Excedent Technologies Drives Car Dealerships to Better Email Solutions Teams with E-Commerce Partner The Cobalt Group

    VIENNA, Va.--June 9, 2003--Excedent Technologies, a global leader in business email outsourcing, anti-virus and spam filtering solutions, today announced early results of its initiative to revamp the email systems of US car and truck dealers.
    In just 6 months, more than 7,000 new accounts have been established at dealerships across the country. Excedent CEO Pat Matthews said he expected that number to more than triple by year's end.
    "There are more than 22,000 new-car dealerships in the US alone, employing over 1 million people," said Matthews. "The overwhelming majority of these businesses have taken auto sales online, creating a critical need for reliable, spam-free, virus-free, secure communications in order to compete."
    Excedent teamed with automotive e-business leader The Cobalt Group to set a new industry standard by delivering this Web-based email service, which allows employees to access their email from home, office, or on the road. Cobalt serves 72 of the nation's top 100 dealer groups and is endorsed by 17 automotive manufacturers and the National Automobile Dealers Association.
    Matt Muilenburg, Director of Business Development for The Cobalt Group, cited a key advantage of the Excedent solution: "Before Excedent, many of our dealers were still using generic email accounts for business purposes," he said. "As a result, their correspondence did little to reinforce the dealer brand. Now dealers have their own private-label domain name, providing greater recognition among their customers, suppliers, and vendors."
    From the start, the Excedent/Cobalt Group strategy was designed to give dealerships all the advantages of advanced communications without any of the attendant burdens of administration. "The dealers told us that they wanted secure, reliable email systems without having to create IT departments to support them," said Muilenburg. "Together we crafted a simple, easy-to-use interface that enables any dealer to create or delete individual user accounts in a matter of seconds."
    In selecting Excedent to supply the email component of its dealer e-commerce solutions, Cobalt was looking for "a partner that would work as hard as we do to serve our customers. We found that and more," said Muilenburg, "We fully expect the next 6 months to be every bit as successful as this first phase has been."
    Matthews echoed that sentiment, saying, "Vehicle sales have never been so competitive and we know that dealers are looking for every advantage. The Cobalt/Excedent solution is going to be an essential asset in the continued growth of this $700 billion segment of the US economy."

    About The Cobalt Group

    The Cobalt Group works exclusively in the automotive retail market developing integrated e-business programs that help manufacturers and dealers increase their profits and operational efficiencies. Cobalt offers a broad range of products and services, including enterprise software; customer relationship management (CRM) applications; e-commerce applications; the industry's largest OEM parts locating and marketing service; and e-business best practices training and consultation. Cobalt's network includes 12,000 franchised dealers and more than 70 of the 100 largest dealer groups. Cobalt is the only software technology provider ever endorsed by 17 manufacturers and the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).
    For more information, please visit www.cobaltgroup.com or call 800.909.8244. For media inquiries, please contact Cobalt's corporate communications at 206.219.8022 or email press@cobaltgroup.com.

    About Excedent Technologies

    Excedent Technologies is a global leader in outsourced business email hosting solutions. The company provides small businesses and service providers with secure, reliable, spam-free, virus-free email. Excedent manages and maintains this critical communication infrastructure, freeing up valuable personnel resources and eliminating the need for customers to purchase email related software, hardware or additional bandwidth. The company is privately held and serves more than 1,000 customers worldwide. For more information, please visit www.excedent.com or call 866.EXCEDENT (392.3336).