BRAINSTORM BRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN MICROSOFT OFFICE AND LOTUS NOTES; Unveils OfficeLink for Lotus Notes providing Microsoft Word and Excel users information management via Notes.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 1995--Users of Microsoft's leading desktop applications suite, Microsoft Office, now have a way to manage their documents within Lotus Notes. Brainstorm Technologies Inc., the leading provider of software solutions for integrating groupware technologies, today unveiled OfficeLink for Lotus Notes which allows users of Microsoft Office to better store, organize and distribute Word and Excel documents within workgroups using Lotus Notes.

Currently many organizations that have adopted Lotus Notes as their groupware standard have a large number of people using Microsoft Office applications, primarily Microsoft Word and Excel. These individuals want to continue using their preferred desktop applications, but also wish to leverage the power of Lotus Notes for managing and sharing information both within workgroups and increasingly with remote users that are occasionally connected.

"Brainstorm's OfficeLink for Lotus Notes has a simple and elegant interface that makes it easy to further integrate Microsoft Office applications with Lotus Notes. With more than 80 percent of Lotus Notes customers using Microsoft Office, we're delighted to see this product on the market," stated Chris Peters, vice president Office Product Unit at Microsoft Corp.

"Brainstorm's goal is to help organizations that have invested thousands of dollars in Lotus Notes achieve their promised ROIs," stated Mitchell Liu, vice president of marketing for Brainstorm Technologies. "We believe OfficeLink is the compelling desktop application for Lotus Notes that will drive Notes beyond being simple discussion databases and glorified e-mail into a powerful platform for the collection and dissemination of critical information stores in Word documents and Excel spreadsheets."

"Further, OfficeLink will significantly increase the number of people using Lotus Notes for critical business applications because anyone in the organization will be able to manage and share Office documents at the click of a button," Liu added.

With OfficeLink, Microsoft Office users are able to open, edit and save documents directly from any Notes database seamlessly while working in Word and Excel and without ever leaving the Office interface. These documents, composed in Word or Excel are saved directly to a Notes database by clicking on a Notes menu item and selecting "save as Notes document" or they can be retrieved from Notes by choosing the "open from Notes" menu option.

OfficeLink leverages on the strengths of Notes such as its replication and security features to enable seamless and reliable sharing of information throughout the company as well as by suppliers and customers around the globe. This ability to easily access Office documents outside an organization allows mobile users, such as field sales representatives, to leverage on their current investments in remote Notes connectivity software. Those mobile users will be able to merge and distribute sales spreadsheets, forecasts and other data created in Excel and Word from their portable computers directly to all other networked users within the corporation.

Brainstorm's OfficeLink incorporates Windows client software that gives end users a transparent bridge between Microsoft Office and the Lotus Notes information store. The product also includes a server-based software component and a complete Notes document management database for tracking and storing Office documents corporatewide. Brainstorm plans to develop versions of the software which will enable users on AT&T Network Notes and the Internet to share documents across the organization.

The initial release of OfficeLink will run in Windows 3.X and Windows for Workgroups operating environments with future versions supporting Microsoft Windows '95 and Windows NT available later this year. Support for Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentations will also be included in the next release scheduled to ship in the third quarter of this year.

The suggested retail price for Brainstorm's OfficeLink will start at $1,995 per server with discounts available for 5, 10 and 25 server and site license packages. The product, which will be sold through Brainstorm's direct and telesales force, as well as through the Notes reseller channel, will be available in June of this year.

Founded in 1993, Brainstorm Technologies Inc. is a pioneer in the development of Lotus Notes applications and development tools. The company provides both off-the-shelf products and a range of consulting services designed to help companies gain access and integrate data from existing corporate databases into Lotus Notes. The company's award-winning products, VB/Link for Lotus Notes and DataLink for Lotus Notes are currently used by more than 20 percent of the organizations that use Lotus Notes.

Privately held, Brainstorm Technologies has headquarters in Cambridge. Its products are used by more than 1,000 organizations worldwide, including Andersen Consulting, Chevron, Fidelity Investments and Price Waterhouse. -0-

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CONTACT: Slater PR & Marketing

Terri Slater, 508/359-5677

or

Brainstorm Technologies Inc.

Mitchell Liu, 617/621-0800