PLUMTREE SHIPS MASSIVELY PARALLEL PORTAL

Plumtree Software released the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0, featuring the new Massively Parallel Portal Engine. The release's patent-pending Massively Parallel Portal Engine processes user requests for corporate information and applications from a wide variety of computers in parallel, offering customers major improvements in scalability, openness and fault-tolerance. Based on the new Plumtree Portal Network Architecture, the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 empowers a network of more than 100 customers, 25 technology alliance members and 50 systems integrators to share information and services between portals and with other platforms and devices, driving deployments across organizational, geographic and business boundaries. The release also offers customers a new community user experience and enterprise-wide manageability for administrators, including LDAP support. To see Plumtree's deployment of the new release, visit www.corporateportal.com.

"Plumtree's synchronization with our LDAP directory of nearly 100,000 users allows us to bring new users on-line without creating a duplicate set of administrative processes," said Dan Gerbus, corporate project manager, at Procter & Gamble. "In addition, major improvements to the user interface offer users the flexibility they have been asking for. Features like multiple MyPages and communities allow Procter & Gamble to design a portal that delivers information and applications in a much more efficient manner than version 3.0."

Massively Parallel Portal Engine Delivers Open Standards, Performance

The Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 is powered by the Massively Parallel Portal Engine -- a patent-pending technology for assembling information and services from other systems in parallel. The portal integrates these resources as Plumtree Portal Gadgets, distributed portal components that embed key information and services from enterprise applications and Internet sites. Designed to support global deployments with hundreds of thousands of users requesting information and services from thousands of sources, the Massively Parallel Portal Engine integrates gadgets operating on separate computers, which simultaneously prepare information or services to embed in each user's portal page.

This approach is highly scalable because it divides the preparation of a potentially large number of services among a large number of computers. If, for example, a portal page embeds a gadget for listing e-mail messages that takes one second to prepare, an inventory report gadget that takes one second to prepare and an industry news gadget that takes one second to prepare, the Massively Parallel Portal Engine assembles the page in approximately one second, instead of three. When this technology is used in a portal with thousands of gadgets, the performance impact can be significant.

"Massively parallel portals will become a requirement for large organizations seeking to scale access to their critical applications while maintaining performance," said Delphi Group president Thomas Koulopoulos. "The Plumtree Portal Network Architecture is ideal for the increasingly demanding distributed enterprise and business-to-business applications that today's portal solutions are being built for."

Standards-Based Gadgets

The Massively Parallel Portal Engine communicates with gadgets on computers separate from the main portal server via the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) used by the Internet. To support interactive gadgets, Plumtree has developed a unique approach for embedding gadget commands in HTTP headers, which brokers dynamic Web services between gadgets and the main portal server. Processing gadgets on separate computers precludes gadgets from interfering with the main portal server and with one another, isolating slow-running or faulty gadgets to improve scalability and reliability.

Windows 2000, Java, UNIX, Application Server Support

Because the Massively Parallel Portal Engine communicates with gadgets via the HTTP standard, gadgets can be developed in a wide variety of programming environments, including ASP, PERL and J2EE, on a broad range of application servers, including Microsoft IIS, IBM WebSphere and Allaire ColdFusion, and on various platforms, including Windows 2000, UNIX and Linux.

To support Plumtree's network of customers and partners creating gadgets, the company is also releasing Gadget Development Kits for creating PERL- and Java-based gadgets, which include code samples and documentation. Plumtree's open-standards approach supports plug-in components based on open Internet protocols, broadening the community of gadget developers who can extend the platform, and allowing customers to benefit from a best-of-breed infrastructure for hosting gadgets. The kits are available at gadgets.plumtree.com.

The Plumtree Portal Network Architecture Extends Customers' Reach

The Internet-based architecture of this release allows the customers and partners in the Plumtree Portal Network to share portal resources with one another, and with other businesses, platforms and devices. This architecture, known as the Plumtree Portal Network Architecture, connects customers and partners using three technologies:

• Hosted Gadgets: the ability to share information and services between portal deployments;
• Syndicated Gadgets: the ability to distribute gadget content to other businesses, platforms and devices; and
• Networked Search: the ability to search other portal deployments and other search indexes.

These technologies allow separate business units within a company and separate businesses within an industry to work closely together.

Hosted Gadgets

Because the portal communicates with gadgets via Internet standards, Plumtree's customers and partners can host gadgets on the Internet that are available to other customers, or to the entire Plumtree Portal Network. As a result, each new customer can draw on a rich set of shared services -- speeding deployments -- and distribute its own resources to a broad range of businesses in the network -- extending the customer's influence. Moreover, by hosting gadgets, Plumtree partners can contribute electronic services to any Plumtree deployment without requiring customers to install the associated software. The same technology allows customers to share resources between portal deployments within a large organization, supporting global scalability.

