FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:

Barbara Rudolph Miller/Shandwick Technologies (617) 351-4138 brudolph@miller.shandwick.com

Richard Phelps Marathon Innovations, Inc. (919) 462-9880 rickp@marathoninnovations.com

BOSTON, MA, March 2, 1999 - Marathon Innovations, Inc. today announced SmartPath Marketing Automation Software (MAS), the industry's first Web-based software solution to fully automated the complex processes that support the creation of promotional materials and content development for a wide variety of media, including print and the Web. Marathon Innovations also today announced SmartPath MAS support for Apple's industry-leading WebObjects application server.

SmartPath MAS is designed to automate marketing, agency, and publishing workflows with customized templates to streamline typical processes as well as a Process Designer that allows communications professionals to model current practices. SmartPath MAS is a tool that nonprogrammers can use to design and modify automated marketing and publishing processes.

Traffic, editorial, and production groups within marketing and publishing organizations, as well as external departments, vendors, and agencies, can perform their day-to-day functions online in a fully coordinated workflow-reducing costs and cycle times and improving quality. "Marketing departments, ad agencies, and publishing organizations must maximize their operational efficiencies by automating the underlying business processes with an application such as SmartPath MAS that supports the development and publishing of promotions, such as advertisements, brochures, and packaging as well as content development for catalogs and Web sites. But in today's competitive environment, there are many obstacles that can impede a company's ability to get promotions and content developed quickly," said Ken Romley, President and CEO of Marathon Innovations.

"Last-minute revisions, repetitive approval cycles, changes in government regulations, geographically dispersed teams, and lack of real-time project management can delay a promotional campaign, catalog publishing, or product launch for weeks, if not months," Romley added.

"Marathon's solution helped Glaxo Wellcome develop a review and approval system that will offer significant process efficiencies and better use of internal resources," said Karen Ruffner, Director of Promotional Services at Glaxo Wellcome.

SmartPath MAS solves time-to-market issues for media development. It leverages the most advanced process management technology available, incorporates a powerful media management engine, and utilizes a proven application model for Web-based media development. SmartPath MAS automates and streamlines the processes that support the planning, development, review, revision, approval, publishing, and distribution of promotional materials and content.

"Hurwitz Group believes that new workflow and process automation capabilities will be the technologies that drive corporate success over the next three years. Such capabilities are especially critical in situations where time-to-market is important," said Beth Gold-Bernstein, Senior Analyst at Hurwitz Group, Inc.

Gold-Bernstein continued, "Marathon Innovation's SmartPath MAS packages these key capabilities for marketing departments, ad agencies, and publishing organizations, automating the workflows that support the creation of promotional materials and content development. We see SmartPath MAS as part of the emerging and rapidly growing market for enterprise marketing automation." Success in business often means being first to market. To get there, companies must be able to rapidly develop promotional materials and content for a variety of communications media. The relatively young arena of eCommerce is placing an even greater demand on marketing organizations to shorten the delivery cycle of content development and promotional campaigns.

"SmartPath MAS offers a unique solution designed to accelerate time-to-market and lower costs for marketing departments, ad agencies, and publishing organizations by automating the workflows that support the creation of promotional materials and content development," said Nathaniel Palmer, Delphi Consulting Group.

"Unitizing next generation Web-based workflow to automate the processes involved in development for a wide variety of media, MAS is without peer in the emerging and rapidly growing market for marketing automation solutions," Palmer added.

SmartPath MAS provides a business-level approach that empowers marketing, agency, and publishing organizations to focus on the development of the media for promotions and content rather than the manual tasks to manage and coordinate the effort. According to META Group, the marketing automation software market is expected to reach $2 billion by 2002.

SmartPath MAS and WebObjects
WebObjects can be used in place of SmartPath's embedded application server to provide a powerful and comprehensive Web development environment as well as enable application integration with ERP packages, such as SAP and PeopleSoft.

Support for Apple's WebObjects provides SmartPath MAS customers with a high-end application server platform that has a proven track record in the dynamic Web publishing arena. WebObjects is used by Seybold Publishing and the British Broadcasting Corporation, as examples.

"Among the key features of WebObjects is its ability to speed Web application development and deployment," said Ken Bereskin, product marketing director, Apple Computer. "We're pleased that SmartPath MAS will extend those features, providing marketing and publishing professionals with a powerful Web-based media development environment that supports workflow automation and collaboration across large or geographically dispersed organizations."

Availability and Pricing
SmartPath MAS is now available worldwide from Marathon Innovations. Pricing is $125,000 for 50 named users and includes training and the first year's maintenance.

About Marathon Innovations, Inc.
Marathon Innovations, Inc. mission is to be the leading supplier of Web-based Marketing Automation Software (MAS) solutions focused on automating and managing the workflows of marketing departments, ad agencies, and publishing organizations.

Marathon Innovations was founded in November 1998 in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. It is a spin-off from The Marathon Group, an RTP-based Internet consulting company founded in 1984 that today provides pre-press services, eCommerce site development, as well as business process automation consulting services.

Marathon's software products are the result of three years of design, development, and field testing with leading marketing, ad agency, and publishing organizations. We pride ourselves on Web-based solutions that are easy to use and modify because the interface terminology, workflow definer, and media management are geared to communications professionals, not IT.

Marathon Innovations is a privately held firm that is backed by the Triangle's leading venture capital firm, Intersouth Partners. In October 1998, Marathon raised $2.5 million in venture funding. For more information, visit www.marathoninnovations.com or call (919) 462-9880.