ChannelWave Joins Microsoft E-commerce Alliance to Facilitate Superior Partner Relationship Management, Announces Support for Biztalk.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 7, 1999--

Microsoft Partners Unite to Offer Customers Best of Breed E-Commerce

Solutions Including ChannelWave's PRM Software

ChannelWave Software, Inc., a pioneer in Partner Relationship Management (PRM) solutions, today announced its charter membership in Microsoft's E-Commerce Alliance. The Microsoft E-Commerce Alliance is an alliance of Independent Solution Vendors (ISVs), solution developers, systems integrators (including hardware/services companies), ISPs and other software development and services organizations committed to working with Microsoft to build the industry and to build e-commerce solutions for customers on the Microsoft platform. The alliance demonstrates Microsoft's ongoing commitment to help customers find the best e-commerce solutions possible for their unique business needs. Microsoft's existing technologies make it easy for partners such as ChannelWave to develop effective business software solutions that scale to meet the needs of customers today. Other members of the Alliance include key vendors such as Commerce One, Great Plains, Compaq, and Ernst & Young.

"Businesses looking for innovative e-commerce solutions to streamline their operations and build stronger relationships with customers and suppliers can find the best software, hosting and implementation services in the industry through Microsoft's network of partners," said Michael Pinckney, e-commerce industry manager at Microsoft. "The Microsoft E-Commerce Alliance will make finding those e-commerce solutions easier. Through Microsoft's work with its partners to create complete, integrated software and services offerings, our mutual customers will benefit from the best of all worlds: an array of choices to ensure each business's unique needs are met and a simple process for finding, choosing and deploying e-commerce solutions."

The ChannelWave system enables business to business communication and transactions between companies and their channel partners. By using web technology, the ChannelWave PRM solution enables the entire extended enterprise to function as a team, simplifying partner relations while increasing revenues and streamlining expenses. PRM software maximizes a company's partner relations with a variety of features that simplify communication and business transactions. A comprehensive Partner Profiling database drives applications such as Lead Distribution and Management, Forecasting, Order/Quote Configuration, Pricing and News Distribution. As a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider and Independent Software Vendor, ChannelWave develops products using widely accepted Microsoft standards, offering companies stable solutions that integrate easily with other e-commerce products.

"By joining the E-Commerce Alliance, ChannelWave is able to take advantage of Microsoft's latest innovations and advancements. Our support for this standard guarantees our customers a viable PRM solution for the long term," said Ron Schmelzer, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at ChannelWave. "The ChannelWave solution changes the way companies and their channel partners interact, using the Internet to exchange critical business information in real-time. The modular design of our product enables rapid deployment as does our tight integration with and support of the Microsoft platform."

ChannelWave products run on the Microsoft BackOffice platform along with Internet Information Server (IIS), and are developed with Microsoft technologies including Visual Basic, Active Server Pages (ASP) and COM/DCOM. ChannelWave inherently supports the Microsoft Windows DNA Architecture initiative through the use of SQL Server 7.0, COM, Site Server and MTS technologies.

In addition, ChannelWave is working with Microsoft and industry consortia to define BizTalk Extensible Markup Language (XML) schemas, which will allow the ChannelWave product to easily integrate with many Front and Back Office systems including SAP, Vantive, and JD Edwards. These schemas will provide XML-based access to ChannelWave Business Functions; profile information; and system management functionality. BizTalk will enable ChannelWave customers to facilitate communication with their partners over the Internet, and to perform business transactions regardless of the platform technology underlying each company's systems.

About ChannelWave

ChannelWave Software, Inc, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, develops markets and supports Partner Relationship Management applications. The company was founded in 1994 with the mission to help corporations overcome their channel communication and management problems. ChannelWave focuses on the creation of channel sales extranets to include such functions as channel communication, lead distribution, reseller profiling, pricing, product configuration, sales forecasting, order processing and product feedback. ChannelWave customers include 3Com, Nortel Networks, Intel, NBase-Xyplex and SBT Accounting Systems. For more information, visit the ChannelWave Web site at http://www.channelwave.com or call [phone].