Syndicated Gadgets

The Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 can now distribute a wide variety of gadget content to other Web platforms and other devices through syndicated gadgets, allowing Plumtree to embed a Siebel report in a Vignette-powered e-business application or send updates to a wireless device such as a Palm. This XML-based capability, previously available from Plumtree only for document-related gadgets, is one of the first in the industry to allow the wide range of resources embedded in a corporate portal to be distributed virtually anywhere, from the factory floor kiosk of a business partner to a sales person's mobile device.

Networked Search

The Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 also features networked search -- the ability to search other portals in the Plumtree Portal Network in parallel and, through the development of plug-in search components, other search indexes available on local networks and the Internet. With this capability, Plumtree Corporate Portal users can access in one search all the documents in their own portal, an Autonomy document index, a portal deployed in another department, and Google's index of Internet content. As a result, corporations can quickly incorporate external sources of information into an expansive virtual knowledge base.

Plumtree Portal Communities Drive B2E and B2B Collaboration

Customers can combine resources from their own deployments and the Plumtree Portal Network in a new experience for employee-to-employee and business-to-business collaboration in Plumtree Portal Communities. Like Plumtree's personalized MyPage, Plumtree Portal Communities embed content and services as Plumtree Portal Gadgets, and also feature collaboration services for document sharing, threaded conversation and assigning tasks to group members. New Plumtree Invitations allow a community manager to send a portal link via email to enroll users in a set of portal communities. Users enrolled in a community see that community as another tab in the interface whenever they use the portal.

Communities can proliferate throughout the enterprise by offering a much wider range of portal experiences than was possible with a single personalized portal page, changing the way the portal is used, and increasing the value of the deployment. Organizations can use communities as resource centers for a business unit or geography, or as an employee-to-employee project site, increasing productivity. Organizations can also use communities as a business-to -business forum for collaborating with partners and customers, improving service.

LDAP, Security Mirroring, Auditing Simplify Enterprise Management

The Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 features a new extensible security scheme, with the ability to synchronize user and group affiliations from a wide variety of user directories via plug-in components known as Plumtree Authentication Providers. The LDAP Authentication Provider included with this release has been co-developed by Procter & Gamble, which in beta testing synchronized 97,000 users from an LDAP directory to the Plumtree Corporate Portal daily. The Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 also offers automatic security mirroring to match the security of documents in the portal index to that of the original documents, easing maintenance for large-scale deployments.

"Our mission is to bring together all of a business's electronic assets and to project those to a broader audience than has traditionally been able to benefit from computers," said Plumtree CEO John Kunze. "The Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0's Massively Parallel Portal Engine can assemble resources quickly and reliably, and the network creates a vast pool of resources from which each deployment can draw."

Service and Support; Pricing and Availability

With 50 systems integrators, as well as its own professional services organization, Plumtree offers worldwide deployment and development support for its customers. Plumtree has trained 15 channel partners on the new technology and over 200 technicians from customers and partners on upgrade and maintenance procedures. The company also offers technical support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Plumtree Corporate Portal is generally available today, and is licensed on a per-user basis.

About Plumtree Software

Plumtree Software is creating a simple, personalized Web portal to the information and applications that businesses use every day. Plumtree's extensible portal platform organizes links to different types of corporate documents in a Web directory, and assembles application and Internet services from different systems in a personalized Web page. Plumtree embeds services from other systems in its portal platform using plug-in components called Plumtree Portal Gadgets, which can be developed in a wide variety of programming environments, on a broad range of platforms. Hundreds of gadgets have been developed by Plumtree and its partners, integrating into the portal application services and content from such vendors as Business Objects, Documentum, eRoom Technology, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Screaming Media, Siebel Systems and others. Plumtree's strategy is to build a network of portal technology and deployment expertise that is unmatched in the industry. Plumtree has more than 50 systems integrators, including PricewaterhouseCoopers and Compaq Computer, and over 100 customers, including Ford Motor Company and Procter & Gamble. Plumtree is working with its technology vendors, systems integrators and customers to fortify the Plumtree platform with new gadgets, customer-syndicated content, better deployment methodologies, and industryspecific portal applications. To learn more about Plumtree, visit www.plumtree.com, or see a demonstration at www.corporateportal.com.

Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 Support Statements

Industry Analysts

Hurwitz Group

"Hurwitz Group believes the power of e-business lies in the ability of enterprises to link with customers, partners, and suppliers. Corporate portals are becoming destinations for users to access their business tools, and as such, corporate portals will be where new services are quickly and cost-effectively delivered to users by partners and suppliers." said James Smith, Senior Analyst in the Knowledge Management e-Learning and Collaboration knowledge center at Hurwitz Group. "As the transition to software as services continues, organizations with corporate portals will plug new services directly into the portal. The Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0, with its network architecture, can both integrate these interactive Web-based, e-business services and project their reach across the extended enterprise."

IDC

"The Plumtree Portal Network Architecture enables Plumtree Software's corporate portal customers to centrally administer access rights for multiple e-business user communities, each with distinct requirements for the way they view and access corporate and Internet-based information and applications," said Brian McDonough, Senior Research Analyst of Knowledge Management Software and Intranet Strategies at IDC. "This administration capability, as well as communication and user enhancements in release 4.0, will result in increased enterprise-wide deployments of Plumtree Software's corporate portal."

Meta Group

"Corporate portals, like Plumtree, are quickly evolving to become the primary integration and delivery environment for a wide variety of critical information and services across B2E, B2B, and B2C environments," said David Yockelson, senior vice president & director, Meta Group. "Improvements in portal frameworks, architecture, and deployment such as this enable the portal to be more than just a 'pretty face,' providing contextually relevant content and application services on an enterprise basis."

The Yankee Group

"Implementations of corporate portals are becoming larger and deeper. Corporations are implementing portals that serve massive number of users, external and internal, and also offer more functionality such as deeper access to back-end systems and to disparate sources of information," said Jawad Abbassi, Senior Analyst at The Yankee Group. "This is why the new generations of corporate portal solutions, such as Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0, are architected to offer enhanced scalability, better interoperability and integration with existing network infrastructures."

Customers

Comcast Corporation

"The Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 combines sheer processing brawn with the new functionality of communities, which Comcast will leverage to raise the visibility of company strategy, streamline project management and speed products to market," said Paul Beatty, manager of applications development at Comcast. "Plumtree is helping us keep employees continually focused on what sets Comcast apart from the competition, which means they can all become ambassadors for our company."

California Casualty

"The Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 spans our Internet self-service strategy," said Beau Brown, senior vice-president, California Casualty. "Plumtree invitations will help us bring policyholders and prospects online quickly, and Plumtree communities will increase the stickiness of our site with rich self-service experiences oriented around the needs of specific groups. Plumtree is helping California Casualty both acquire customers and retain them-driving growth."

Ames Department Stores Inc

"The innovations in the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 fit all of our expectations for a portal that can support rapid growth," said Peter D. Hayes, director of research & development at Ames Department Stores, Inc. "Plumtree communities and syndicated gadgets are making organizational boundaries more permeable than ever -- helping Ames drive collaboration across its supply chain, and compete faster."

EmployeeService.com

"The new features in the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 will help EmployeeService.com make outsourced HR services more convenient than ever," said Bill Swartz, chief technology officer at EmployeeService.com. "Putting complementary tools and services together in portal communities will streamline the HR management process, allowing companies to bring new employees aboard quickly and focus on driving growth, not filling out forms. And Plumtree's highly scalable, fault-tolerant Massively Parallel Portal Engine gives us added confidence that we can support the growing audience for our interactive services."

Procter & Gamble

"Plumtree's synchronization with our LDAP directory of nearly 100,000 users allows us to bring new users on-line without creating a duplicate set of administrative processes," said Dan Gerbus, corporate project manager, at Procter & Gamble. "In addition, major improvements to the user interface offer users the flexibility they have been asking for. Features like multiple MyPages and communities allow Procter & Gamble to design a portal that delivers information and applications in a much more efficient manner than version 3.0."

Partners

Actuate

"Integration of Actuate's information delivery solution with the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 provides customers complementary technologies to enable communication between a company and its employees," said Nobby Akiha, vice president of marketing at Actuate. "Further, the combined solution allows customers to leverage Actuate's powerful capabilities for sharing and delivering operational information. As part of a network of tools Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 provides its enterprise users every day, Actuate allows business users and company executives to access content such as sales forecasts, department budgets and key performance indicators as well as other corporate information including 401K statements and employee benefits data."

Business Objects

"Corporate portals that take advantage of e-BI functionality provide faster, more personalized data access and easy collaboration among peers within an enterprise organization," said Mark Tice, group vice president of global alliances for Business Objects. "We're happy to strengthen our relationship with Plumtree by supporting its Corporate Portal 4.0. As a member of our Global Alliance and Open Portal Initiative programs, Plumtree continues to share our vision for enabling employees to be more informed and productive."

