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Latest Release of Interface Software's CRM Solution Enables Services Organizations to Operate More Strategically and Fuel Revenue Growth

InterAction 5 leads as the most effective Relationship Intelligence solution for ensuring successful CRM initiatives

OAK BROOK (IL), 8 July, 2002: Interface Software, the world's leading provider of client relationship management (CRM) solutions for professional services firms, today announced InterAction 5, a major new release of the company's market-leading Relationship Intelligence system.

Reflecting Interface Software's unparalleled insight into the business model and culture of accounting, law, management consulting, financial services and similar organizations, InterAction 5 sets a new standard as the most advanced CRM solution available. By helping relationship-based organizations overcome the cultural, process and technological challenges associated with CRM implementations, this new release raises the bar in professional services CRM, enabling firms to derive the following benefits:

"The needs of relationship-based organizations differ from traditional products-based companies," said Denis Pombriant, vice president and managing director for Aberdeen Group's CRM Research Group. "Professionals must be able to track and manage the complex network of connections between people, companies, relationships, experience and expertise that form the basis of business referrals, cross selling opportunities and new business generation. Because the focus of busy professional users is delivery of services and not selling, the CRM application must deliver valuable content immediately, intuitively and with little learning curve. InterAction 5 is a mature solution with over six years of development that delivers on these needs."

"InterAction 5 will improve our ability to deliver Relationship Intelligence to our professionals," said Doug Caddell, Chief Information Officer for Foley & Lardner, one of the nation's top law firms with nearly 1000 lawyers practicing in 16 markets. "It will enable them to share critical information about people, companies and relationships without sacrificing control over their data. This new release will be critical to the success of our CRM initiative."

InterAction 5 contains a myriad of enhancements including those relating to the user experience, data quality and a new projects architecture.

The User Experience: Minimizing Risk and Maximizing Value to the Professional

Given the highly sensitive and private nature of certain business relationships, lawyers, accountants, consultants, financial advisors and other professionals can be hesitant to share their Relationship Intelligence with the centralized knowledge base. InterAction 5's innovative new professional-centric architecture embraces this cultural reality by providing a unique user experience that gives the professional user complete control over whether and to what extent information is shared with the firm wide database. The new release also will capture data passively using customizable system defaults, eliminating the need for professionals to perform extra steps to publish their Relationship Intelligence to the centralized knowledge base. As a result, InterAction 5 eliminates the risk to professionals of sharing information and simultaneously promotes firm-wide participation, thus removing a great impediment to successful CRM implementation.

InterAction 5 addresses other important elements of the user experience. A new user interface, designed using the latest Web technology, employs a dashboard-style design that pushes essential Relationship Intelligence directly to the professional, eliminating the need for user training in order to derive value from the system.

Finally, the InterAction 5 user experience means expanded accessibility of Relationship Intelligence via traditional contact managers. All new bi-directional synchronization with Lotus Notes® allows Notes-based firms to leverage their contact managers to populate InterAction's knowledge-base, thus enhancing the value of their contact information by tying it to the firm wide repository. InterAction 5 also features new server-based bi-directional synchronization between InterAction and Microsoft® Outlook®, which enables automatic background synchronization, allowing professionals to benefit from centralizing their Outlook contacts without manually having to initiate the process.

Data Quality: New Tools & Change Management Functionality Protect Against the Inevitability of Bad Data

Despite best efforts, bad data will inevitably find its way into any CRM system — if not from user error, then from the decay of data over time as people move, companies merge and contact information changes. A recent Gartner Group report, "Customer Data Quality and Integration: The Foundation of Successful CRM," supports this idea, citing bad data as the number one reason CRM projects fail.

Significantly, for data quality tools to be used successfully, they must be accompanied by associated processes to enable data stewards — those responsible for managing enterprise data — to take appropriate action to maintain and update data. InterAction 5 features a unique and powerful new array of data change management business rules and processes to help ensure the ongoing integrity and accuracy of Relationship Intelligence. Business rules can now be applied based on types or classifications of data, allowing data stewards to review, accept or reject changes made to certain information based on these classifications, and otherwise control how, when and under what circumstances changes can be made to sensitive Relationship Intelligence. So, for instance, firms can create special business rules for prioritizing the management and maintenance of data on their top clients, thereby ensuring greater and faster ROI by slashing the cost of data administration and increasing user confidence in client information.

New Projects Architecture: Harnessing Experience & Expertise for Competitive Advantage

A firm's ability to harness its experience and expertise directly impacts its ability to win new business. InterAction 5's new projects module now makes it easy for organizations to associate people and companies to deals, matters, engagements, opportunities, transactions or projects. Thus, firms for the first time have a complete 360-degree view of their clients, including the type of work done for them on past projects, essential contacts related to those projects and the experience brought to bear in that project. This information is essential for identifying new business opportunities, cross marketing services and tailoring service offerings to specific client needs.

"InterAction 5 significantly increases the value of InterAction to the professional and accelerates an organization's overall return on investment," said Interface Software president and CEO, Nathan Fineberg. "The feedback from our customers has been extremely positive, and we anticipate a very strong reception for InterAction 5."

InterAction 5 will be available in the third quarter of 2002.

About Interface Software
Interface Software is the leading provider of CRM solutions enabling professional services firms to create the Relationship Intelligence they need to generate new business and enhance client service. Its flagship product, InterAction, is a flexible and uniquely designed platform that delivers this Relationship Intelligence throughout the organization, quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. Relationship Intelligence is a firm-wide asset that reveals the unique and complex connections between people, companies, relationships, experience and expertise, empowering professionals to leverage who and what they know to uncover new revenue opportunities, differentiate themselves from the competition and enhance client service. InterAction is internet-enabled, allowing professionals to view information however they choose—through knowledge management platforms, corporate portals, intranets, extranets and wireless devices. Interface Software is a member of the coveted 2002 Upside Hot 100, selected for technological achievements, user acceptance of products and services, financial performance, industry partnerships, financial backing and management and marketing savvy. For more information contact Interface Software, Inc. at www.interaction.com.

InterAction is a registered trademark of Interface Software, Inc. All other product names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.