KnowNow Brings New Package to Synchronize Information Among 300 Million Users of Excel(R) WorldwideAutomated Spreadsheet Solution Starts at $9995 for Fifteen Seats And Scales to Thousands of End Points MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 15, 2003 -- KnowNow Inc., http://www.KnowNow.com, provider of real-time, two-way Web integration software, announces the release of KnowNow LiveSheet for Excel(R). The solution eliminates the costs and delays associated with manual exchange of Excel(R) spreadsheets in a wide variety of scenarios -- from sales and budget rollups, to sharing inventories with partners, to giving customers updates on shipping status. Starting at $9995, with rapid end-user installation and minimal requirements from corporate IT departments, the product offers the benefits of instant exchange of Excel(R) information to an audience previously excluded by the cost and time associated with more complex integration solutions. At the basic entry point, the package is designed to connect any fifteen Excel(R) users via the Internet, and also to scale to larger numbers of people. Users can exist solely within internal departments or extend outside the company to customers and partners and even to home users. By automating the exchange of Excel(R) data, the package eliminates the cost and time of emailing, cutting and pasting spreadsheets; avoids the risk of transmission errors; and ensures everyone has the most current information for better decision-making. Leveraging existing Excel(R) technology According to Microsoft, there are 300 million copies of Excel(R) installed worldwide. Currently, Excel(R) is used for business processes across industries and departments -- to roll up sales projections, manage budgets and update inventory. "After years of Web investment, millions of business people are connected to the Internet," says KnowNow's vice president of marketing, Ryan Rosenberg. "However, Excel(R) was not designed to work across this networked world, and there are islands of data locked on individual PC's. With our latest solution, managers no longer have to justify the cost of installing expensive applications just to share Excel(R) data. Now they can connect single cells or entire spreadsheets on any desktop they choose, and enjoy instant delivery of information wherever it is needed. Using the KnowNow solution means continuing to use Excel(R), therefore managers can leverage the ubiquity of Excel's(R) deployment, the familiarity of their employees with the software, and the spreadsheets they have already built." Priced to sell, designed to grow By making the package easy to deploy and cost effective enough for use by sales teams, administrators, channel and finance managers, there is now a solution for small projects, that can also scale as customers extend the solution to a wide array of desktops and enterprise systems. "Once business managers realize the ease and viability of enhancing Excel(R) with dynamic data instead of replacing the application with a new package, we believe they will adopt KnowNow LiveSheet for Excel(R)," says Rick Caccia, vice president of products for KnowNow. "Once deployed, these managers will naturally want to extend their automation to more users, and to access information residing in other corporate systems. KnowNow offers these capabilities." Deployment and industry recognition It was the simple Excel(R)-to-Excel(R) automation capability found in KnowNow LiveSheet for Excel(R) that first attracted FujitsuPC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702). The FujitsuPC solution adds an additional connection to an enterprise database, and is designed to connect the spreadsheets of over 400 resellers across the globe. The company is expected to complete its deployment of a large scale KnowNow LiveSheet for Excel(R) project in the coming weeks. Further, Intel has recently showcased KnowNow LiveSheet for Excel(R) as an example of the new trend towards mobility, where users are only connected to each other occasionally. The company has also published a case study on the FujitsuPC deployment. Calling on desktop and laptop solutions to deliver more performance and improved mobility capabilities, Intel's chief strategist, Chris Thomas says, "Using KnowNow, FujitsuPC is integrating spreadsheets that contain as many as forty thousand cells, demanding new levels of performance for their PCs and laptops. They are also pioneering new mobile and occasionally connected (online/offline) capabilities that must accommodate the global network of users and systems that come and go when employees, customers, partners and suppliers are distributed across the Internet." Pricing and availability KnowNow LiveSheet for Excel(R) is available now, and runs on Microsoft's Windows Operating System. Pricing starts at $9995 for any fifteen Excel(R) users connected to the Internet. The solution can be extended to grow to thousands of desktops or enterprise system end-points. For more information, visit http://www.knownow.com/products/excel.html , or by contact KnowNow Sales at 650-641-8581. About KnowNow KnowNow provides real-time, two-way Web integration software. With KnowNow, companies can connect and automatically synchronize information residing in desktop applications and enterprise systems for easy and productive information sharing across the Internet. KnowNow enables companies to quickly, easily, and cost-effectively connect their internal systems, employees, partners and customers, removing the traditional boundaries of operations and eliminating the use of out-of-date data. KnowNow's customers include Morgan Stanley, Fujitsu, and PeopleSoft. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, KnowNow is a privately held company with backing from premier venture capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, TPG Ventures (an affiliate of Texas Pacific Group), Palomar Ventures, and Apogee Venture Group.
CONTACT: Stephen Jones of KnowNow Inc., +1-650-641-8571, or
Press@KnowNow.com
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