Commtouch Standardizes on Siebel eBusiness Applications; Leader in Outsourced Email Services to Unite Sales, Marketing and Service to Support Needs of Global Customers.

Business/Technology Editors

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 2000

Siebel Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SEBL), the world's leading supplier of eBusiness applications, today announced that Commtouch (Nasdaq: CTCH), a worldwide leader in integrated email outsourcing services, will standardize its sales, marketing and service activities on Siebel eBusiness Applications. Through a single comprehensive customer information management system, Commtouch professionals will be able to capture up-to-the-minute account status, prioritize and accelerate response to requests, and uncover opportunities to improve service, for increased customer satisfaction.

Commtouch services 11 million active corporate and consumer email boxes worldwide, through more than 300 customer sites and in 18 major languages. Commtouch customers are growing rapidly and include industry leaders such as Microsoft, Go2Net, USA Today and Citibank. The market potential for the service Commtouch provides is enormous: IDC has estimated that in 1999, U.S. corporations accounted for 100 million email boxes, and the Gartner Group forecasts that 25% of large businesses will outsource their email in 2000.(a)

Commtouch sales, marketing and service professionals work in offices around the world, using disparate systems to manage customer information within their respective departments. Sales representatives draw up contracts and painstakingly track requests for modifications that may be communicated by phone or in-person. Once a contract is signed, customer service post-sales and production teams monitor the progress of implementation through a spreadsheet application that must be updated frequently, and prioritize projects based on a proprietary methodology. Marketing professionals in turn must seek details from both sales and service representatives in order to identify trends, develop relevant promotions and cultivate references for new business.

Siebel eBusiness Applications will enable Commtouch sales, marketing and service teams to work together seamlessly, by creating a single, comprehensive multi-channel customer information management system. Whether requests come through by phone, fax, email or in-person, sales representatives will be able to capture prospect information, and generate and customize contracts up to ten times more quickly. Marketing professionals will be able to access that data as it is gathered and respond with better-targeted promotions in minutes. And as post-sales and production teams work to fulfill service requests and new contracts, their progress will contribute to each customer's history, to help Commtouch anticipate and respond to its clients' needs and achieve greater customer satisfaction.

"Commtouch customers entrust the success of their business to us, and hold us accountable for utterly flawless performance. Because our customers are operating at the same fast pace as the Internet, they must be able to communicate with us in the manner they prefer -- by phone, fax or email -- at any given moment, and we must be able to stay abreast of their needs across these channels. Siebel eBusiness Applications allows us to give our customers that flexibility, and empowers Commtouch professionals to anticipate and respond to their needs to a degree we never imagined possible," said James D. Berkman, director of client services, Commtouch. "Siebel Systems' singular reputation for 100 percent customer satisfaction played a major role in our choice of an eBusiness solution. That decision was reinforced by Siebel eBusiness Applications' capacity for customer information management that scales with our customers' rapid expansion.

"The most important return on our investment in eBusiness software is a demonstrable gain in Commtouch customers' satisfaction. We were impressed that on average, Siebel Systems customers measure an incredible 21 percent increase in customer satisfaction within 10 months. It was easy for us to extrapolate the benefit of Siebel eBusiness Applications to our own business."

About Siebel Systems

Siebel Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SEBL) is the world's leading provider of eBusiness applications software. Siebel Systems provides an integrated family of eBusiness application software enabling multi-channel sales, marketing and customer service systems to be deployed over the Web, call centers, field, reseller channels, retail and dealer networks. Siebel Systems' sales and service facilities are located in more than 28 countries. For more information, please visit Siebel's Web site at www.Siebel.com.

Except for the historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risk or uncertainties. The success of the acquisition and future operating results of Siebel Systems may differ from the results discussed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements due to factors that include, but are not limited to, risks associated with acquisition, such as the potential difficulties in the assimilation of operations, strategies, technologies, methodologies and products of the acquired company, the risk of loss of key personnel of the acquired company, diversion of management attention from other business concerns, business risks including the risk of variations in quarterly operating results, significant current and expected additional competition and the need to continue to expand product distribution and services offerings. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of Siebel Systems are included in Siebel Systems' Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998 and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Note to Editors: Siebel is a trademark of Siebel Systems, Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only.

(a) SmartMoney, July 1999