Cognos

"Cognos is working with the leading corporate portal vendors to provide customers with a complete end-to-end, content-rich portal solution," said Patrick O'Leary, Cognos vice president of strategic alliances. "By bringing together a wide range of business applications into a single, simple, powerful Web experience, the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 gives organizations a unified view of traditional and e-Business processes. Sharing proprietary information and services in a controlled, secure way draws customers and partners into an extended network of businesses driving products to market."

Documentum

"The integration between Documentum 4i Portal Edition and Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 allows our customers to meet both their portal initiative and their overall content management objectives with a high degree of efficiency," said Terry Nystrom, vice president of strategic alliances. "The ability to access content through a corporate portal in a highly personalized view, provides easy leverage of an enterprise's complete content resources, while helping facilitate business processes and allowing bottom-line objectives to be achieved efficiently."

eRoom

"We are pleased to support the latest release of the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0. Together, eRoom Technology and Plumtree are delivering the next generation of collaborative portals -- integrating the digital workplace with the information portal, which provides a comprehensive, flexible offering for our customers to support their complex and fast-paced projects," said Jeffrey Beir, president and chief executive officer of eRoom Technology. "This new version further extends our offering to provide a scalable and powerful collaboration platform to allow distributed teams to drive the success of their businesses."

IBM

"Integration of IBM's Enterprise Information Portal capabilities in the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 platform will allow customers to access crucial business applications and services from a personalized portal page," said Jim Kelly, vice president of marketing, IBM Data Management Solutions. "The combined solution enables customers to gain simple access to the vast amounts and types of information supporting today's e-business applications and will greatly increase customer productivity. We are pleased to support Plumtree's endeavors in this space with our market-leading IBM data management software."

iSyndicate

"We're very excited about the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0," said Joel Maske, president and CEO of iSyndicate. "The new solution provides a faster, more scalable portal platform for our joint customers, and even higher performance for iSyndicate's leading content syndication services and technologies. Plumtree has demonstrated consistent innovation in the portal industry, and we are pleased to partner with them on this industry-leading initiative."

Microsoft

"Plumtree's Massively Parallel Portal Engine is a tremendous technology innovation," said Stan Julien, director, customer-centric solutions, Microsoft. "The Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 now enables an organization to take best advantage of both the scale up and scale out capabilities in the Windows 2000 platform, increasing reliability and performance. The ability to assemble Web services from applications and the Internet into a personalized digital experience fits well with Microsoft's .NET vision."

MicroStrategy

"We have had great success embedding our platform into the Plumtree portal for numerous customers, and we are delighted that the new version of the portal is more scalable and fault-tolerant," said Sanju K. Bansal, chief operating officer of MicroStrategy Incorporated. "Portals serve as a very important component in accessing enterprise information assets. Our integration with the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 provides a powerful combination for customers needing an easy method to access incredibly valuable information stored in their data warehouses."

Moreover.com

"The right information, right now -- that's what companies want, and what the integration of Moreover's content in the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 delivers," said Nick Denton, Moreover.com CEO. "Moreover and Plumtree have moved together towards perfecting the art of information delivery as we multiply the speed and flexibility of integration and enhance client control of our technology."

Netegrity

"The Plumtree Corporate Portal is rapidly becoming the standard platform for accessing corporate information and applications," said Bill Bartow, vice president of marketing at Netegrity. "Netegrity enhances the value of corporate portals by offering a single platform from which to securely manage all of the applications and users within the enterprise and provide single sign-on across these applications. With the launch of the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 and Plumtree's new open security architecture it will be easier than ever before to integrate these two best-of-breed systems."

NewsEdge

"Making our business content available on Plumtree's high performance portal platform as a gadget suite offers users throughout the extended enterprise a single Web destination for breaking market news," said Lee Phillips, vice president of product and content management at NewsEdge. "The integration of NewsEdge services in the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 helps empower joint customers to deliver tailored content to target audiences across the value chain, helping employees, partners and customers collaborate more closely to bring products to market."

Screaming Media

"Plumtree Software has been an ideal technology alliance partner of ScreamingMedia. The Plumtree ScreamingMedia Gadget Suite will integrate ScreamingMedia content solutions with the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0, providing joint customers a more flexible portal platform and more efficient access to our content," said Kevin Clark, CEO of ScreamingMedia. "We are very excited to support Plumtree in their launch of the Massively Parallel Portal."

SiteScape

"We see the demand for integrating collaboration into corporate portals growing rapidly among our customers and expect they will shortly become the interface of choice for many," said Timothy P. Butler, SiteScape's President and CEO. "The steps Plumtree has taken in Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0 to improve gadget performance and enhance the end-user experience are critical to enterprise-wide portal deployment."

Contact Claudia Toth, Director of Communications of Plumtree Software, 415- 399-2530, claudia.toth@plumtree.com, Web site: www.plumtreesoft.com.