Commack, NY — (October 29,1998) eShare Inc. today announced the general availability of NetAgent™ 2.0, a major enhancement to its highly successful online sales and customer care system. NetAgent™ 2.0 enables its customers to increase their revenues, margins and client retention rates by facilitating Internet-based customer interaction. It acts as a vital communications conduit between suppliers and their customers by providing real-time dialog capabilities that both automate and improve Web-based commerce, customer support and service.

According to industry analysts, by 2002 nearly one-third of all customer contacts, inquiries and purchases will take place over the Internet. And when the entire transaction, including customer inquiry, selection, payment, fulfillment and support activities occurs over the wire, the economic benefits for buyers and suppliers become remarkably compelling.

"E-customers are more likely to buy when their questions and concerns are immediately answered. If they are forced to leave an e-commerce site to seek additional information via 800 numbers, customer support lines or other Web sites the likelihood they will return to buy is severely diminished," says James Tito, eShare's president and CEO. "Using NetAgent™ 2.0 standards-based, secure and scalable Internet dialog facility, suppliers are able to respond in real-time to buyer's questions via Internet chat sessions without the customer having to interrupt their buying process."

Among the new features in Version 2.0 are its email support, customer observation capabilities and APIs that allow for the integration of NetAgent™ with leading knowledge-based engines.

The Customer Observation module allows agents to observe and log live visitor activity, as well as proactively engage visitors in real-time discussions through their browsers. The email support module allows customer support representatives (CSRs) to manage customer emails better by tracking and grouping them with incident ID numbers. The API support module enables users to seamlessly tap into their installed knowledge-bases without having to re-build any data. This uniform system gives supervisors and agents a centralized location from which to review both Web and email transactions as part of the complete customer sales and support process.

Version 2.0 of NetAgent™ supports any browser and provides unsurpassed scalability and security using SSL encryption. It works with and through virtually all Internet firewalls and hardware configurations. In addition, NetAgent™ 2.0 is fully customizable via a Software Developers Toolkit that enables integration with virtually any development environment or with any existing customer care, help-desk, knowledge repository, service/support or sales force automation system.

Among the key benefits of NetAgent™ 2.0 are its ability to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the e-commerce sales environments, its cost savings capabilities and its positive impact on customer satisfaction. From a sales perspective, NetAgent™ 2.0 enables sales agents to "push" pricing information, marketing materials and order forms to customers in real-time. The system also enables sales agents to support up to six customer transactions simultaneously via separate dialog windows. NetAgent™ 2.0 drives direct cost savings by reducing expensive 1-800 calls, eliminating unnecessary e-mail traffic and transmission costs, raising agent utilization rates and decreasing the number of agents needed. Finally, NetAgent™ 2.0 increases customer satisfaction by eliminating on-hold delays with scripted messages or slide shows and by determining customer's unique needs through automated Q&A sessions. According to Gartner Group, "there is a 10 to 1 cost savings when comparing the Internet to phone-based customer care."

"NetAgent enables our e-commerce customers to get answers in real time to questions they have about purchasing products," said Donna Iucolano, Vice President of Interactive Services at 1-800-FLOWERS. "Our customers have been very enthusiastic about their ability to communicate in real time with our customer service representatives over the Internet. NetAgent™ helps us meet the growing needs of our Web-based business while enhancing customer satisfaction levels." Using NetAgent™ 2.0, sales agents and CSR's can answer questions, guide buyers through the transaction, send files, deliver tutorials, and even provide pre-scripted assistance with just the click of a button.

For more information regarding eShare NetAgent™ 2.0, contact eShare Technologies by phone at 888/374-2734 or 516/864-4700, or visit the company's Internet Web-site at http://www.eshare.com.

About eShare Technologies, Inc. (www.eshare.com) delivers powerful enterprise-class interaction software and services that are crucial for eBusiness. These innovative technologies include web-based customer service and support, customer self-service, live conferencing and events, distance learning, Community chat, threaded discussion forums, and custom integration tools. Current eShare Technologies clients include AT&T WorldNet Service, Computer Associates, GeoCities, Lycos, networkMCI, UUNet, the University of Florida, Pfizer, Bertelsmann, Columbia University, Hewlett Packard, Xerox and 1-800-FLOWERS.

# # #