MICROSOFT'S NEW SHAREPOINT TO HAVE SPOTTY IMPACT

New Report Assesses Microsoft's New Collaboration and Portal Offering

      San Francisco, CA, April 26, 2001.--"Relax" is the advice of Ferris
Research to both potential users of and competitors to Microsoft's
SharePoint Portal Server 2001. Organizations that value collaborative
products should not rush to implement SharePoint and most competitors, with
the possible exception of Lotus, will not be heavily impacted by Microsoft,
according to David Ferris. He's president of the San Francisco-based
international research group that bears his name.

     Both the strengths and many weaknesses of SharePoint are detailed in
"Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server: Industry & Competitive Impact," a new
report from Ferris Research. One especially significant plus to the new
program is its ability to access the Lotus Notes database. This is a
recognition of the strength of this well-established offering of Lotus, yet
a potential long-term threat to the IBM division as well. Other vendors,
notes Ferris, such as those that offer sophisticated
enterprise-document-management software, have little to fear.

     Because of the many weaknesses of SharePoint, Ferris urges potential
users to hold off implementation--although many are sure to evaluate it "...
merely because it's from Microsoft." These weaknesses include: 1) inability
to run SharePoint on top of an SQL database from IBM, Oracle or Sybase-user
organizations will be stuck with the Web Storage Database that Microsoft
bundles with SharePoint; 2) weak directory integration--SharePoint will only
integrate with Microsoft NT Domain Directory or Active Directory, which
means that users with a non-Microsoft directory will have to support an
additional directory if they want to deploy SharePoint; and 3) if users find
SharePoint inadequate, it would be very costly to exit. Nevertheless, Ferris
expects Microsoft to rapidly raise the functionality of SharePoint in its
usual tireless manner.

     There's one other group impacted by the introduction of SharePoint by
Microsoft-its partners. Microsoft in the past has been very active in
promoting the alignment between Microsoft Exchange Server and the
document-management offerings from FileNET, 80-20 Software, FrontOffice
Technologies, Eastman Software, and others. Now that Microsoft has moved
directly into this market, these alliance partners will have to reposition
themselves by offering "higher-end" services. Options include the wider
arena of content management or document-management solutions with greater
scalability, maturity, and robustness.

     The report may be ordered through www.ferris.com. Ferris Research also
offers free via email a monthly news digest on the email and collaborative
products it analyzes.

     Ferris Research, an international market research firm based in San
Francisco, focuses on computer technologies that help corporate employees
communicate, such as email, instant messaging, bulletin-board discussions,
desktop conferencing, directories, group scheduling, and document
management.

Contact: David Ferris at 415/986-1414, extension 102, or
david.ferris@ferris.com.