OASIS Members News: SoftQuad Launches MarketAgility Express

[Bruce Wigle <bwigle@softquad.com>]

Title:

SoftQuad Launches MarketAgility Express, Enabling Small and Mid-Sized Suppliers to Quickly Create E-Market Catalogs

Co-creator of XML applies expertise to solve critical e-market challenge

TORONTO, ON-February 5, 2001-SoftQuad Software Ltd. (OTC BB: SXML), an internationally recognized developer of XML-enabling technologies and e-commerce solutions, today announced the release of MarketAgility Express, an easy-to-use desktop application designed to allow small and mid-sized suppliers to quickly create their own customized product catalogs for Global 2000 e-procurement systems and electronic markets.  MarketAgility Express eliminates one of the greatest barriers to the cost and productivity advantages of e-procurement:  the lack of a critical mass of suppliers to support the needs of buyers.

The main obstacle restraining e-procurement momentum has been the difficulty suppliers have had providing catalog content in a format that can be quickly integrated into an e-procurement system or e-marketplace.  Without sufficient content and supplier participation, buyers in Global 2000 companies are forced to resort to more expensive off-line purchasing.  For e-marketplaces, the lack of supplier product selection makes it difficult to attract buyers, resulting in lower transaction volume, which threatens the viability of the marketplace. 

Outsourced catalog services are often slow and cumbersome, creating a bottleneck in the flow of timely and accurate product information to the e-marketplace.  MarketAgility Express solves these challenges by allowing suppliers to quickly create and update their own catalogs, and deliver them to e-procurement systems in the right format.

Product Geared to Small and Mid-Sized Suppliers
Based on SoftQuad XMetaL, the company's award-winning XML content creation solution, MarketAgility Express is an affordable Windows-based desktop application designed for suppliers with limited technical resources.  MarketAgility Express:
·       Requires no setup or configuration
·       Creates e-catalogs from scratch or by importing Microsoft Access or Excel files
·       Supports the creation of buyer-specific catalogs with special pricing
·       Simplifies the categorizing of products into UN/SPSC classifications
·       Automatically transforms catalogs into e-market format
·       Enables non-technical staff to manage and update catalogs

"Using MarketAgility Express allowed us to respond quickly to an important customer who requested that we offer our products online for their Ariba e-procurement system," said Joe Pruett, co-owner of Pruett's Supply, Inc. based in Lafayette, Georgia.  "We are an industrial supply company without a technical staff.  With MarketAgility Express, we were able to create an online catalog in no time and can make changes as often as we like.  This product has given our company access to a whole new world of opportunity on the Web."

"Online procurement solutions can deliver significant cost savings compared to traditional purchasing methods," said Kip Martin, senior program director with META Group.  "To realize the full potential of e-procurement, however, organizations are going to need to empower all of their suppliers to deliver product information online.  There will be an increasing need to cost-effectively enable even the smallest suppliers to create and deliver their e-catalog content to customers - particularly those Global 2000 customers with accelerating e-business investments."

A Unique Approach
SoftQuad has taken a unique approach to supplier enablement by providing a software solution that gives suppliers the power and control they need to quickly create and, just as importantly, maintain their catalog content.  With MarketAgility Express, suppliers can easily add or change products, descriptions and pricing, to ensure that buyers have access to the most accurate information.

"Electronic procurement offers tremendous benefits to buyers and opens an important new sales channel for suppliers," said Roberto Drassinower, CEO of SoftQuad.  "With MarketAgility Express for small and mid-sized suppliers, and MarketAgility Enterprise for large suppliers, SoftQuad now enables companies of all sizes to take control over their own catalog content and effectively participate in multiple e-markets."

Platform Availability and Pricing
MarketAgility Express is available now for the Ariba platform, supporting both CIF and cXML formats.  Support for additional formats will follow.  MarketAgility Express is available to e-marketplaces, suppliers and channel partners at a suggested retail price of $995 per seat.  Volume discounts and partner programs are available. 

About SoftQuad Software, Ltd.
SoftQuad Software, Ltd. (OTC BB: SXML) is an internationally recognized developer of XML-enabling technologies and commerce solutions for e-business.  A founding member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and XML.org, SoftQuad has been instrumental in shaping and developing both the standards and technologies that are changing the way companies exchange information and do business over the Web.

Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with U.S. offices in Seattle and San Francisco, and European operations based in London, United Kingdom, SoftQuad was first to market with an advanced, yet easy-to-use XML content creation solution, XMetaL.  It has already become the premier enabling technology for XML-based content applications in electronic publishing, e-commerce and knowledge management.  SoftQuad is targeting the growing business-to-business (B2B) marketplace with MarketAgility Enterprise and MarketAgility Express, supply-side catalog content solutions that allow companies to effectively join and compete in B2B e-markets. 

Awards: XMetaL won the PC Magazine (UK) "Technical Innovation Award" for "Best Development Tool" in November 2000; the Web Techniques 1999 "Web Authoring Tool of the Year" Award; was an Internet Week "Best of the Best," winning the "Most Innovative" category; and is an XML Journal "World Class" recommendation for 2000. 

For more information, visit SoftQuad's Web site at http://www.softquad.com. For investor inquiries please call tel: (416) 544-1400 ext. 2206, or email us at investorinfo@softquad.com.

SoftQuad and XMetaL are registered trademarks of SoftQuad Software, Ltd.  MarketAgility is a trademark of SoftQuad Software, Ltd.  Ariba is a trademark of Ariba, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA).  All other products or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Words such as "anticipates", "estimates", "expects", "will", "should", "projects", "intends", "plans", "believes" and words and terms of similar substance used in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance identify such forward-looking statements.  Those forward-looking statements are management's present expectations of future events.  As with any projection or forecast, they are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and changes in circumstances, and SoftQuad is under no obligation to (and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of such changes, new information, future events or otherwise.

SoftQuad is an early-stage growth company that operates in a highly competitive and rapidly changing environment, and its business results are dependent on numerous factors, including demand for its products and services, especially its newly introduced MarketAgility product, growth in the market for XML products, its ability to manage costs, generate revenues and become profitable, the potential impact of any mergers, acquisitions or other business combinations, the transition from its past reliance on revenues from its HoTMetaL (HTML-based) product to its XML-based products, its ability to meet its future capital requirements, technological developments, competition from other companies that may have longer operating histories or greater financial resources, protection of its intellectual property rights, its ability to attract and retain key personnel, the resolution of issues concerning commercial activities via the Internet, including security, reliability, cost, ease of use and access, government regulation, risks related to international sales and potential foreign currency exchange fluctuations, political, business and social conditions in the geographic areas in which it operates and in which its products are sold, its ability to successfully obtain inclusion of its common stock on the NASDAQ National Market and other risks detailed from time to time in periodic reports filed by SoftQuad with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities.  SoftQuad's actual results could differ materially from management's expectations because of such factors.