IBM Continues To Deliver On e-Portal Strategy, Unveils Websphere
Portal Server And Agreements With Leading Content Providers

Portal Software Offers Single Point Of Access To Applications, Data
And Web-Based Content From PC's And Wireless Devices

SOMERS, NY -- (INTERNET WIRE) -- 03/21/01 -- Making a significant
addition to its e-business infrastructure, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today
delivered the WebSphere Portal Server, the next step in its e-portal
strategy.  The software enables companies to build next generation
portals that offer users a personalized, secure, single point of
access for content,  applications,  processes, and people - -
anywhere, anytime and from any device, wired or wireless.

	The WebSphere Portal Server is a complete horizontal portal and it
exploits the scalability and power of WebSphere Application Server,
IBM's core technology for web-based applications, Enterprise
Information Portal for information access, Lotus software for
collaboration and knowledge management and WebSphere Everyplace Suite
for pervasive device support.

	IBM also is expanding its partner program to take advantage of the
rapidly growing market opportunities in portals.  IBM's PartnerWorld
for Developers will be the entry point for solution developers to
participate in portal integration.

	The enhanced partner program is being launched initially with four
business partners who will offer WebSphere Portal Server and Lotus
K-station users access to more than 30,000 content sources ranging
from stocks, industry news, world news, weather, sports and much
more.  

	The content providers are:

	Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters Company, provides global news and
business information through Web sites and content integration
solutions. Factiva's integration tools allow users to access
Factiva's database of nearly 6,000 multi-language sources such as The
Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, The South China Morning Post and the
Dow Jones, Reuters and AP newswires.

	Hoover's (NASDAQ: HOOV), headquartered in Austin, Texas.  Hoover's
provides online business information, tools, and content integration
and syndication technology and aggregates business information on
more than 65,000 companies, including the 17,000 public, private and
non-US businesses found in its proprietary database.       

	iSyndicate is a global provider of Internet syndication infrastructure
and application solutions. Utilizing its Intelligent Syndication
Network (ISN) platform, iSyndicate collects, packages and delivers
digital content and other information from over 1,200 sources,
including AccuWeather, Agence France-Press, the Associated Press,
CNBC, CNET, The Financial Times, Red Herring, RollingStone.com and
The South China Morning Post.  

	ScreamingMedia (NASDAQ: SCRM), a  global provider of content
solutions, including content products and content processing and
integration technology. ScreamingMedia's core technology platform
powers both private and general syndication networks for media
companies, enterprises and wireless networks, worldwide.

	"Portals have become a critical component of the software ecosystem
and will have a role in the emerging category of Web services," said
Gene Phifer, vice president and research director, Gartner. "Two
extremely important portal functions are content aggregation and
data/application integration. These are requirements for facilitating
interaction and integration with employees, customers, partners,
suppliers and distributors." 

AComplete Horizontal Portal Framework

	WebSphere Portal Server provides an open, scalable framework for
enabling the aggregation of applications and information from various
content sources, including corporate data and the Internet, into a
personalized portal.  IBM's portal software offers navigation,
customization,  personalization,  information and application
interaction, pervasive device support, syndicated content access, 
integration for federated search and categorization, and user or
group administration.

	Enterprises can create portals that enable mobile users to interact
with the applications and information they need to do their jobs from
virtually anywhere, at any time.

	"WebSphere Portal Server is the core of IBM's portal strategy," said
Larry Bowden, vice president, e-Portal Solutions, IBM Software Group.
 "It integrates the front-end, back-end services, application server,
and tooling needed by customers to solve the breadth of their B2C,
B2B and B2E needs."

Pre-integrated portlets to speed deployment 

	A portal application, known as a portlet, is a window into specific
content or an application source.  The WebSphere Portal Server
provides customized portlets that support PCs, mobile phones,
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and other pervasive devices.  

	IBM is committed to participating in establishing industry standards
to support a broad portfolio of portlets working across all
components of  IBM's portal strategy and the portal community at
large.  Additional portlets for use by Websphere Portal Server, Lotus
K-station, and other portals built on top of WebSphere Portal Server
will ship continuously throughout 2001. 	

Lotus K-station provides collaboration capabilities

	A major component of IBM's portal software strategy is Lotus's
K-station, software specifically focused on knowledge management and
collaboration. Lotus K-station is a ready-made, collaborative portal
application that organizes and manages multi-lingual,  unstructured
business content by community, interest, task or job focus.  

	WebSphere Portal Server is an infrastructure for building many types
of  portals across B2B, B2C, and B2E and will be used as part of the
K-station solution in line with IBM's portal strategy.  Lotus's
Sametime messaging and Quickplace team room, plus other Lotus
products, will be available as portlets for customers to use in their
portal implementations.   

Information access and intergration             Advanced information
integration well beyond the traditional access and view capabilities
provided by most portals is achieved with the integration of
WebSphere Portal Server and IBM's Enterprise Information Portal. 
Extended capabilities include categorization, summarization,
workflow, connectors to a wide variety of data sources, and in
addition to view, the ability to perform create, retrieve, update,
and delete functions in enterprise processes.   

Extensive pervasive device support           WebSphere Portal Server,
when used in conjunction with WebSphere Everyplace Suite, supports a
wide variety of  mobile devices for interacting with portals. 
WebSphere Portal Server generates HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
content  that can be rendered by browsers on PCs,  and WML (Wireless
Markup Language) content that is typically available on WAP phones
and PDAs.  In April, 2001, WebSphere Portal Server will be enhanced
to support i-mode devices.

Portal consulting and implementation services 

	The Websphere Portal Server is the latest addition to IBM's portal
strategy that also includes offerings from IBM Global Services.  The
Corporate Portal Offering includes specific tools and techniques to
customize content, applications, and people-to-people linkages for
each customer.  IGS also offers the Portal Jumpstart--an architecture
package that can be installed in two weeks and delivers a targeted
implementation strategy based on IGS's experience in implementing
portals.

	IBM Business Partner en technologies corporation has been working
closely with IBM and customers on WebSphere Portal Server. "IBM's
portal strategy brings order to an extremely complex marketplace,"
said Sal Patalano, CEO, en technologies corporation.  "WebSphere
Portal Server provides a mission-critical, horizontal portal platform
that simplifies architectural and deployment issues, while leveraging
existing skills and back-end systems within an organization."

	WebSphere Portal Server is available today on AIX and will support
Windows NT and Solaris in April, 2001.  It is single- and double-byte
enabled.   Pricing is based on the number of users and the cost per
user decreases as the number of users increases.  WebSphere Portal
Server also will be available with per CPU pricing.

IBM Corporation

	IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80
years of leadership in helping businesses innovate.  IBM Software
offers the widest range of applications, middleware and operating
systems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to
take full advantage of the new era of e-business.  The fastest way to
get more information about IBM software is through the IBM Software
home page at www.software.ibm.com	

*  WebSphere, Everyplace and AIX are trademarks of International
Business Machines Corporation. 

Contact: John C.  , IBM Software Group
Phone: 914-766-1067
Email: jcreilly@us.ibm.com