The Vantive Corporation Unveils Vantive System 2.0, Partnerships, New
Products for the Customer Service Enterprise

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, August 23, 1993 -- The Vantive Corporation, formerly
ProActive Software, Inc., today made three major announcements regarding
new software products, partnerships and strategic directions. These
announcements set a new standard in enterprise-wide software solutions
that improve service, product quality and customer satisfaction. The
company announced:

* Release 2.0 of the Vantive System -- a family of integrated client/server
applications for customer support and help desk, quality assurance and
development, sales and marketing. Version 2.0 includes major enhancements
to applications and new core functionality.

* Strategic reseller and joint marketing partnerships -- Oracle Corp. for
ORACLE7 relational database support, and Inference Corp. for case-based
retrieval.

* Upcoming new products --Vantive PhoneLink for remote access, and a new
version of Vantive HelpDesk.

John Luongo, President and CEO of The Vantive Corporation, commented, "We
are redefining the traditional service software market with a suite of
enterprise-wide applications that create and manage a knowledge-base about
a company's customers, its products, and how customers use those products.
These applications offer the robust functionality and technology required
by companies seeking excellence in service."

The Vantive System comprises five integrated applications -- Vantive
Support, Vantive Quality, Vantive HelpDesk, Vantive Sales, and Vantive
Customer. It also includes Vantive Tools, a set of customization tools
that require no changes to source code. All Vantive applications were
developed in collaboration with Dr. William Davidow, co-author of Total
Customer Service and a major investor in the company. These products share
a common enterprise database, and offer core functionality including
advanced problem-solving help, workflow, and reporting. 

Vantive System 2.0

Available immediately, the Vantive System 2.0 features key developments in
two major areas: application enhancements and new core functionality.

2.0 Applications: Vantive Quality and Vantive Support

* Vantive Quality features comprehensive quality assurance management for
the entire product lifecycle: design, development, production,
installation, and maintenance. Designed for companies offering a wide
variety of products or services, Vantive Quality improves product quality
while shortening development time, speeding time-to-market, and
controlling delivery costs.

Vantive Quality helps organizations comply with the ISO 9000 international
quality standards. Companies apply ISO 9000 requirements as a step towards
implementing a total quality management (TQM) system. For U.S. companies,
ISO compliance can also be a step towards meeting the criteria of the
Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. Vantive Quality monitors
development phases, defines and monitors quality objectives, manages
configurations, controls changes and defects, validates product
operations, tracks installations, maintains specifications and
documentation, supports customers, and tracks resolutions and product
releases.

It also supports: standard classification of defects as defined in the IEEE
1044 standard, transparent links to popular software source and revision
control systems, automatic communication of workarounds and fixes, the
ability to link defects to the specific level of product or assembly
affected, and metrics, packaged reports, and ad hoc query support for real
time quality management.

* Vantive Support is a support automation and call tracking application for
a broad range of low to high-volume customer service environments. 

Version 2.0 features total integration with Vantive Quality -- for example,
it can send data on a product problem to Vantive Quality, request a
resolution from engineering, receive suggested fixes and workarounds, and
report back to the customer. Vantive Support also features ease-of-use
enhancements, and a new set of support specific workflow rules for
improved call escalation and automatic notification. 

New Core Functionality 

The Vantive System 2.0 features several additions to core functionality
which are available in all Vantive applications. Version 2.0 includes
enhancements to: the Workflow Manager, Research Agent, and Report Manager,
as well as expanded platform and third-party application support.

* Workflow Manager in Vantive System 2.0 -- features time-based alarm rules
for conditions that persist beyond a specified time. When the alarm fires,
the system can send an action item to a specified in-box; execute a stored
procedure that escalates a call to a higher priority; or executes a third
party application such as remote pager. Customers use the Workflow Manager
to intelligently route customer and product information to user and group
in-boxes.

* Research Agent in 2.0 -- features automatic keyword extraction and new
pattern matching capabilities for fast problem-solving help. Customers use
the Research Agent to locate solutions to frequent problems and train new
users on products.

