NewChannel, Inc.
Company and Product Background

NewChannel automatically qualifies your Web visitors, and allows sales professionals to proactively contact the best prospects on your Web site, right now.  NewChannel is an Upside Hot 100 Company.
www.newchannel.com

About NewChannel

NewChannel is the first e-business service provider to deliver a Web-based sales channel that qualifies visitors and allows a sales professional to proactively contact the best prospects currently on their Web site.  While most of today's e-commerce solutions are inbound and designed for Web retailing, NewChannel is creating a new Internet sales channel that enables companies to put their proactive, person-to-person sales teams to work on the Web. Using NewChannel, sales organizations can instantly evaluate Web site visitors based on their own sales criteria, and invite the most qualified prospects to engage in an online sales consultation. By capturing the moment when a qualified prospect has chosen to research the company's products and services, NewChannel customers multiply sales conversion rates, reduce sales cycles and achieve new revenue breakthroughs. As a hosted application, NewChannel delivers these benefits immediately with no upfront investment risk, making NewChannel the choice of business-to-business (B2B) leaders such as General Electric, Dell Computers, Micron PC, Sitel Corp., US West and ValueWeb.

Founded in 1996, NewChannel is based in Redwood City, CA, and is privately held.  Additional information about NewChannel is available at www.newchannel.com or  (650) 261-9500. The company has grown more than 700 percent over last year.  Leading investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Calico Commerce, The Challenge Fund, Comdisco Ventures, Nexus Capital Partners, Riverside Holdings and VantagePoint Venture Partners.  NewChannel has raised over $40 million dollars to date.

Market Overview: Limitations of Today's E-Business Model

Every day, B2B Web sites are visited by valuable sales prospects. In fact, even the most conservative estimates from International Data Corporation project that the market for B2B e-commerce will grow from $80 billion today to $1.1 trillion by 2003. These visitors are often highly motivated buyers searching the company's site to obtain information, compare products and services, and even make purchases. Yet almost all leave without ever speaking with a sales representative. The reason is simply this: companies have no way of determining in real time which visitors are qualified prospects, no way to initiate contact and no way to offer them help. As a result, these companies are missing out on the best opportunities to connect with their most qualified prospects, and assist them in making buying decisions.

Unlike business-to-consumer (B2C) "e-tailers," most B2B companies rely on trained salespeople to sell complex products and services such as telecom services, medical equipment, computer systems and business applications. For these companies and their customers, a person-to-person sales consultation is often required to answer customer questions and assist them through the buying process. Many sites have attempted to address the problem by offering inbound access using e-mail, telephone and even "call me" buttons.  However, these options are reactive and force businesses to devote their most expensive resources-skilled salespeople-on unqualified contacts. Clearly, a new solution is needed.

NewChannel Strategy: E-Business Service Provider

To address the requirements of the B2B e-commerce market, NewChannel has pioneered a new Web selling model that qualifies visitors and allows a sales professional to proactively contact the best prospects currently on their Web site.  Much more than a communications technology or an automated shopping tool, this powerful solution combines the effectiveness of a company's carefully honed sales team with the convenience and efficiency of the Web.

Using the NewChannel solution, companies enjoy:

*    Higher sales conversion rates by providing immediate, personalized assistance to qualified customers while they are on the company's Web site.
*    Shorter sales cycles and increased sales effectiveness by enabling sales reps to initiate contact with the most qualified prospects at the moment they are ready to buy.
*    Increased revenues by expanding the company's person-to-person selling potential.
*    Lower sales costs because the company's most expensive resources-trained sales agents-only engage the most qualified prospects.
*    Immediate ROI because NewChannel's service provider model allows companies to begin acquiring customers at half the cost of traditional methods, in a matter of days, with little or no infrastructure requirements.
*    Improved customer satisfaction by building one-to-one relationships through an enhanced Web experience.

In addition, because NewChannel is a proactive sales channel, companies can begin engaging Web site visitors and generating revenue immediately, so customers never experience the frustration of waiting periods associated
with e-mail, telephone and other inbound solutions. With NewChannel, salespeople interact with interested, qualified prospects in a rich sales environment, and customers receive the immediate, personalized attention they need. Everybody wins.

NewChannel's E-Business Solution

From qualifying Web visitors to moving prospects along the sales process to closing sales, NewChannel provides a cost-effective, total solution that gives sales organizations everything they need to begin immediately turning their Web prospects into profitable customers. For example, using a company's own sales criteria, NewChannel automatically analyzes Web visitor behavior and qualifies prospects while they are visiting the company's site. Web reps can then select the most qualified prospects and invite them to engage in an online, permission-based consultation. The NewChannel service arms online reps with a repertoire of tools to advance the sales process; customers can include their own automated scripts, product specifications, competitive analyses and pricing information. Web reps can even "push" this information to the visitor's browser, including related links, Web pages and electronic files. Engagements may either end in a sale or the resulting lead data can be sent to the company's inside sales reps for further follow-up.

NewChannel Hosted Services

A hosted application, NewChannel allows the customer's sales organization to focus on its core business-selling-while NewChannel handles all aspects of implementation and maintenance. Using NewChannel's fast-track implementation services, companies can begin generating e-sales revenues in a matter of days. The service requires no special equipment or upfront investment. NewChannel's value-based pricing plan lets companies only pay for the services they use and the transactions they complete, dramatically lowering costs. NewChannel servers are hosted at Exodus Communications, level 3 and other quality Internet Data Centers. From e-selling strategies to implementation, training and ongoing maintenance, NewChannel provides a complete set of services designed to help companies get the greatest return from their investment.

