Current Analysis Extends Competitive Intelligence to Third-Party Channel to Drive Additional Sales.

STERLING, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 21, 1998--

CurrentCHANNEL(tm) increases the sales potential of IT vendor organizations by providing distribution partners with immediate sales

strategy and event analysis

Current Analysis, Inc., the leading provider of online competitive intelligence and analysis, today announced the launch of CurrentCHANNEL(tm), a full-service product offering designed to drive more sales through the channel. The service extends the same level of support and competitive intelligence that is provided to IT vendor direct sales teams.

In the IT industry today, feature and function differentiation among competing brands is often marginal. More than ever, vendors rely on distribution strategies to boost sales figures. Many vendors depend on their distribution partners to generate as much as 65 percent of their annual sales revenue. Building and maintaining mind-share with distribution partners is an ongoing challenge. Since it is the reseller who ultimately decides what sells and what sits on the shelves, a flourishing channel program is a key competitive weapon.

"We have distribution partners in Europe, South America and Asia-Pacific. It's difficult to stay in contact with them on a day-to-day basis, and there are a lot of developments in the industry that directly affect their business," said Glen Hunt, vice president, marketing, Netrix Corporation. "Keeping our channel partners up-to-speed is just as important as supporting our internal group. We need to help them sell our products and respond to competition. I'm counting on CurrentCHANNEL to become a significant benefit to our channel management program."

CurrentCHANNEL makes the IT vendor's entire sales organization more productive by providing rapid, customized competitive intelligence to the channel. The service provides qualitative, hard-hitting analysis typically within 48 hours of significant industry events that can have a critical impact on customers, markets and competitors. The analytical content and Internet-based platform enables vendors to quickly prepare, communicate and share with their channel partners strong, tactical responses to industry developments and competitive threats.

"The channel is the feet on the street for many of our clients," said Jeff Swartz, president and COO, Current Analysis. "We found there to be a real need for one-on-one support from the vendors in order to generate the kinds of numbers they demand from the channel. Our CurrentCHANNEL product will dramatically improve a vendor's ability to maximize their two-tier distribution strategy." About CurrentCHANNEL

With CurrentCHANNEL, each distribution partner receives access to a branded, customized web page that displays the Current Analysis analytical reports vendors select based on the relevance and significance of the event. From this customized web page, a two-way communication system with the vendor and channel partner is formed.

Vendors have complete control over the analysis and competitive information that is distributed to their channel partners. Through the ChannelFILTER(tm) platform feature, vendors set search-criteria to track specific competitors. As events occur and analytical reports are added, vendors have the option to attach proprietary intelligence to the reports through the ChannelCOMMENT(tm) option. They then push the analytical report to their channel partners via a CurrentALERT(tm) e-mail. CurrentALERT proactively notifies the channel that there is a competitive action they need to know about and links them to the analysis and the branded web page for additional competitive analysis. Availability and Pricing

CurrentCHANNEL is now available. Current Analysis offers an attractive pricing model for this add-on service to its flagship CurrentCOMPETE product. Please direct inquiries and product demonstration requests to David Hatch, product manager, 617/558-5162 or [e-mail]. About Current Analysis

Current Analysis, Inc., based in Sterling, Virginia, offers a full range of products which combine expert industry analysis with collaborative knowledge management software tools to help clients in the business, financial, vendor and end-user communities rapidly analyze market events, develop responses to competitive actions, and share knowledge internally as well as with partners and customers. The Company has built a world-class analytical team, each member with a combined average of 20-years experience in their respective industries: Internet commerce, information security, enterprise infrastructure, carrier infrastructure, network services and data warehousing. Clients include 3COM, Bay Networks, Cabletron, Cisco Systems, InterWorld, CertCo, GTE, Fujitsu, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Netscape, Nortel, Oracle, Paradyne, Siemens and Xylan, among others. For more information, visit Current Analysis at http://www.currentanalysis.com.

Current Analysis, CurrentCHANNEL, ChannelFILTER, CurrentALERT and ChannelCOMMENT are trademarks of Current Analysis, Inc. All other product and company names are trademarks of their respective owners.