Business Evolution Inc. Reports Strong Q3 1999 Performance, Continues Re-Defining the E-Service Market.PRINCETON, NJ--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 27, 1999-- Consistent Sales Growth, Prominent New Customers, $5 Million in Financing, Appointment to Industry Standards Initiative, Additions to Management Team and Board All Outline Trajectory of Success Business Evolution Inc., a pioneer in the field of Web-based customer service (e-service), today reported strong performance in multiple areas of its business through the third quarter of its fiscal year 1999. Specifically, the company announced that it has increased sales more than fivefold fivefold Adjective 1. having five times as many or as much 2. composed of five parts Adverb by five times as many or as much Adj. 1. since the previous year, from $350K in all of 1998 to $1.8 million year-to-date sales, signed or deployed a number of premier new customers such as LLBean and Homedepot.com, and secured $5 million in venture-backed financing. In addition, Business Evolution rounded out its executive management staff and added two prominent members to its board, opened a sales office in Silicon Valley, more than doubled its employee base within three months and was invited to join Sun Microsystems' Suntone initiative, to establish service-level guarantees for network-based services such as e-mail, e-commerce and enterprise applications. "The market for e-service is exploding as Web site providers realize how important -- and how difficult -- it is to deliver great customer service via the Internet," said P.V. Kannan, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Business Evolution. "For the last year, Business Evolution has been quietly and consistently working on building the framework and the technology needed to deliver the broad and deep e-service capabilities that our customers require. We now feel well positioned to achieve our goals of redefining the entire market for e-service." Business Evolution Redefines E-Service Many companies approach e-service as the equivalent to e-mail management. Business Evolution demonstrates that this is simply one aspect of a much broader approach to e-service, which should encompass everything that translates into customer satisfaction from a Web site. The Business Evolution multi-channel solution prioritizes customer queries by business rules, provides proven expertise to help cut response time from days to seconds, and gives insights into the problem areas of the Web site, all while creating higher satisfaction in a customer's overall e-service experience. "E-mail management addresses a symptom of the overall e-service problem, it does not help determine why the question was asked in the first place. We're the only company that begins by asking the right questions about e-service, said Kannan. "In order to properly service the customer, you must know the context in which a question is asked, how important the question is or how close the customer is to buying, and then determine the proper way to respond. With all this criteria met, e-service satisfaction goes up and cost and effort on the company side goes down." Business Evolution's @Once Service Center product line, which provides comprehensive and modular customer support software for the Internet, encompasses e-mail, instant mail, chat and telephone call-back options. The software's built-in intelligence uses Web information to sort and prioritize customer service requests to provide faster responses and higher levels of satisfaction. @Once Service Center is the only e-service solution that runs on multiple platforms Refers to two or more operating environments, which typically include the CPU family and operating system. For example, if versions of a program run on Windows and the Macintosh, the software is said to support multiple platforms. , including Windows NT (Windows New Technology) A 32-bit operating system from Microsoft for Intel x86 CPUs. NT is the core technology in Windows 2000 and Windows XP (see Windows). Available in separate client and server versions, it includes built-in networking and preemptive multitasking. , UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). and Linux, supports all popular relational databases, and is scalable from very modest to extremely high-volume sites (e.g., 50,000 simultaneous users). Business Evolution has recently been selected to join Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA[3]) is an American vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information-technology services, founded on 24 February 1982. , Inc.'s (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :SUN) SunTone(SM) program, a one-of-a-kind industry-wide initiative to establish service-level guarantees for network-based services such as e-mail, e-commerce and enterprise applications. (See related release announced today). Business Evolution is one of the founding members of an expanded portion of the SunTone program, the applications working group, which will focus on developing standards of reliability for the increasingly complex applications beginning to be offered as services over the Web. Third-Quarter Results Demonstrate Broad-Based Strength Business Evolution signed or deployed a number of new customers during the third quarter of the year, including household names History Formation (1998-2000) Household Names have been together since 1998, with various members rotating throughout the line-up with singer, Jason Garcia, until it was solidified in the summer of 2000 with bassist/keyboardist, Chris Peters, and drummer, C. J. and other premier companies. Customers adopting the Business Evolution platform include Home Depot The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services. Headquartered in Vinings, just outside Atlanta in unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia, Home Depot employs more than 355,000 people and operates 2,164 big-box (NYSE: HD), LL Bean, Shopping.com(OTC OTC See: Over-the-counter. OTC See over-the-counter