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SEND.COM Ready for Holiday Gift Giving Rush with Octane Internet Relationship Management Suite

Octane 99 Offers Ease in Customer Care to Expanding Premium Gift Site

San Mateo, Calif. – November 8, 1999—In preparation for the holiday shopping rush, Octane Software, Inc.™ today announced that SEND.COM, the Internet's only service for sending customized "good life" gift experiences, is employing the award-winning Octane 99™ Internet Relationship Management (iRM) solution.

SEND.COM allows corporate customers and individual consumers to select and send premium gifts online through a nationwide network of local merchants. With an exclusive range of 'gift experiences' debuting today SEND.COM's service is built upon the important subtleties of gift giving and industry-leading customer service. The selection and deployment of Octane 99 was a critical factor in SEND.COM's overall plan to ensure superior customer service.

"We are committed to setting the standard for customer service on the Web by implementing leading technology to support our customer service objectives," said Tom Harden, SEND.COM's executive vice president, worldwide operations. "Octane was our preferred choice because they offered a fully-integrated, multi-channel approach with rapid implementation, helping us deliver greater reliability and convenience for our customers."

With Octane 99, SEND.COM is able to provide round-the-clock care to its customers and deliver personalized service while maintaining complete control of its front-line operations. Rather than focus on Web-only interactions, SEND.COM provides its customers with flexible options for contacting its customer care representatives. With Octane 99, SEND.COM can seamlessly manage customer interactions across all the company's contact channels – including Web, email, telephone and fax – through a single interface. For example, a customer ordering one of the company's many gifts via the Web can later call to make a change, and through Octane Business Intelligence™, the customer's entire order history and current order can be instantly available to the customer service representative answering the call.

SEND.COM's Decision-Making Process
Founded in 1997, SEND.COM has maintained an aggressive offline advertising campaign to generate awareness for its gift services. To help meet the growing demand for its services, the company began evaluating individual solutions for each of its customer contact channels earlier this year. After an extensive evaluation of both "point" solutions and front office suite vendors, SEND.COM chose Octane Software this past summer to automate its customer service processes across all of these channels. Octane 99 was also selected for its scalability, serving as the foundation to meet SEND.COM's current and future customer care requirements.

Gearing Up for the Holidays – Quick and Easy iRM Deployment
With the holiday gift giving season fast approaching, as well as the ever present potential for emerging competition, SEND.COM required rapid implementation of a new customer service technology infrastructure. Using Octane Studio™, Octane's drag-and-drop process modeling tool, unique customer-focused processes were quickly created and deployed across all communications channels. Octane Studio's point-and-click flow chart interface makes it easy to adapt processes and add new ones as SEND.COM continues to grow.

A critical element of SEND.COM's rapid deployment plan, Octane's Professional Services Organization managed the implementation, providing SEND.COM with industry-leading expertise in both customer care and e-business processes and systems. The company achieved its goal to have the Octane iRM solution, with e-commerce integration, up and running in less than three months, an impressive schedule compared to industry averages of 6-12 months.

About SEND.COM
SEND.COM, based in Waltham, Mass., is the Internet's only service for sending customized "good life" experiences. Introduced in 1998, the company began its on-line gift service for sending elegantly-packaged fine gifts of wine nationwide, by partnering with a network of the finest merchants throughout the country. This innovative 'clicks-and-mortar' model enables SEND.COM to deliver customized gift experiences standard in two business days. In time for the 1999 holiday e-shopping season, SEND.COM provides busy consumers with a unique and exclusive selection of gifts of golf outings, fine dining, spa treatments, and more. Consumers can also send fine wine, champagne, scotch, flowers, cigars, crystal, and gourmet seafood as the perfect gift for any occasion. The company is funded by leading venture capital firms Benchmark Capital, Highland Capital Partners, Greylock, and Charles River Ventures. These same firms have funded such internet high-flyers as 1-800-Flowers, America Online, eBay, PlanetRx, eToys, Lycos, CheckFree Corp., Open Market, Excite, Be Free and Nextcard. (Additional SEND.COM information is available at http://press.send.com.)

About Octane Software
Octane Software, Inc. is the leading provider of Internet Relationship Management (iRM) applications and infrastructure, supporting the success of today's electronic businesses - The Digital 1000. Founded by a team of customer relationship management (eCRM) industry experts, Octane is focused exclusively on helping its Digital 1000 customers use real-time, interactive customer care to compete in the new e-business economy. With Octane, fast-moving companies are experiencing increased customer acquisition and retention, along with improved operating efficiencies and greater competitive power. Octane's customers include leading e-businesses such as Critical Path, eAssist, Send.com and Switchboard.com. Headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., with sales offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Phoenix and London, Octane can be reached toll free at 1-877-4OCTANE, via e-mail at info@octanesoftware.com, or on the Web at www.octanesoftware.com.

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Octane, Octane Software, Octane 99, Digital 1000, Octane Business Intelligence and Octane Studio are trademarks of Octane Software, Inc. Other company and product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Editorial Contact:
Jim Lambert
Octane Software, Inc.
(650) 295-6242
jlambert@octanesoftware.com

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