update Customers are Again Among the Winners of Best Practice Awards at CRM-expo 2005; Prestigious Best-of-Best Award Goes to Imparat; Silver for Schulke & Mayr.

DREIEICH-SPRENDLINGEN, Germany -- Projects involving the CRM system of update software AG, one of Europe's leading suppliers of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software with headquarters in Vienna, picked up no fewer than three prizes at the renowned CRM Best Practice Awards at CRM-expo 2005 in Nuremberg on 9 November. In the category "Medium-Size Enterprises", Imparat Farbwerk Iversen & Mahl GmbH & Co. KG, based in Glinde/Hamburg, took first place to win a Gold Award. And in the "Business-to-Business" category, the Silver Award went to Schulke & Mayr GmbH, a specialist in hygiene and infection prevention products from Norderstedt. Finally, among the winners of the three categories of the CRM Best Practice Awards, the top-class jury conferred the main award: this prestigious "Best-of-Best Award" went to update customer Imparat, winner of the "Medium-Size Enterprises" category. The jury explained that its selections were guided in particular by the focal topic of this year's CRM Best Practice Awards: "CRM - what staff really make happen".

Imparat, a family-owned company in business for over 100 years, sells its lacquers and paints to approximately 10,000 customers direct. In 2004, a decision was made at Imparat to invest more heavily in sales management and to launch a CRM project under the working title K.I.M. What convinced the jury most of all: the employees were actively involved in the project from the word go. The problems affecting management and customers were evaluated in detail, and joint sales objectives formulated. In this way it was possible to relieve employees of sideline activities with no direct bearing on customers, to identify customer potentials and to tie customers more closely to the company. By way of software, Imparat introduced update's CRM system for its K.I.M. project with the support of CRM specialists Netragon AG, Starnberg.

Schulke & Mayr belongs to the Air Liquide Group and is one of the international leaders in the fields of hygiene, prevention of infection, Microbiological Quality Management (MQM) and chemical technical preservation. Using the CRM system developed by update, and supported by CRM service provider Custium GmbH, Hamburg, Schulke & Mayr carried out its SAILOR project to optimise sales at international level. Schulke & Mayr's SAILOR project realised the idea of Total Quality Management (TQM), beginning primarily at the company's Special Additives division. Today, the international subsidiaries and branches of Schulke & Mayr, for example in the USA and Singapore, also work with SAILOR, as do partners such as expert advisors, distributors and dealers. The chief priority was to enhance customer care for international key accounts as well as the company's normal customer base. Thanks to SAILOR, employees are today in a position to respond faster to queries, have a uniform level of information at their disposal and can cater more quickly to the needs of end customers and distributors.

About the CRM Best Practice Awards

The renowned CRM Best Practice Awards are conferred every year at specialist trade show CRM-expo (which moved from Cologne to Nuremberg in 2005) by the trade show organiser asfc and trade magazine acquisa. The CRM Best Practice Awards recognise especially well planned and successful CRM practice-oriented projects. This year's awards were presented under the motto "CRM - what staff really make happen". Every year, the top-class jury is made up of well-known CRM specialists of international repute. Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards are presented in each of three categories: Business-to-Business, Business-to-Consumer and Medium-Size Enterprises. Further, the jury selects among the three Gold winners the recipient of a "Best-of-Best Award" for the most convincing CRM project across the three categories.

About update software AG

Founded in Vienna in 1988, update software AG (www.update.com) is one of Europe's leading providers of CRM solutions with some 150 employees and revenues of EUR 15.3 million (2004). update software AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

update products are used by more than 80,000 employees at over 750 companies. References include 3M, AstraZeneca, Beiersdorf, Canon, DuPont, ESTAG, Imperial Tobacco, Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz International S.A., LBS Nord, Magna Steyr and Pernod Ricard. update software AG cooperates with carefully selected systems integration partners such as Atos Origin, Cognos, Dendrite International, EDS, IDS-Scheer Austria, Sensix, Siemens Business Services, Softlab and syncon.