For Immediate Release

EMERYVILLE, CA, January 5, 2004 - TechniCon, a leading provider of e-commerce solutions for complex products, has released version 4.0 of CustomCommerce, its award-winning platform for delivering product data on the Web.

TechniCon focuses on providing compelling e-commerce systems that engage the end-customer. Simply put, this means making it fast and easy for buyers to find and order the products they need. Version 4 adds new search and configuration features that directly address this challenge.

Parametric search allows users to locate products that meet specific operating or feature criteria, e.g. an engineer needs a circuit breaker with a certain amp capacity and handle style.

Version 4's enhanced search now eliminates the prospect of a 'sorry, no match' result. If no products match all the parameters specified by the customer, the system returns a table showing the number of products that meet some subset of these parameters.

For example, if no product meets all five specified parameters on a search, there may be a product that meets four of the parameters. Three additional products may meet a different set of four parameters. Another product may meet three parameters. The customer can then determine if any of these "near-matches" would work for this application.

The product configuration process for complex products is highly interactive. Responsiveness is critical. CustomCommerce version 4 includes an ultra-compact, client-side product configurator that minimizes server traffic and maximizes performance.

Unlike competitors' configurators, our client-side configurator installs instantaneously and operates in a manner completely transparent to end-users. There are no applets or plug-ins to download and install. Users receive immediate, rapid response as they configure products.

Other new features include:

• CustomCommerce now supports high-performance ray tracing technology from Mental Images to generate interactive 3D images. Offering the highest level of photorealism, product images can be rendered in seconds and views can be cached for instant recall.
• The "virtual price list" capability builds new price lists by applying pricing models, e.g. percentage discounting, across static price lists. Virtual lists speed the pricing process, allow multiple adjustments to be made to a price list and can be saved to create new static lists.
• Transaction support includes enhanced integrated check-out using VeriSign Payflow for online payment processing and UPS Online® Tools for shipping cost and address validation.

"CustomCommerce version 4 builds on the strong foundation of our last release," said Anthony Mirante, President of TechniCon. "This has allowed us to add unique and industry-leading features that meaningfully enhance the customer experience."

Founded in 1987, TechniCon Corporation is a leading provider of e-commerce solutions for complex products. Combining over a decade of experience developing product specification and sales automation software with leading-edge e-commerce and visualization technology, TechniCon has developed interactive sales systems for a wide range of manufacturers, including Daimler-Chrysler, Motorola, and Steelcase.

TechniCon (www.technicon.com) is headquartered in Emeryville, CA with additional offices in St. Louis, MO.

TechniCon is a service mark of TechniCon Corporation.