KUBI SOFTWARE DEBUTS KUBI CLIENT COLLABORATIVE EMAIL SOLUTION.

Kubi Software Inc. has debuted Kubi Client, the company's Collaborative Email solution. Kubi Client makes it simple for business Email users to work together in structured team spaces, without leaving their familiar Microsoft Outlook or IBM Lotus Notes Email client. Unlocking the potential of individuals and teams to work together more effectively, Kubi Client enables spontaneous and secure collaboration within the familiarity and ease of use of Email.

Email is universally deployed by businesses as a primary means of communication. More than half a billion business users worldwide will work in Email this year, and Email is where an estimated 90 to 95 percent of collaboration is done, according to IDC. But making Email function effectively as a tool for collaboration involves a constant struggle. While Email is well suited to sending messages and attaching files, it lacks five key attributes -- context, structure, a shared space for project work, consolidated views of project data, and security -- that are essential to teams trying to work together on projects.

Kubi Software's Founder and CEO, Julio Estrada, brings experience developing commercially successful enterprise software, including collaborative solutions used today by tens of millions of users, to defining the company's vision. "Business people today are caught in the chasm between Email's well-known usefulness for communications, and its inadequacy for supporting collaboration among individuals and teams," said Estrada. "Kubi Client bridges that gap, by consolidating all of the information and tools people need to work on projects -- including messages, documents, calendars, contacts, tasks, and timelines -- into a single view and within Email. By building powerful collaborative capabilities into the environment where business people spend most of their time, Kubi Client dramatically increases the likelihood that people will take advantage of these capabilities to share knowledge and coordinate activities more effectively than ever before."

"For the present and foreseeable future, email remains the dominant collaboration tool," said Mark Levitt, vice president for Collaborative Computing at IDC. "Other collaborative tools must not only emulate email's ease of use and reliability, but also be seen and structured as extensions to email. Kubi Software is taking the logical approach in providing access to rich collaborative functionality from within the familiar email environment."

Designed to Be User-Centric, Ubiquitous, Unifying and Secure

"Cognizant understands the importance of collaboration, and of technologies that enable business people to work together more effectively," said Craig Potter, CRM Regional practice leader, Cognizant Technology Solutions. "We are excited by the innovation in Kubi Software's approach, and look forward to testing Kubi Client."

Kubi Client is designed to be easy to use, yet robust enough to support effective collaboration. For the first time, users of Microsoft Outlook and IBM Lotus Notes can truly collaborate with each other, extending the ability of teams to work together within organizations as well as with external partners. Kubi Client automatically synchronizes project spaces within the Email environment, while protecting sensitive documents and restricting access to only invited team members.

"Kubi Software exemplifies what we look for in new technologies that will impact the way people work," said Chris Shipley, executive producer of the DEMO Conferences. "Email is where business users live a good part of the day and yet it doesn't provide efficient management of information. Kubi Software has addressed this issue with an approach that leverages existing technologies while providing an application that, in a single view, enables individuals and teams to collaborate seamlessly, securely and spontaneously." Without duplicating information already stored in Microsoft Outlook or IBM Lotus Notes, Kubi Client provides team members access to all the types of information required for collaboration, including:

-- Discussions, where any team member can post a message or respond;

-- Documents, such as word-processing files, spreadsheets, and presentations, which can be shared with team members and updated;

-- Calendars, for scheduling project events or linking to live online events;

-- Contacts, both project-related and personal, to share with team members;

-- Task lists, to track who is doing what, when;

-- Project timelines, for tracking milestones;

-- Team Folders, to display invited members and their status; and

-- Kubi Home Page, a consolidated view of all relevant information at a glance.

Kubi Software's innovation encompasses both its user-centric approach to the application interface and its baseline protocol technologies. The company has created a new, patent-pending protocol that is:

-- SMTP-based, crossing firewalls and leveraging the worldwide messaging network;

-- XML-formatted, unifying differences between competing Email platforms; and

-- PKI-secured, transparently encrypting and authenticating sensitive data.

Kubi Client leverages Microsoft Exchange Servers, IBM Lotus Domino Servers, and POP3 servers, while storing project information on the client computer. Additionally, Kubi Software will offer Kubi Server, to enable organizations to centralize storage of multiple team spaces, provide Web access, deliver enterprise scalability, create access to back-office applications, and administer centralized collaboration policies for all Kubi users.

Now in beta, Kubi Client will be generally available in early Q2 2003, with pricing announced at that time. Kubi Server will be available in Q3 2003. Integration with real-time collaborative applications, such as instant messaging and synchronous conferencing, is planned for future releases.

About Kubi Software

Kubi Software was founded in 2001 to create a new class of business software called Collaborative Email that enables employees, customers, and partners to collaborate easily and securely. Collaborative Email combines the power of collaboration with the familiarity and ease of use of Email. Founder and CEO Julio Estrada has extensive experience in developing commercially successful software, including chief-architect roles for Lotus QuickPlace and Lotus Domino Web Server -- collaboration solutions used today by tens of millions of users. Kubi Software's world-class executive team brings management expertise from enterprise software companies, while its blue-chip investors include Lazard Technology Partners and Venture Investment Management Company LLC (VIMAC).

Kubi Software can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.kubisoftware.com/.

For more information, call 781/259-7900.