BackWeb Launches New Proactive Web Initiative.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 1999--

--Leader in Push for E-Business Draws Industry Support

from IT Partners and Fortune 500 Customers Including

Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and U S WEST --

BackWeb(R) Technologies (Nasdaq:BWEB), the leading provider of push for e-business solutions, today announced an industry initiative to establish push as a de facto standard technology for the Internet.

Joined by a broad range of industry leaders, BackWeb outlined a long-term vision for the Proactive Web - a bandwidth-smart infrastructure that politely sends business-critical information and files to employees, partners and customers. Companies including Cisco Systems, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and U S WEST all voiced support for the new initiative.

"Push has clearly crossed the chasm by solving a critical problem of timely information delivery to sales and service organizations," said Geoffrey Moore, best-selling author and president of The Chasm Group. "It is now positioned to be a fundamental component of the e-business platform, providing not only timely but ensured delivery of information to customers, partners and employees around the globe."

As part of the Proactive Web vision, BackWeb and its Proactive Web partners and customers have established a far-reaching new market segment known as push for e-business. Push for e-business incorporates a broad range of applications requiring content delivery to occur automatically and "politely," allowing customers and employees to continue working without interruption or impact on system performance. Push for e-business technologies also includes attention management tools that instantly alert recipients to the arrival of time-sensitive information, and interaction reporting which confirms that users have received and acted upon the information.

"The Web is evolving as a fundamental business tool for streamlining a host of vital yet costly corporate functions - from keeping salespeople updated on new products to ensuring that customers receive the latest software updates," said Eli Barkat, chairman and CEO of BackWeb Technologies. "Today with our partners and customers, we are welcoming the Proactive Web era by delivering the components that allow enterprises and Web portals to politely send any type of priority information to a broad range of users - all without the slightest impact on network performance."

Proactive Web Partners Popularize Push for E-Business Solutions

BackWeb's Proactive Web initiative is bolstered by strategic relationships that broaden the use of push technology for e-business applications. Partners include:

-- SAP AG, is the world's largest enterprise software company, which provides companies of all sizes with business solutions that deliver a better return on information. SAP is leveraging BackWeb's Internet communication infrastructure and selected application modules as part of the SAP(TM) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) offerings.

-- Deloitte Consulting, is one of the world's top management consulting firms providing e-business communications consulting to Global 1,000 companies. Deloitte Consulting uses BackWeb technology as a core component of its e-business services.

-- Network Associates, Inc., (Nasdaq:NETA), is a leading supplier of enterprise network security and management solutions. Network Associates has integrated BackWeb's knowledge distribution and Polite Agent(TM) technology into its solutions.

-- Baan Company N.V. (ASE:BAAN) (Nasdaq:BAANF), is a global provider of business software and a leading provider of Front Office applications. Baan has established an extensive product partnership with BackWeb.

"Customers are increasingly looking for ways to improve customer service and loyalty while empowering sales and support personnel with accurate information wherever and whenever then need it," said Dietmar Saddei, senior vice president of Customer Relationship Management, SAP AG. "By combining the power of SAP CRM with sophisticated, scalable Internet communication technologies from BackWeb, we will deliver the flexibility, remote device support, intelligent information access and delivery they require. Unique applications like these truly make the Web a proactive medium."

Fortune 500 Customers Introduce Proactive Web in Broad Range of Industries

BackWeb's push for e-business solutions are enabling companies in a broad range of industries to transform their Intranet and extranet applications into Proactive Web experiences. In markets ranging from travel to heavy manufacturing, industry leaders are endorsing BackWeb's approach to delivering priority information with elegant, user-friendly Polite push technology:

Technology

BackWeb solutions are delivering bottom-line benefits for a host of high-technology leaders, including Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM Canada, and Siemens. BackWeb today announced that Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, is implementing BackWeb's patented Polite(TM) push technology for employee and field office communications throughout its 20,600-employee organization.

"BackWeb forsaw the significant impact that network-aware push technology would have on the enterprise, and has since delivered the technology that is powering the Proactive Web," said Richard J. Justice, senior vice president, Americas, Cisco Systems. "Cisco is implementing this 'polite' technology to ensure timely delivery of key internal communications. We have found pushing video messages to be an effective way to communicate in our dynamic environment. The messages are timely, more personal and have higher viewership than emails or Web postings."

Financial Services 

BackWeb products have become the leading solutions for accelerating communications and customer service on Wall Street. For example, Jefferies & Company, Inc. is implementing a global installation of BackWeb technology that will dramatically streamline the firm's efforts to keep Jefferies clients abreast of the latest market information. Jefferies joins a growing number of financial services customers for BackWeb, including Goldman Sachs, Fidelity Investments, BancBoston Robertson Stephens, and Norwest Bank.

"BackWeb's revolutionary Polite push technology has allowed us to transform the Web into a tremendous competitive advantage, both for us and for our clients," commented Jim Nikolai, vice president of trading systems and head of application development for Jefferies. "This powerful approach to leveraging the Internet gives us the most effective way possible to reach clients with vital market information, all via a network that already exists and with technology that anyone can use. This allows Jefferies to extend the competitive edge that we've maintained since first becoming technology innovators in the 1970s."

Telecommunications

The world's largest telecommunications companies are building the Proactive Web on a global scale. BackWeb's telco customers include Ericsson, Pacific Bell, Rogers Communications, Telenordia and U S WEST. BackWeb today announced that U S WEST has launched a first-of-its kind, responsive portal experience for U S WEST customers. U S WEST is using BackWeb's Internet communication infrastructure software to allow sizable digital data of any format -- audio, video, software files, html, and others -- to politely reach millions of its customers, as well as to integrate portal content and gateways.

"BackWeb's vision for the Proactive Web dovetails beautifully with U S WEST's strategy to make the online experience more personalized, compelling and productive," said Eric Bozich, vice president of Internet Service at U S WEST. "Because BackWeb's Polite push architecture discreetly delivers voicemail, music, video, and other rich media files to consumers who have requested them, we have the tools to provide a unique experience to our users. BackWeb has identified an important new trend for the Web, and we're excited to be working with them."

About BackWeb Technologies

BackWeb Technologies is a leading provider of push for e-business solutions that enable companies to communicate time-sensitive, business-critical information throughout the extended enterprise of customers, partners and employees. Via Internet-based applications and proactive portals, corporations such as Cisco, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Schlumberger Dowell and U S WEST have deployed BackWeb's Polite(TM) push Internet infrastructure for managing critical changes for key e-business and customer service applications. BackWeb Technologies is headquartered in San Jose, California, and Ramat Gan, Israel. For more information, visit its Web site at www.backweb.com or call [phone].

Statements in this news release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Securities laws, including BackWeb's future actions with respect to its Proactive Web Initiative, incorporation of BackWeb's push products as standard components for e-business solutions, and any other beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include unforeseen technological issues related to BackWeb's products, factors which may affect the use of push products, market acceptance of push products as standard components of e-business solutions, BackWeb's ability to attract new participants in its Proactive Web Initiative and its ability to retain existing participants in such initiative, competitive factors and business and expense factors that may affect the perceived efficiencies from use of push products in general and more specifically, the use of BackWeb's products, and the risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in BackWeb's periodic reports and registration statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. BackWeb assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

(c) 1999 BackWeb Technologies, Inc. BackWeb is a registered trademark, and Polite and Polite Agent are trademarks of BackWeb Technologies. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.