* Report Manager in 2.0 -- features new defect reporting capabilities and
parameter-driven reports by case priority, status, customer, date and
time. Customers can use the Report Manager with all Vantive applications
to analyze and create reports on service performance, problem trends, and
other customer and product data.

* Expanded Platform Support -- The Vantive System now offers "native
look-and-feel" support for most major client platforms. Version 2.0
supports Macintosh and Motif under both the Motif and Open Look window
managers. The product already runs on Microsoft Windows 3.1. Vantive
System 2.0 will support the ORACLE and INFORMIX databases, in addition to
current support for SYBASE. New UNIX platforms supported include HP9000/UX
and IBM RS6000/AIX servers.

* Open Communications with new Vantive OpenLinks-- Vantive System 2.0
features a new suite of Vantive OpenLinks, interfaces to external
applications including: Vantive MailLink to cc:Mail, UNIX mail and fax,
and Vantive ACDLink to automatic call distributors (ACDs). Alarms
triggered by workflow rules can also alert remote paging systems. This
enables customers to use Vantive applications with other systems in
integrated environments.

New Partnerships

The Vantive Corporation has embarked on two strategic reseller and joint
marketing agreements with Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, CA and Inference
Corp., El Segundo, CA. These agreements extend Vantive's reach into new
and international markets, and offer customers powerful enterprise
database and advanced problem-solving capabilities, respectively.

* Oracle Corporation and Support for ORACLE7 -- Under terms of this
agreement, Vantive Corporation is a Strategic Marketing Partner and
Reseller of the ORACLE7 relational database. Vantive and Oracle will
jointly market Vantive's client/server applications on ORACLE7 to Oracle's
worldwide customer base in Q3, 1993.

* Inference Corporation and Support for CBR Express products -- Working
with Inference, Vantive will integrate and resell Inference's CBR Express
family of CaseBased Retrieval products with the Research Agent. The
alliance will deliver Inference's proven prompt-and-respond user interface
technology to users of the Research Agent for rapid problem resolution in
Q4, 1993.

Upcoming New Products

The Vantive Corporation also unveiled new versions of two products --
Vantive HelpDesk, and the Vantive PhoneLink -- that will be available by
the end of 1993.

* Vantive HelpDesk is designed to help companies support their own
employees. It is used by MIS professionals to track and more efficiently
resolve problems relating desktop hardware and software, and internal
information systems. Vantive HelpDesk also enables employees to report and
solve problems themselves, by placing the power of the Vantive System on
their desktops. Users can also send requests for information and
automatically get responses -- without picking up the phone or filling out
a form.

* Vantive PhoneLink is a remote log-in capability which provides dial-up
access to any Vantive application. With Vantive PhoneLink, the network is
transparent to the user. No network configuration is required and network
security is enforced, since the remote user has access to the application
server.

Pricing and Availability

Vantive Support and Vantive Quality are available now on SYBASE, and will
be available on ORACLE and INFORMIX in September. The system supports Sun
Sparc, IBM RS6000 and HP9000 servers connected to Macintosh computers, and
PCs and workstation clients running Windows 3.1, and Motif under both the
Motif and Open Look window managers. The Research Agent featuring CBR
Express Case-Based Retrieval technology, Vantive PhoneLink and Vantive
HelpDesk will be available in fourth quarter, 1993. Pricing of the Vantive
System starts at $37,500 for a 10-user license. 

The Vantive Corporation

Vantive is a leading supplier of integrated, client/server applications
that span the enterprise: customer support and help desk, quality
assurance and product development, sales and marketing. Vantive's products
give companies a competitive edge by delivering superior products and
total customer satisfaction.

The Vantive System is based on a high performance client/server
architecture, is easy to customize, highly portable and scalable across
PC, Macintosh, and UNIX platforms, and integrates easily with other
applications. Products are cross-industry and sold to the financial,
telecommunications, utility, medical/pharmaceutical, and technology
companies through direct, reseller and OEM sales channels.

The Vantive Corp
1890 N. Shoreline Blvd, Mountain View, CA 94043
415-691-1500,  fax 415-691-1515

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