NewChannel Customers

NewChannel customers are B2B leaders that depend on consultative selling to build revenues. Companies such as Dell, Micron PC, Calico, General Electric, Sitel, U S West and ValueWeb all use NewChannel to boost sales conversion rates. Other NewChannel customers include Consolidated Freightways, the nation's third-largest transportation carrier; Canberra, the largest maker of radiation detection equipment in the world; Sitel Corp., the worldwide leader in delivering eCRM solutions, and many more.

Partnering to Provide Complete E-Business and E-Sales Solutions

 NewChannel's success in the marketplace has been realized by focusing on its technology and e-business core competencies while partnering with leading companies to provide complete solutions to its customers.  These complete solutions involve systems integration, business and sales consulting, outsourced interaction services, application hosting services, and technology partnerships with leading vendors of complementary software. NewChannel and its partners have realized extraordinary results together-delivering some of the most capable Web-based sales systems in the world to customers like U S West, Dell Computer, and American Horizons. NewChannel is partnered with leading companies such as Siebel Systems, Calico Commerce, Sitel Worldwide, Zamba Solutions, and NaviSite, among others.

NewChannel Executive Team

Christopher Risley, Chairman and CEO
Before joining NewChannel, Christopher Risley served as chairman and CEO of On Technology Corp., a network software provider in Cambridge, Mass., where he led the company through its initial public offering. Previously, Mr. Risley served as chairman and CEO of Notework Corporation, a Massachusetts-based e-mail company, that acquired ON Technology in 1993. 

Alan Weisleder, Co-Founder and President
Before co-founding NewChannel, Alan Weisleder worked at Scitex Corporation, an Israeli provider of digital arts systems. While there, he led the adoption of information technology for business problems. He also managed application development teams in the area of sales, marketing and finance. 

Aviv Eliezer, Co-Founder and VP, Engineering
Aviv Eliezer is an experienced manager of software development teams with extensive experience in Internet software design and development. Prior to co-founding NewChannel, he was manager of OLAP systems at Scitex and responsible for the evaluation and introduction of new technologies. During his military service, Mr. Eliezer was responsible for development of human resources systems for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Ray Dickenson, VP, Operations
Ray Dickenson is the former Director of West Coast Operations for Digex, Inc., a managed Internet server hosting company. Mr. Dickson and his staff of 50 engineers, system administrators, and technicians established the first San Jose Digex data center and managed the high-availability operations of Web sites for customers such as Hewlett-Packard, Universal Studio, American Century Investments and Anheuser-Busch BudBowl '99. Mr. Dickenson also directed the team that built the Pandesic e-Business Solution(tm), the first hosted, Web-enabled, SAP/R3-driven end-to-end e-commerce system. 

Roberta Greenspan, VP, Customer Care
Roberta Greenspan has worked in the high-tech industry for more than fifteen years in a variety of executive management, customer service, system planning, and software development positions. Prior to joining NewChannel, she served as the Vice President, Client Services at AdKnowledge which provides services that help marketers maximize the ROI for their Web marketing programs. She spent more than four years as director, client services at Marketing Resources Plus, a software company providing media buying tools to ad agencies.  

Betty Kayton, CFO
Betty Kayton comes to NewChannel with more than 20 years of solid finance experience in customer-oriented and high-tech industries.  Most recently, Ms. Kayton was CFO of Knowledge Kids, a leading manufacturer of interactive learning aids, where she developed systems that helped to support a doubling of the company's revenues. Previously, Ms. Kayton was Vice President at Global Light Telecommunications, a telecommunications conglomerate, where she developed a multinational infrastructure and systems that helped grow company revenues from $9 million to $75 million. 

Pam Nicastro Hutchinson, Director of Sales
Pam Nicastro Hutchinson comes to NewChannel with more than ten years of sales and sales management experience. Ms. Nicastro Hutchinson began her career in sales with Marriott Hotels & Resorts. Her first venture in high tech sales was with ON Technology in Cambridge, MA. Ms. Nicastro Hutchinson has also been involved in two start-ups, Art Technology Group and Mainspring Communications, where she played an instrumental role in the company's sales strategy development and execution. Just prior to joining NewChannel, Ms. Nicastro Hutchinson was a national account manager at Sun Microsystems, managing multimillion dollar systems integration partners.

Virginia Richmond, VP, Marketing
Virginia Richmond joins NewChannel with more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience.  Most recently, Ms. Richmond was Senior Director of U.S. Field Marketing for Oracle Corporation. Prior to Oracle, Ms. Richmond held senior marketing positions at CellNet Data Systems, Network General, Timeplex and Prime Computer.  

Board of Directors
David Cowan        Bessemer Venture Partners
Chris Risley        NewChannel
Ariel Sela        Formula Ventures
Jason Strober        VantagePoint Venture Partners
Alan Weisleder    NewChannel
Neil Wolff        WSGR

NewChannel Receives Most Innovative Technology Award at CMP Cyber Xchange Redwood City, CA - July 6, 2000 -NewChannel* Inc., the leading Web-based customer acquisition solution provider, today announced it has been honored with the Most Innovative Technology award at CMP's Cyber XChange event on May 3, 2000. NewChannel helps companies optimize their marketing investments and sales expertise by providing services that bring qualified buyers and sales professionals together in real-time to facilitate purchasing decisions on the Web. The XChange Xcellence awards are presented to vendor organizations by their peers for excellence in software, hardware, service and strategy and represent the most interesting, "must see" products.

"We are honored to receive this recognition from our peers for technological excellence," said Alan Weisleder, president, NewChannel. "This award underscores our commitment to deliver the most compelling solutions to meet the specialized needs of sales professionals."

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