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Hitachi Starts Cyberoffice, the Front Office Solution Business - Improving customer satisfaction by supporting marketing, sales and services that respond to customer needs - (This is a translation of the Japanese press release.)

November 6, 1998

Many companies have developed their own information systems by improving work efficiency in the back office, in areas such as sales, production, inventory and personnel management. Recently, changes in the industry structure caused by the financial "big bang" and by deregulation have increased market competition and have affected consumers' life styles. In the resulting intense competition, companies are forced to change their business environment to survive and still remain competitive. To be successful, in addition to optimizing work efficiency, minimizing production costs, and differentiating products with added value, they need to utilize the customer information they have accumulated to provide customized marketing, sales and services to individual customers.
Therefore, what they expect from a front office system are various communication services, such as Web access, e-mail, telephone and fax systems, that do not restrict the time and place of a business discussion. Also, it is important-if not crucial-to construct a database for sales that links information in the back office system with information in the front office system among enterprises for one-to-one marketing.

Hitachi's Cyberoffice is based on network technology that includes the Internet, mobile computing and computer telephony integration (CTI). This contains the software for constructing a customized front office system for each customer from the company's point of view and for corresponding services.
Cyberoffice consists of the following solutions:

• Marketing Automation (MA) that evaluates who their target customers are.
• Sales Force Automation (SFA) that assists in attracting target customers.
• Customer Service Automation (CSA) that supports keeping target customers.

• Groupmax: Hitachi's integrated groupware.
• HiRDB: Hitachi's scalable database management system.
• Job Management Partner 1: Hitachi's integrated system manager.
• Mall Server/Mass Customization system: Hitachi's one-to-one marketing system.
• AurumFrontOffice: the enterprise SFA for Aurum Software Inc. (Note: To view the home page of Aurum Software Inc., use Internet Explorer 4.0 or Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later versions.)
• Prism(TM): the tool for constructing a data warehouse by Prism Solutions Inc.

On the one hand, Hitachi provides solutions covering from system planning (including consultation), installation, up to management by cooperating with other companies. For example, Hitachi has formed an alliance with successful consulting companies in the front office field, such as Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting and Nihonbashi Soken. Hitachi has also started working with Trans Cosmos, Inc. to provide services, and with Aurum Software Inc. to develop integrated products.

On the other hand, Hitachi plans to apply the front office system to a mobile computing environment by developing Cyberoffice that will run on packaged mobile computers. Also, Hitachi is to expand the front office business by providing solutions required for financial and distribution companies as well as manufacturing concerns. To do so, Hitachi will form a new group within its Information Systems Division called the Cyberoffice Support Center comprising about 50 staff members.

Hitachi's Cyberoffice will be exhibited at COM JAPAN 1998 held from November 10 to November 13, at Tokyo Big Site.

Sales objectives:

A total of 300 billion Japanese yen with a 30% share of the market in front office related business (in the next three years).

Available services, price and date of shipment:

1. Planning to introduce SFA

Available from the end of November, 1998, this service helps to analyze and design the upstream operations such as reforming business processes.

• Business analysis: Clarifies the purpose of introducing SFA, analyzes current problems, and then proposes the tasks for solving the problems.
• Applicable design: Sets up conditions for introducing the SFA package to undertake the proposed tasks (the result of analyis).

2. SFA technical support

Available from the end of December, 1998, this service helps to develop linkages between AurumFrontOffice and other systems and to support training courses for advanced customization.

• Linkages: Linkages between AurumFrontOffice and other systems including Hitachi open middleware are examined.
• Prototype development: Prototypes of the linkage with AurumFrontOffice are developed.
• Technical training: Staff are trained in the techniques of customizing AurumFrontOffice.

3. AurumFrontOffice

AurumFrontOffice is a suite of applications for sales, marketing and customer services, and consists of five components.

Product name	Environment	Price	Date of shipment
Client		From 4.35 million yen * for a 1-server and 10-client system	End of December, 1998
AurumSales	- Windows 95 - Windows 98 - Windows NT Workstation 4.0
AurumDBSync Client
AurumExtensionsfor Microsoft Outlook
Server
AurumServer	- Windows NT Server 4.0 - HP-UX 10.20
Environment for development
AurumActiveWorkbench	- Windows 95 - Windows 98 - Windows NT Workstation 4.0

^*Available at reduced prices during the sales campaign for AurumFontOffice.

Trademarks and Abbreviations

• Aurum is a registered trademark of Aurum Software Inc. in the U.S.
• HP-UX is a product name of Hewlett-Packard Company.
• Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the U.S. and other countries.
• Outlook is a trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the U.S. and other countries.
• Prism is a trademark of Prism Solutions Inc. in the U.S.
• WebShare is a trademark of Radnet, Inc. in the U.S.
• Windows is an abbreviation of Microsoft Windows Operating System.
• All other product names mentioned are acknowledged to be the trademarks of their producing companies.

For Further Details
Systems Planning Department, Information Systems Division, Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi System Plaza Shin-Kawasaki,
890 Kashimada, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki 211-8567, Japan
Telephone: 044-549-1326 [Contact Mr. Ohta or Mr. Hatanaka]
E-mail: fo-info@o3head.hitachi.co.jp