Bendata Brings Mobile Computing to Support Management Industry; HEAT and Palm Computing Platform Integration Available Immediately At No Cost.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 26, 1998-- Bendata, Inc. today announced the integration of its award-winning support management software, HEAT 4.1, with 3Com Corporation's PalmPilot(tm) Professional Edition and Palm III(tm) connected organizers. The integration allows support center personnel to more efficiently and effectively use the HEAT system by downloading call ticket information, updating tickets and retrieving newly assigned calls remotely, via the Palm Computing(R) platform. Support center personnel can now perform their work without the necessity of returning to the support center from various workstation locations, thereby increasing productivity and lowering the cost of support. This functionality is native to the HEAT system and as such is available to HEAT users immediately at no cost.

With the integration, support center personnel can download their assigned calls during a local synchronization with their PC or during a remote synchronization using a modem. After downloading to a Palm Computing platform device, the HEAT system can automatically acknowledge the assignment for that individual, and store all pertinent call information on the device for quick and easy reference. Support center personnel can also enter information on the call resolution into their Palm(tm) device, and create new tickets on-the-fly. New information will update the call in the HEAT system after the next synchronization.

"Bendata has provided 3Com with the opportunity to expand our products further into the help desk and support services industry," said Mark Bercow, vice president of strategic alliances and business development for Palm Computing Inc., a 3Com company. "Both Bendata's HEAT software and 3Com's Palm Computing platform can now boast even greater utility in the enterprise."

"The integration of the Palm Computing platform and HEAT will allow support center personnel to lower the cost of providing support in a distributed environment," said Vance Brown, president, Bendata, Inc. "Today's support technicians can now enjoy the many benefits of mobile computing offered by Palm Computing."

About HEAT (Helpdesk Expert Automation Tool)

HEAT for Windows is fully customizable, support center problem-solving and management software to automate call logging, tracking and reporting. HEAT includes industry-specific screen templates for government, business, education, healthcare and others. Other features include call escalation, automatic call generation, and ODBC. HEAT Telephony Manager provides understanding of call loads with ability to generate reports based on the HEAT database and a phone call information database. HEAT Workgroup Asset Manager lets users track hardware and software lifecycles and reduce total cost of ownership. The SLA feature proactively helps users meet service commitments. HEATWeb allows access to the HEAT system from any Web-enabled PC.

About Palm Computing Platform

The Palm Computing platform is the foundation for the market-leading 3Com(R) Palm III and PalmPilot connected organizers and other handheld computing products from Palm Computing's strategic partners, all leaders in their respective markets. These relationships include IBM, which sells the IBM WorkPad PC Companion into the enterprise market, Franklin Covey, which supplies the Franklin Electronic Day Planner for the training and time management industry, QUALCOMM, which will sell its pdQ CDMA Digital Smartphone in 1999, and Symbol Technologies, which develops and markets the SPT 1500 device with bar code scanning capabilities used in retail, transportation, parcel and postal delivery, manufacturing and health care.

About Bendata

Bendata is a leading supplier of client/server support desk software, recognized by independent authorities such as the Gartner Group, the Support Management Institute (SMI) and Ovum as the industry leader in its field. Products are deployed across a broad range of industry segments including customers such as GEC Marconi, CAP Gemini, Ordnance Survey, Channel 5 and BP Oil UK.

The company was founded in 1982 by Ron Muns, who initiated a consortium of 28 major organizations to put forward their requirements and recommendations for the development of a support desk software product. The result was Bendata's flagship HEAT software package, making it truly a product designed by its users.

Bendata was acquired in 1998 by Ixchange Technology Holdings Ltd, a South African based developer and marketer of client server and internet based software, a move that was warmly received by all the major industry authorities including Gartner and META.

Ixchange is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and has been one of the top five performers on the JSE during the past year. Headquartered in Johannesburg, Ixchange has offices maintained in Cape Town and Denver, Colorado. Ixchange can be reached at [phone] or via the World Wide Web at www.ixchange.com.

Bendata's European headquarters is located in Swindon in the UK. For further information please call Bendata (Europe) Ltd on: [phone]. Bendata's worldwide headquarters are in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The company's web address is www.bendata.com.

3Com and Palm Computing are registered trademarks, and Palm, PalmPilot and Palm III are trademarks of 3Com Corporation or its subsidiaries. All other brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.