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Firepond to Deliver Industry's Premier Pricing Engine With Latest Release of SalesPerformer ConfiguratorPioneer in Interactive Selling Systems Improves "Out of the Box" Functionality with Unique Price Book Tool, Enhanced Visual Configuration and New Dreamweaver Design ControlsWALTHAM, Mass., June 27, 2001 - Firepond, Inc. (Nasdaq: FIRE), a leading provider of comprehensive selling and service solutions, today announced that the latest release of its SalesPerformer Configurator includes advanced new pricing configuration capabilities, as well as a host of other significant enhancements, designed to dramatically improve usability for a variety of business users, from corporate pricing managers to field sales representatives. Currently being deployed at a number of beta sites, Firepond's SalesPerformer Configurator release 9.1 includes a new pricing management engine that dramatically simplifies complex tasks, such as mass updates or multiple currency exchange calculations, from a single maintenance environment. In addition, SalesPerformer Configurator 9.1 includes a unique price book publishing capability that enables companies to replace costly and rapidly outdated price lists with a web-based price report. Considered one of the industry's most powerful configuration systems, Firepond's SalesPerformer Configurator is comprised of three tightly integrated intelligence engines representing needs analysis, product configuration and pricing. SalesPerformer Configurator automates the consultative process of matching products and services to a customer's exact specifications. All three intelligence engines operate from the same set of data maintained with one intuitive tool set. Visual controls and natural language expressions are used instead of complicated coding to create and edit business rules. "At Firepond, we are consistently breaking new ground in the product capabilities we build into our configuration engines," stated Cem Tanyel, Senior Vice President of Product Development for Firepond. "In the latest release of our SalesPerformer Configurator, we provide the most compelling new pricing tools available on the market today. In addition, we have greatly enhanced the overall usability of the product and made a number of other improvements designed to accelerate product implementation." In addition to the enhanced pricing functionality, SalesPerformer Configurator 9.1 includes improved visual configuration capabilities, new web design tools and a new web- based data editing tool. New Dreamweaver controls enable companies to rapidly build a customized web front-end to deliver product configuration functionality to customers or other users, including needs analysis dialogues and product/option selection displays. The new web editor enables personnel to edit and maintain configuration data and business rules remotely, without needing to load maintenance utilities on their client computer. Combined with a number of other back-end usability enhancements, these enhancements will enable companies to dramatically accelerate and more easily manage their Configurator deployments. Extending its commitment to delivering products based on open standards, Firepond has expanded its support for J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) compliant application servers using its EJB (Enterprise Java Bean) interface. With the 9.1 release, Firepond adds support for BEA WebLogic 6.0 SP1 to the growing list of application servers the company supports which today includes IBM WebSphere 3.5 SP2, Oracle 9i and Silverstream 3.5 application servers. In addition, the runtime systems used for production use for the Configurator have been ported to IBM AIX version 4.3 servers. Firepond's SalesPerformer Configurator 9.1 will be generally available next month. About Firepond Headquartered in Waltham, Mass., Firepond (NASDAQ: FIRE) is a leading provider of comprehensive selling and customer service solutions that help companies more profitably acquire and retain customers. Firepond's product lines leverage proven intelligence engines and patented automation technology to drive new revenue streams, increase profitability, and manage customer interactions across all channels and throughout the sales and service cycle. Firepond's SalesPerformerä suite of guided selling software products help companies improve their sales performance across all selling channels, with products for Web selling, field sales, channel sales, sales configuration, and sales administration. The eServicePerfomerä suite delivers superior online service experiences at every eCustomer touchpoint with Web, email and live assistance products. Firepond's global customers include ABB, AT&T Wireless, Compaq, Continental Airlines, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Hitachi Construction Machinery, Honda of Japan, KLA-Tencor and Sikorsky Aircraft Company. OracleMobile 415/401-4000 jmorgan@tenthdimension.com top of page |
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