Kelly Schwager, USWeb Corporation, (408) 987-3287,
[email protected]
USWeb Names Bob Wise Chief Operating Officer of Newly Formed Electronic Services Division
Electronic Services Initiative to Expand the Effectiveness of Corporate IT
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - October 30, 1998 - USWeb Corporation (Nasdaq: USWB) announced the appointment of Bob Wise as chief operating officer of the newly formed Electronic Services Division. USWeb Electronic Services, announced earlier this month, are a set of custom and packaged Internet applications that can be fully integrated with a company's internal IT infrastructure. Through this initiative, USWeb aims to expand the notion of the virtual private network by building an "extended" IT infrastructure, called the USWeb Electronic Services Architecture (ESA), that includes not only baseline data communication, but management, applications, scalability, services, support, and security-integrated together in a combined offering.
Wise most recently served as executive partner, Client Services-Eastern Region, overseeing operations for USWeb's regional offices East of Milwaukee. Prior to joining USWeb, Wise served as vice president of Worldwide Consulting at Novell for 2 � years, where he managed operations in Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, UK, Germany, France and the United States. Prior to Novell, he served for six years as founder and CEO of USConnect, a $250 million network of system integrators. Wise has a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from the University of Puget Sound.
"Bob's extensive product and professional services experience will be an asset as we build the newly formed Electronic Services Division of our business," said Toby Corey, president and chief operating officer for USWeb. "Over the last year, Bob has played an integral role in expanding our Eastern region, helping to scale and integrate our offices to take on larger, multi-million dollar engagements."
About Electronic Services
Through the combined offerings of the USWeb Electronic Services and Professional Services divisions, USWeb will provide full service to its clients, including:
� End-to-end strategy, marketing, networking, applications, and systems development and integration services;
� Horizontal Electronics Services common to most enterprises, such as e-mail, e-commerce transaction fulfillment, human resources operations and sales force automation;
� Vertical, industry-specific Electronic Services, such as warranty claims management for manufacturing enterprises and record management for healthcare providers;
� Custom-developed Electronic Services that implement business functions leveraging the high security, scalability, reliability and performance of the USWeb Electronic Services Architecture
To provide this offering, USWeb operates two redundant Internet data centers, one in the Silicon Valley (Calif.) and one in Herndon, Virginia. These data centers provide the 24-hour-per-day, 7 days-a-week, mission critical infrastructure, redundancy and staffing required for clients' business process applications. USWeb plans to build two additional Internet data centers, in Europe and in Asia, to serve the needs of its international clients.
"Today's business organizations need a way to expand IT services without necessarily replacing their IT infrastructure," said Wise. "The USWeb Electronic Services offering will integrate externally managed applications with those systems that clients choose to run internally. We believe Electronic Services represents the software model of the future, and I look forward to leading this exciting initiative on behalf of the company."
Company Background
USWeb Corporation (Nasdaq: USWB) is a leading strategic Internet services firm helping clients achieve revenue, profit, market share, and customer loyalty objectives through Internet strategies and systems. USWeb partners with a diverse and prominent portfolio of clients, from medium-size organizations to Fortune 100 corporations. The Company, headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., recently announced that it intends to merge with CKS Group, Inc. pending regulatory and stockholder approval. Additional information about USWeb Corporation is available by calling 408-987-3200.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" (as defined under securities law) regarding the implementation of E-Services, completion and implementation of four Internet data centers, strategic business relationships, ability to move business operations into an Internet-based environment and potential advantages of planned activities. USWeb's actual results, including those in achieving or implementing any of the planned objectives, may differ materially and adversely from those discussed in this press release. Factors that may cause such a difference include, without limitation, risks associated with implementation of a new service offering, risks regarding market acceptance, technical challenges, costs associated with formation of Internet data centers and diversion of management and employee time and energy from other aspects of the Company's business. For additional information about factors that could affect the Company's business, see the documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.