ARKONA's ASP Strategy Benefiting From Industry Acceptance and Strong Dealer Demand; D. Dahle Mazda Pushes ARKONA's ASP User Count to Over 1,000

    SALT LAKE CITY--March 12, 2002--D. Dahle Mazda, a leading Mazda retailer in the Salt Lake City Metro area, has selected ARKONA's (OTC:ARKN) Dealer Management Solution to manage its dealer operations.
    By agreement, D. Dahle Mazda has endorsed ARKONA's solution as the industry-leading dealership management system delivered in an ASP environment. Adding D. Dahle Mazda pushes ARKONA's ASP user count past the 1,000th connection barrier.
    Nationally, dealers are recognizing and endorsing ARKONA's industry-leading dealership management system that is delivered through an efficient ASP configuration.
    Under ARKONA's ASP model which was announced early last year, dealers connect by PC to the ARKONA system hosted at a secure, state-of-the-art facility with the latest hardware and built-in redundancy technology, guaranteeing access to the dealers information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
    The benefit to the dealer is lower up front costs, the need for fewer technical personnel, and the elimination of costs relating to building and maintaining an information technology infrastructure.
    "Our decision to move forward with ARKONA was made after researching the major dealer management solutions available. ARKONA provides value to our dealership through reasonable upfront costs and monthly fees and a full-featured solution in an ASP setting," said Rob Meyer, general manager of D. Dahle Mazda.
    "With its industry background and experience, plus its flexibility to meet our timeframes and provide excellent support, ARKONA was a natural choice for us."
    In January, ARKONA and WorldCom entered into an agreement whereby WorldCom, a world leader in data and voice communications, agreed to host and support ARKONA's burgeoning ASP clientele.
    "Our partnerships with IBM, and now WorldCom, enable ARKONA to provide its dealers with the best ASP solution on the market today," said Blake Nielson, vice president of client support.
    "We are quadrupling the capacity of our ASP technology to stay ahead of the demand we are seeing for the product. D. Dahle Mazda was looking for an ASP-based dealer management solution that would give them an ongoing competitive advantage, and our solution does just that," concluded Nielson.
    Colleen Farnsworth, controller of D. Dahle Mazda, agreed.
    "We believe ARKONA's system can strengthen our dealership's competitive edge by increasing employee productivity and improving customer relations. The ARKONA solution allows us to seamlessly manage our operations and gives us a platform that can integrate to other third-party solutions and technologies," added Farnsworth.
    Since signing the agreement with D. Dahle, ARKONA has been increasing dealer connections to its ASP system at a rate of more than 100 connections a month. ARKONA still offers a non-ASP alternative to dealers who prefer local control or where high-speed Internet connections are not available in their areas.
    However, approximately 80% of new ARKONA customers are selecting the ASP approach over the more traditional in-house turnkey system.

    About ARKONA Inc.

    Founded in 1996, ARKONA is a public company and a leader in automotive management solutions. ARKONA's Dealer Management Suite also leads the market in technologically superior e-business solutions for automotive dealers that fully integrate back office systems with a retail Web presence. In this market, ARKONA is one of the first premier Application Service Providers (ASP).
    For more information visit the ARKONA Web site at www.arkona.com.

    This release may contain forward-looking statements as well as historical information. Forward-looking statements, which are included in accordance with the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, may involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the company's actual results and performance in future periods to be materially different from any future results or performance suggested by the forward-looking statements in this release.
    Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release. The company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements found herein to reflect any changes in company expectations or results or any change in events.