Ecommerce Veteran James Ray Joins Exchange Applications; Former Staples VP Heads Ecommerce and Emarketing Consulting Group At Leading Marketing Applications Company.

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 13, 1999--

Exchange Applications, Inc. (Nasdaq:EXAP), a leading supplier of software and services that optimize the value of customer relationships, announced today that James Ray has joined the company as vice president, Strategic Consulting Services. Ray was formerly vice president, Corporate Systems and Strategy Development for office-supply giant Staples, where he led the technology development and implementation to support the company's highly successful ecommerce sites.

At Exchange Applications, Ray will help clients bridge online and offline customer communications strategies. Reporting to Chief Operating Officer David McFarlane, Ray's initial project will be assisting one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. with its implementation of an innovative emarketing solution.

McFarlane explained that with its recent acquisition of emarketing vendor GBI, Exchange Applications sees an opportunity to help businesses make ecommerce more efficient and profitable by driving customer content to the Web. Exchange Applications' software offers the unique ability to create and execute personalized and targeted customer communications strategies coordinated across multiple channels, such as direct mail, email, call centers and the Web. In addition, Exchange Applications' software allows clients to automatically capture and analyze customer responses across all channels and apply that learning toward making future campaigns more effective. Businesses gain the ability to not only drive positive customer behaviors and incremental revenue, but also to link those results back to the specific communications efforts that caused them.

According to McFarlane, accurate targeting and permission-based marketing are essential techniques for businesses that want to deliver relevant, personalized communications based on a customer's history. "Not enough companies are doing that today," said McFarlane. "We see a vast opportunity in helping businesses finesse their emarketing and ecommerce efforts toward more customer focus, greater relevance and ultimately higher revenues. James' experience in implementing real-world solutions, at Staples and previously as a management consultant to many well-known retailers, will make that process considerably easier for Exchange Applications' customers."

Ray has more than 22 years' information systems planning, development and management experience. While at Staples, he was responsible for the architectural design and creation of a sophisticated customer loyalty program and related direct marketing systems, including Exchange Applications' VALEX(TM) software. His staff also designed and implemented innovative solutions for business-to-business and business-to-consumer ecommerce. Prior to joining Staples, Ray was vice president and CIO for the North American Air Miles program. He also spent several years as vice president of Systems Development for the Eckerd Drug Store retail chain. Additionally Ray has been a partner in McCready Manigold Ray & Co., a management-consulting firm specialized in information management and advanced technology in the retail and consumer direct marketing field.

"Cross-channel Customer Relationship Management offers tremendous benefits to businesses, ones that I have seen first-hand on the client side," said Ray. "The next generation of these solutions will be tightly integrated with, and have a significant impact on, ecommerce. As an experienced cross-channel, customer communications solutions provider, Exchange Applications is in a prime position to capitalize on this opportunity, and I'm pleased to play a part in that growth."

Exchange Applications, Inc.

Exchange Applications, Inc. (Nasdaq:EXAP) provides eCRM software and services that help businesses optimize the value of customer relationships across channels and product lines. Its award-winning products help companies uncover the latent profitability within their customer and prospect bases through highly targeted direct marketing campaigns executed through online and offline channels. Exchange Applications increases the relevancy of customer communications in order to increase response rates, revenue-per-customer and marketing ROI. Based in Boston with offices in Denver, Seattle, London, and Sydney, Exchange Applications can be found on the Web at www.exapps.com.

VALEX is a trademark of Exchange Applications, Inc.