market (OTC). :IBUY) NEED TO CHECK ON THIS, FingerHut (NYSE:FHT FHT Federation of Holistic Therapists (UK) FHT Fetal Heart Tones FHT Fast Hartley Transform FHT Female Hose Thread FHT Fast Hadamard Transform FHT Family Health Trust FHT Foxboro Hot Tubs (band) ), Cheap Tickets, Inc. (NADSAQ:CTIX), NECX, Health Axis, First Data Merchant Services Merchant services is the name given in the United States to a broad category of financial services intended for use by businesses. In its most specific use, it usually refers to the service that enables a business to accept a transaction payment by use of the customer's credit or , Cybershop (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :CYSP), Brandwise.com, Gobi.com and HipO.com. Business Evolution's performance was anchored by strong sales, which stand at approximately $1.8 million in the first three quarters of 1999, compared to about $350,000 for all of 1998. These sales of Business Evolution's @Once Service Center were very significant in this market segment, which has seen strong IPO (Initial Public Offering) The first time a company offers shares of stock to the public. While not a computer term per se, many founders, employees and insiders of computer companies have found this acronym more exciting than any tech term they ever heard. activity in recent months. In August 1999, the company announced $5 million in venture capital financing To start an own company or to bring a new product to the market, the venture may need to attract financial funding. There are several categories of financing possibilities. If it is a small venture, then perhaps the venture can rely on family funding, loans from friends from Allegra Al·leg·ra A trademark for the drug fexofenadine hydrochloride. fexofenadine hydrochloride Allegra, Telfast (UK) Pharmacologic class: Peripherally selective piperidine, selective histamine Partners and Nassau Capital, which it is using to increase its market momentum and technological leadership. Specifically, Business Evolution is expanding its direct sales force and marketing efforts and expediting product development projects for its flagship product A primary product of a company, which is typically why the company was founded and/or what made it well known. For example, MS-DOS, Windows and the Microsoft Office suite have been flagship products of Microsoft. CorelDRAW is a flagship product of Corel Corporation. , @Once Service Center. Allegra Capital Partners, based in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , focuses in investments in service-oriented businesses with an Internet software or telecommunications focus. Nassau Capital, located in Princeton, invests in private companies on behalf of Princeton University's $5.3 billion endowment, with particular interest in the Internet software, media and communications, and health care services industries. Added Strength and Expertise with New Executives and Board Members, Company Doubles in Size and Adds New Office In July 1999, Perry C. Smith joined Business Evolution as vice president of engineering. Smith is a veteran of Network Associates as well as AT&T Bell Laboratories and McAfee Software. Smith is expected to leverage his proven track record and engineering management expertise to manage Business Evolution's growing development team and to develop products that exceed customer expectations. In September 1999, Rick Maddox, a 16 year veteran of high-technology companies including Intrinsa and Network Information Technology joined Business Evolution as vice president of sales. Maddox is responsible for all Business Evolution sales strategies and will build a national sales force, refine and upgrade the sales message, streamline the customer-facing activities, and develop a California-based team to assist customers in implementing Business Evolution's next generation automated customer service software for the web. During the third quarter of 1999, Business Evolution expanded its board of directors with the addition of Richard W. Smith General Partner of Allegra Capital and William H. Stewart For other persons named William Stewart, see William Stewart (disambiguation). William H. Stewart (May 19, 1921–) was the Surgeon General of the United States from 1965 to 1969. , Managing Director of Nassau Capital. In addition to the new executive staff positions, the company's employee base more than doubled during the third quarter of 1999, and will double again to over 100 employees by the first quarter of 2000. Finally, Business Evolution recently opened a new sales office in Los Gatos, Calif., in Silicon Valley. It will house inside and outside sales people, systems engineers, professional services and business development activities. From this office, the company will handle sales and local post-sales support for customers throughout the West and in Hawaii. About Business Evolution Founded in 1995, Business Evolution Inc. is a leading provider of Web-based customer service solutions. Its @Once Service Center product series offers Web businesses a comprehensive platform for channeling and prioritizing Internet-based customer support queries to e-mail, live messaging, chat or telephone call-back queues. Business Evolution's fast-growing list of customers includes Buy.com, NECX.com, Home Depot, Electronic Boutique and HealthAxis.com. Business Evolution partners include IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , which has integrated its Net.Commerce server software with @Once Service Center, and AT&T, which supplies the telephone call-back technology in @Once Service Center. Located in Princeton, NJ, the privately held Business Evolution has its Web site at http://www.businessevolution.com ; press or analyst inquiries can be directed to pr@businessevolution.com or (609) 951-0126. @Once Service Center is a Trademark of Business Evolution. (c)Copyright 1999 Business Evolution, Inc. All rights reserved SunTone is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc |
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