Commack, NY — August 4, 1999 — eShare Technologies, the expert in online customer service, today debuted the NetAgent Re:sponse™ e-mail management system. NetAgent Re:sponse when coupled with the full eShare NetAgent™ Internet customer care suite form the first fully integrated chat/e-mail offering available on the market.

eShare's NetAgent Re:sponse leapfrogs competitive solutions from Kana Communications, Inc. and eGain Communications Corp. because it is the only e-mail management product that can seamlessly integrate with a real-time chat-based customer service solution. Both NetAgent Re:sponse and the NetAgent real-time suite share the same user interface and technology architecture, making it easy for online customer service agents to simultaneously serve customers either via chat or e-mail. In addition, both products share a unified reporting structure, which simplifies the tracking of customer inquires across multiple channels.

eShare NetAgent, winner of both C@ll Center Solutions' 1998 Product of the Year and Editors' Choice accolades, is a customer service solution that allows agents to engage in a real-time dialog with Web site visitors. Since its release late last year, numerous e-commerce sites, including industry leaders 1-800-Flowers, America Online, and AT&T, have adopted the eShare NetAgent solution.

Customers Demand Integrated Chat/E-Mail Solutions
eShare developed the feature set for NetAgent Re:sponse in concert with e-commerce sites that have a high volume of customer interaction, such as CDW, a Fortune 1000 company and a major technology retailer, to ensure that its real-world solutions heal real-world problems. The company took the same approach last year when it worked with AT&T and 1-800-Flowers to develop the first version of NetAgent.

"Early on in the product development stage, eShare analyzed the needs of e-retailers and their customers," explained Jim Tito, eShare's Chairman and CEO. "What we found is that customers want to choose how they interact with online stores when they have questions to ask and online stores want to work with a single vendor that has an integrated chat/e-mail solution. The tight integration between NetAgent Re:sponse and the full NetAgent suite meets both these needs."

Charles Rider, a senior analyst with the Patricia Seybold Group, agreed. "eShare understands the importance of integrating both e-mail and real-time communications into the online dialog between businesses and their customers and has tapped the strengths of both in NetAgent," Rider said.

The Need: Inbound E-Mail Is Piling Up and Sites Can't Handle the Load
According to industry analysts, one of the biggest challenges facing e-commerce sites is delivering the same level of personalized service that customers are accustomed to receiving in the brick-and-mortar world. Electronic mail, when managed properly, is a powerful communication tool that can improve online customer satisfaction and retention. Customer inquires that go unanswered for days or weeks translate into lost sales, or even worse, lost customers. Steve Robins, an analyst with The Yankee Group, said: "Web-based customer interaction systems that encompass chat, Web page push, and integrated e-mail response enable companies to provide an immediate and consistent response to their clients and prospects. The Yankee Group believes that Web-based customer interaction systems can provide several benefits, such as increased revenue from a faster, improved customer experience and greater opportunities for cross-selling." The Solution: eShare's NetAgent Re:sponse
eShare's NetAgent Re:sponse uses automatic routing and response technologies to give customer service representatives (CSRs) and call center agents the ability to quickly answer both routine and specialized customer e-mails. NetAgent Re:sponse 3.0 builds on the e-mail management functions currently offered in eShare NetAgent 2.1 to offer an enhanced and comprehensive package of features, including:

• EARS: E-mail Automated Response System
  eShare's E-mail Automated Response System, or EARS, uses a sophisticated rule system to automatically route and respond to e-mail messages. The product can search any part of an incoming e-mail for specific content including the address, subject, body, and e-mail header in its routing/response process. In addition, NetAgent Re:sponse can categorize e-mails based on similar content, integrate with backend databases to either route or generate a response, as well as route messages to individual agents or "account owners."
• M4: Multi Message Management Module
  Using the Mutli-Message Management Module or M4 feature in NetAgent Re:sponse, customer service/call center agents can easily respond to multiple messages simultaneously using both automated, suggested responses and custom responses.
• REA: Rapid E-mail Author
  NetAgent Re:sponse's Rapid E-mail Author gives customer service representatives an unprecedented amount productivity in the way they respond to customer e-mails. CSRs can use NetAgent Re:sponse's intuitive graphical interface to insert and manage categories, headers, footers, signatures and greetings all with a single mouse click or keystroke.
• UCH: Unified Customer History
  Using NetAgent Re:sponse and the full NetAgent suite together, customer service/call center agents can concurrently handle both e-mail responses and real-time chat sessions using eShare's integrated interface. The two products in tandem store a unified customer interaction history that integrates all e-mail and chat-based interactions into one database. The history can be retrieved by agents during response creation process and is available for offline management analysis. In addition, the history information can be integrated into a host of other CRM/CIS systems that customers may already have.
• Management Features
  eShare's NetAgent Re:sponse offers advanced supervisory capabilities and integration with customer databases. NetAgent Re:sponse features a configurable, complete data display that offers both real-time and historical views of the customer service system, including email queues, chat queues, agent activity, and more. Supervisors are able to monitor to certain thresholds much as they are accustomed to in existing call center solutions.
• EDA
  NetAgent Re:sponse also features an Enterprise Data Access module that provides CSRs with the ability to tap enterprise data such as order status, inventory data, configuration information, and customer profiles so that they have all the information they need at their fingertips.

About eShare Technologies
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 AOL, 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.

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