Customers Picking Winners in eCRM Shakeout; RightNow Adds Over 100 New Customers in First Quarter 2001.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

BOZEMAN, Mont.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 3, 2001

Despite a massive shakeout among the industry's weaker eCRM vendors, RightNow Technologies, a leader in Internet customer service solutions, continued to gain momentum in the first quarter.

While eCRM vendors offering complex, big-ticket products are meeting with strong resistance due to corporate belt-tightening and concerns about near-term ROI, RightNow added 103 new clients during the quarter in a wide range of vertical markets.

A cursory review of eCRM sales figures for the first quarter reveals which vendors are gaining momentum -- and which ones are losing it -- as customers become more discerning about their information technology spending.

                       New Customers in Q1        Total

                              2001              Customers

RightNow Technologies        103                 1,098
Kana                          15                   900
e.piphany                     25                   350

"Customers are key to determine who is going to win in the long-run," said Kirsten Cloninger, Internet commerce analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group, based in Framingham, Mass. "Vendors that are really delivering value are finding broad acceptance for their products, especially when companies are tightening their spending."

One of the keys to RightNow's success in this tightening economy is its ability to deliver rapid return on customers' investments. This has become a critical consideration for IT managers under pressure to show tangible, significant bottom-line results.

"RightNow Web paid for itself in three months," declared Bruce Holt, director of Allied Telesyn's engineering program. "We chose RightNow over several other applications because we could implement it so quickly and start seeing results right away."

Because of this consistently rapid ROI, many IT decision-makers now view Web-based customer service as the value "sweet spot" of eCRM. The growing interest in RightNow's solutions is fueled by its cost-efficient customer service operations, ability to significantly reduce support expenses, and tangible improvements in customer satisfaction.

"The first quarter was challenging for our industry as a whole, yet RightNow continued to prosper," said Greg Gianforte, CEO of RightNow Technologies. "That's because customers this quarter became more focused on ROI and speed of implementation. That focus played to the clear strengths of RightNow Web, our flagship Web customer service platform."

Customers are Key in Selecting Winners in eCRM Shakeout

With over 1,000 satisfied customers, RightNow Web is the industry's most proven and dependable Web-based customer service solution. RightNow Web's architecture, which is based on patent-pending "self-learning" knowledgebase technology, provides fundamental advantages over competing products. In particular, RightNow Web clients can achieve full implementation in under 15 days, as opposed to the months required to roll out less automated applications. Many RightNow Web customers achieve 100 percent ROI in less than 90 days.

"Many of our competitors have undergone multiple mergers and downsizing in the last twelve months," added Gianforte. The systems these companies sell were developed in different development teams, often as separate companies. As a result, they have failed to integrate their disparate products into a unified, easy-to-implement service solution."

This lack of integration has caused disaffection among customers who are concerned about unclear product roadmaps and increased risk. "RightNow has thrived in this environment because we have consistently proven that we deliver seamless integration, rapid trouble-free deployment, and very healthy short- and long-term ROI," Gianforte said.

Q1 Customer Wins

RightNow added 103 customers during the quarter, raising the total client count to 1,098, more than any other eCRM vendor today. Representative customer wins for the quarter include Allstate (NYSE:ALL), British Telecom (NYSE:BTY), Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS), Nine West, Siemens AG (NYSE:SI), Singapore Telecom, Virgin Travel, Vodafone (NYSE:VOD), RealNetworks (Nasdaq:RNWK) and the Oskar division of ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM).

About RightNow Technologies

Founded in 1997, RightNow Technologies, a leading online customer service solutions provider, helps companies effectively manage customer relationships on the Web. RightNow Technologies' customers include Air Canada (Nasdaq:ACNAF), eTour.com, Motorola (NYSE:MOT), Nortel (NYSE:NT), Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI), Polaroid (NYSE:PRD), Sanyo (Nasdaq:SANYY), Social Security Administration, Sprint (NYSE:FON and NYSE:PCS), Union Bank and Trust (Nasdaq:UBSC), Xerox (NYSE:XRX) and more than 1,000 other organizations. RightNow Technologies' world headquarters are located at 77 Discovery Drive, Bozeman, MT 59718. RightNow can be reached at www.rightnow.com. Additional RightNow offices are located in Dallas, London, Munich and Sydney.