systems for information appliances, which are digital consumer electronics that provide access to the Internet. Examples of these devices are Internet gaming consoles, NetTVs, Internet smart handheld devices, Web terminals, e-mail terminals, and screenphones. Independent analyst IDC estimates 28 million information appliances will be shipped in 2000.

TestQuest is a leader in automated and non-intrusive functional testing. The company pioneered automated functional testing for the medical device industry and has since expanded its product capabilities to an array of software-based electronic systems. Recently, the company has seen an increased demand for these systems from customers who provide consumer devices for Information appliances.

These companies all make extremely complex products that require a high degree of user interaction," said Martin Hahn, TestQuest president and chief executive officer. "Add to that some incredible time to market pressures where a week delay can make or break the company. Our legacy of expertise in functional testing puts us in a unique position to help these companies quickly identify interoperability and operational errors ... errors that would otherwise be found through labor-intensive manual testing or worse yet, by an unhappy customer."

The complexity of Internet technologies, condensed product cycles, and the financial repercussions of shipment delays and product `bugs' are proving to be more than enough motivation for manufacturers to migrate to automated testing. One example is Wyse Technology, a manufacturer of Windows-based thin-client computing solutions. "Considering the rapidly changing environment of PC technology, we required a system that would accommodate our aggressive release schedule," said Jeff Vierra, Test Tool Development Manager, Wyse Technology. "TestQuest has helped us achieve significantly higher quality while shaving weeks off our product development cycles."

TestQuest customers such as Wyse, Netpliance, Motorola and Phoenix Technologies are characterized by offering products with a high degree of interconnected system components, are interactive, and oriented towards Internet technologies such as Web, Java, CE and Palm. As a result, their testing requirements would have been very difficult to keep up with manually.

TestQuest's product offering includes the TestQuest Pro test system and a set of integration and implementation services for adapting the TestQuest Pro to the target test environment. The TestQuest Pro is built on a standard PC with a number of software modules and interface options for connecting to the target test system and creating and automating the execution of the test suite. The TestQuest Pro can run unattended increasing the test cycle to 24 hours, around the clock, allowing for increased testing during the fixed test phase.

Norwest Venture Partners and RRE Ventures recently gave TestQuest $3 million in additional funding. Norwest Venture Partners, a prominent Palo Alto based VC firm that invests in emerging IT companies, is the lead investor in TestQuest. "Our investment represents our confidence that the demand for Information appliances will continue to grow exponentially," said Promod Haque, managing general partner, Norwest Venture Partners. "TestQuest's solutions are flexible and scaleable, and help manufacturers of devices for the Information age to achieve fast return on investment."

RRE Ventures, a leading New York based information technology venture firm, is also a major investor in TestQuest. "As the new paradigm shifts necessitate a change in business culture and practice, TestQuest's software addresses these fundamental shifts by providing real-time and non-intrusive testing. This results in more efficiency, increased quality control and shorter time to market for information appliances," said Sreedhar Menon, Venture Partner, RRE Ventures. "TestQuest's software solutions increase productivity, generate significant savings and produce more reliable products."

About TestQuest

With headquarters in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, TestQuest is a provider of non-intrusive test automation systems. Design and test groups use TestQuest's tools, services and expertise to automate testing of software-based products.

TestQuest's solutions help companies meet market demand for fail-proof functionality and reliability, comply with regulatory and other standards, and meet aggressive time-to-market objectives. For more information about TestQuest, Inc., visit www.testquest.com.