BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD IMPLEMENTS LINKAGE TECHNOLOGY TO CONNECT CORPORATE E-MAIL SYSTEMS; LinkAge Routing Features, Reliability Key to Connecting Fifteen Different E-Mail Systems.

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 18, 1995--LinkAge Software Inc., a leading supplier of enterprise electronic mail connectivity solutions, today announces that The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) has selected LinkAge's technologies to facilitate e-mail communication between the Company's dispersed offices. This allows BCBSA to communicate seamlessly with all independent Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans (69 offices nationwide) via e-mail, even though the different offices use a variety of incompatible e-mail and computing platforms internally.

LinkAge's gateway and directory synchronization products provide corporations with full and transparent integration of their LAN and UNIX workgroups with mainframe and mid-range system users. In addition, by supporting the transmission and reception of compound messages (including documents and spreadsheets), LinkAge solutions allow users to easily and effectively share mission-critical information via e-mail.

Lisbeth Champagne, e-mail project leader for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, said of the company's decision to purchase the LinkAge product, "As a LinkAge customer of almost three years, we are 100 percent satisfied with the Company's products and support. I only wish other software products that we utilized in the past were as easy to install and maintain. It is a pleasure to work with a vendor who produces quality products and backs them with reliable service."

A key factor in BCBSA's decision to choose LinkAge's technologies is the ability to route e-mail traffic directly to other BCBSA sites through public and private networks, a feature recently introduced by LinkAge. The ability to exchange e-mail directly with other sites reduces public network messaging costs "by a third on the first day of operation," according to Champagne.

Paul Saunders, vice president of sales and marketing for LinkAge, said, "Blue Cross Blue Shield is a strategic customer for LinkAge. Our product's routing enhancement is a significant milestone which meets Blue Cross Blue Shield's current and anticipated messaging requirements. Our e-mail connectivity solutions have proven to be extremely popular with Fortune 1000 companies because they allow enterprises to cost-effectively and reliably send business transactions across a wide range of otherwise incompatible e-mail systems."

The independent Plans operate a total of 15 different messaging systems, including Microsoft Mail, Lotus cc:Mail, Fischer EMC2, Verimation Memo and IBM OfficeVision on the VM, MVS and AS/400 platforms. LinkAge technology has been implemented to connect these incompatible e-mail systems and significantly reduce the cost of processing inter-office BCBSA Plan data.

Motherhoods -----------

LinkAge Software Inc. is a leading supplier of electronic mail connectivity products and services to over 1,000 companies. The company's portfolio of messaging connectivity products is marketed and supported worldwide through distributors and select Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), as well as directly by LinkAge.

LinkAge is headquartered in Toronto, with a sales and marketing operation located in Ottawa at: Heritage Place, 155 Queen Street, Suite 1100, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Telephone: [phone]. FAX: [phone]. Internet: [e-mail].

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association is an association of Independent Plans.

All service marks and trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Paul Saunders, [phone]

Internet: [e-mail]

or

Sterling Communications, Inc.

Carol Nash, [phone]

Internet:[e-mail]