MarketFirst and KickFire Partnership Ups the Ante in Marketing Automation Arena; Companies will Demonstrate Complementary Services at DCI CRM Conference, June 20-22 in Boston, MA.

Business Editors and High Tech Writers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 20, 2001

MarketFirst Software, the industry leader in enterprise marketing automation software, and KickFire, Inc., a leading provider of online collaboration and project management software, today announced a partnership agreement that will offer value-added marketing automation benefits to customers and prospects.

The partners' complementary marketing automation tools increase the efficiency and speed of the marketing cycle, from planning through program execution. Both companies offer licensed or web-hosted options that are easily integrated into their customers' existing infrastructure.

KickFire offers a private, customizable website where marketers, their vendors and customers can collaborate on a variety of typical marketing projects, from brochures and advertising to tradeshows and websites. By automating the revision, approval and scheduling processes, KickFire's Marketing Resource Management(R) system allows geographically dispersed teams to get products to market faster, share results quicker and react more rapidly to customer feedback, resulting in increased revenue and customer retention.

MarketFirst's software gives marketers the power to design, create, test and execute measurable online marketing programs, such as direct email campaigns, seminars and events, media and analyst communications and customer retention programs. By integrating the power of the Internet with traditional offline marketing channels, MarketFirst users have the tools necessary to accurately measure the success of their marketing programs, allowing them to allocate budget dollars to the most effective channels.

"Marketing automation has become a hot-button issue for companies, especially in the current economic environment, when every marketing dollar has to count," said Pete Tierney, CEO of MarketFirst. "When using KickFire's technology in conjunction with MarketFirst, our customers have the opportunity to increase their efficiency and effectiveness from the earliest planning stages of a marketing project, especially during the crucial collaboration between the marketing team, creative and legal. We believe our partnership combines the best of automation technology in the marketing arena."

"We're excited about the opportunity to work with MarketFirst," said KickFire CEO Ken Toren. "The combination of our solutions gives marketers a powerful tool for getting products to market faster, establishing closer ties with customers and delivering quantifiable results to the bottom line."

As part of the agreement, the two software companies have established a customer-referral program that will span online referrals between KickFire's website and myMarketFirst.com, MarketFirst's eMarketing destination site, as well as offline referrals through traditional sales channels.

MarketFirst and KickFire will demonstrate their integrated solution at the DCI Customer Relationship Management conference in Boston, MA, June 20-22, Booth 2144. In addition, Ken Toren, KickFire CEO, will speak as part of an e-marketing panel discussion on "eCRM = eSales + eMarketing + eService," June 20, 2001, 2:15 - 3:00 PM. Cynthia Countouris, MarketFirst Vice President of Product Marketing, will speak as part of a panel on "Attracting, Profiling, and Selling to the eCustomer", June 20, 2001, 2:00 - 3:50 PM.

About MarketFirst Software

MarketFirst is the leading provider of marketing automation solutions that enable the creation and seamless integration of interactive marketing campaigns with traditional offline marketing channels. Marketing professionals can now design, create, text and execute measurable automated marketing programs and processes, which can also leverage their overall marketing investment. MarketFirst Software is available as an enterprise software license or a complete web-hosted service and can be easily integrated into the corporate information infrastructure. MarketFirst's bi-monthly eMarketing Zone newsletter is available through myMarketFirst.com, the industry's first eMarketing destination site. Companies such as ARTISTdirect, AutoDesk, Documentum, GE Plastics, Lucent, Micron, Pharmacia Upjohn and SAP AG are achieving marketing velocity by using MarketFirst.

MarketFirst is a privately held company with headquarters in Mountain View, California. More information is available at 1-888-658-3477 or www.marketfirst.com.

About KickFire

KickFire delivers a platform for online project management and collaboration, providing geographically dispersed teams with access to all project communications, documents, schedules and action items. Using KickFire, marketing teams deliver more effective campaigns, respond quicker to customer requirements and directly demonstrate their contribution to the company's bottom line. Customers include Sun Microsystems, J. Walter Thompson Technology Communications Group, Prodigy Communications and Atheros Communications. For more information, visit the KickFire website at www.kickfire.com.

MarketFirst, myMarketFirst.com, Marketing Velocity, eMarketing Blueprints, eMarketing for eBusiness, All Marketing is not Equal and eMarketing Hosted Solutions, The Transformation Begins Here are trademarks of MarketFirst Software, Inc.