Wallop Software Empowers Business Users to Contribute Components to Web Applications as part of Collaborative Team

New Product Extends the Wallop Build-IT Product Family, the Industry's First Team-Based Web Application Assembly Environment

FOSTER CITY, CA, February 10, 1997 � Wallop Software, Inc. today announced the general availability of a new product, Wallop Build-IT for Business Users, a companion to its flagship product Wallop Build-IT for the Enterprise announced in October of 1996. The product family is the industry's first collaborative Web application assembly environment, enabling teams of Web masters, developers, creative professionals, and business users to collaboratively create Web application components, assemble them into reliable applications, deploy them, and maintain them. Wallop Build-IT for Business Users is specifically targeted at business users contributing content and components to large-scale Web applications. It allows them to reliably combine their business information with graphics, forms, applets, and other components created by team members. It is priced at $495 per seat and is available today by calling Wallop at 1-888-2WALLOP.

According to a report from Forrester Research, an industry technology research group, about 55 of the staff developing Web sites today are business users creating content. Programmers, marketers and Web masters make up the remaining 45 of the Web development mix. Business users play a unique role in the development of Web applications � they need the flexibility to use their favorite authoring tools, the ability to quickly and easily update and deploy components, and the ability to share and re-use components with other team members.

"Wallop Build-IT for Business Users delivers on Wallop's vision of providing a common environment across the entire Web development team," said Robert Bolt, chief executive officer of Wallop Software. "Business users are an essential part of the Web application development process, and now they have a collaborative environment that enables them to effortlessly add, update and deploy new components, and work with team members to assemble them into complete Web-based business applications."

Because Wallop Build-IT for Business Users offers features and functionality specific only to the roles of the business user, these users can concentrate on their area of expertise without disrupting the work tasks of other team members, such as the Web master or programmers, who have overall control of the integrity of the resulting application. For example, by using Wallop Build-IT for Business Users, business contributors are able to safely add, modify, or delete components only to their portion of the application, leaving the deployment functions to the Web master.

"Using Wallop Build-IT for Business Users, we will be able to control the work flow from a large and diverse group of authors, through our editor, and onto our production Website with great ease. As a stake holder in a major section of our production site, my team can coordinate with Marketing and other stake holders by using this common application builder," said William Wiley, online support manager at Ascend Communications. "This streamlined process will free our programmers from doing administrative work, and save us a tremendous amount of time and money."

"With Wallop Build-IT, all members of the Digital Chef development team will, for the first time ever, have a common view of the entire application and all its dependencies and relationships," said Jessi Formoe, project manager at GuestWare, Inc. "Not only has this improved our productivity, but the control Wallop Build-IT offers will ensure the integrity and reliability of our application over time." GuestWare is a software company partnering with the Culinary Institute of America to use Web technology to make learning accessible for the hospitality industry.

Recognizing the need to empower business users to quickly and effortlessly deploy new Web content and components, Wallop Build-IT for Business Users provides an intuitive visual environment with the flexibility to use best-of-breed tools for creating HTML pages and other components. At the same time, it provides a context for viewing components as part of a broader application, and for creating relationships between their HTML pages and images, sounds, animations, banners, forms, applets, and scripts created by other team members. They can make updates to content and flow of the application with complete confidence in the integrity of the resulting application. Wallop Build-IT for Business Users enables sharing and re-use of components and templates across teams and applications, improving productivity. In short, Wallop Build-IT for Business Users provides order and control to the process of maintaining Web sites and applications, enabling the entire team to reliably update Web content and other components to reflect constantly changing business requirements.

Features of Wallop Build-IT for Business Users include collaborative functions to:

For example, to update information within an HTML page, a business user double-clicks on the component from within the Wallop Build-IT for Business Users environment. This checks the component out from a shared server, making a copy of it for the user to edit, and protecting it from edits by other team members. The authoring tool of the users' choice is launched with the HTML page ready for editing. Once the user is finished, the file is saved and checked back in for use by others. After Wallop Build-IT for Business Users checks for broken links, and the user tests the component with a variety of Web browsers, the component is ready to be deployed to the production site by the Web master using Wallop Build-IT for the Enterprise.

Simultaneously, Wallop is shipping version 1.5 of Wallop Build-IT for the Enterprise, which contains a number of enhancements including:

Wallop Build-IT for Business Users System Requirements

Wallop Build-IT for Business Users v1.5 is a companion product to Wallop Build-IT for the Enterprise v1.5, both of which are available on Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 operating systems. The processor must be 486/66 or higher and 10MB free hard disk space must be available. Applications developed with Wallop Build-IT deploy to Apache, Netscape, Microsoft, and Oracle Web servers on UNIX and Windows NT operating systems.

Pricing and Availability

Priced at $495 per seat, Wallop Build-IT for Business Users is bundled in multi-user packs of 5,10, 25, 50 and 100 and is available immediately by calling Wallop Software at 1-888-2WALLOP or 415-341-1177. Wallop Build-IT for the Enterprise is priced at $2,495 per seat. A fully functional evaluation copy of both products is available from the Wallop Website located at http://www.wallop.com/default.htm.

Wallop Software, Inc.

Wallop Software, Inc. is an emerging leader in Intranet application development whose mission is to provide products and services specifically designed to meet the specialized needs of corporate developers building Intranet applications. The Wallop Build-IT family of products � Wallop Build-IT for the Enterprise and Wallop Build-IT for Business Users � is a revolutionary Web application assembly environment that enables development teams to collaboratively assemble, deploy, and maintain a new generation of Intranet business applications. Founded in 1995, Wallop Software is headquartered at 1155 Triton Drive, Foster City, CA 94404. Wallop's home page is located at: http://www.wallop.com/default.htm.

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