Leading Builder of Multichannel Marketplaces Changes Its Name to ChannelNet

MILL VALLEY, Calif.--May 1, 20047, 2004--The SoftAd Group, a pioneer in using personal computer-based technologies and the World Wide Web to facilitate multichannel sales and service interactions between a company, its sales channels and customers, has changed its name to ChannelNet(R). For nearly 20 years, ChannelNet has helped over 200 global corporations in 22 industries more effectively sell and market their products and services through traditional distribution channels. The name change allows the company to better represent this multichannel expertise.

ChannelNet uses its software product, ChannelNet SiteBuilder(TM), to build unified corporate, brand, and sales channel Web sites that make it easy for buyers to educate themselves online before making purchase decisions offline. For example, ChannelNet's long-time client, Ford Motor Company, provides 5,300 dealer Web sites across six brands in 29 countries that assist buyers with their online research and then guide them to the dealerships to make their purchases. By guiding their customers through this multichannel buying process, companies can track and respond to customers' specified needs, recommend options and make connections to the appropriate sales experts to finalize their purchases at the traditional point of sale.

"Our company was an anomaly during the dotcom heyday when e-commerce was promoted as the biggest revolution in the world of business," said ChannelNet CEO and founder Paula Tompkins. "Pundits predicted that the Web would eliminate the 'brick-and-mortar' buying experience. However, we always believed that a company's traditional sales channels would continue to play a significant role in the buying and selling of complex products and services. We viewed the Internet as complementary to, not a replacement for, existing sales channels."

Today, Tompkins' multichannel vision is being validated. A host of surveys and analyst reports show that customers in the market for complex and expensive products and services like a new vehicle, home furnishings, a TV, manufacturing equipment, a home mortgage or insurance policy, have adopted the Web as their preferred method of performing research before completing their purchases offline. In July 2003, Forrester Research reported that 32 million consumers research products online and then purchase them offline. "The online consumer is dead -- long live the multichannel consumer!" exclaimed the report.

"Building multichannel marketplaces has been our focus since the company's founding more than 19 years ago," said Tompkins. "We've continued to use the best available technologies -- beginning with early iterations of multimedia, through CD-ROM and client/server technology, and, today, the Internet. "With our solution, companies can make their branding, marketing and sales programs consistent at virtually every point along the buying experience, across hundreds, even thousands of distribution channel Web sites, resulting in the closing of more sales and more satisfied customers and selling partners."

About ChannelNet

Since its founding in 1985, ChannelNet has created thousands of multichannel marketplace solutions for hundreds of global corporations that sell complex products and services through traditional distribution channels. In addition to ChannelNet SiteBuilder, the company offers a range of end-to-end professional services, including multichannel sales consultation; customer, industry, and usability research; marketing and Web site creative services; custom software development; integration with legacy and third-party systems; ongoing solution training and support; and Internet best practices for corporate and sales channel users. ChannelNet's customers include Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Volvo Cars, La-Z-Boy, Hunter Douglas, and Alternative Medicine. The privately held company is based outside San Francisco in Mill Valley, California, with offices in Detroit, Michigan.