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Monday October 18, 8:54 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Zengine Partners With Excite@Home To Provide Commerce Solutions for Work.com Audio/Visual Store
Excite@Home and William Blair & Company, L.L.C. make minority investment in Zengine
FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 18, 1999-- Zengine, Inc., the Internet subsidiary of Miami Computer Supply Corporation (Nasdaq:MCSC - news), and Excite@Home (Nasdaq:ATHM - news), today announced a multi-year partnership agreement whereby Zengine(TM) will provide comprehensive commerce solutions for the Audio/Visual (AV) Store on Excite@Home's recently launched Work.com business-to-business portal. Work.com is a key initiative of @Work, the business-to-business division of Excite@Home.
Work.com will utilize Zengine's private-label e-commerce services -- including merchandising, processing, delivery and service -- to create a highly personalized e-commerce store for business users. The products will be offered through the Work.com AV Store. The store is scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter and will utilize Zengine's back-end technology including audio, video, networking, video-conferencing, and presentation products, reflecting heightened demand by businesses worldwide to access advanced products which can enhance efficiency and support the growth of their organizations.
Zengine also announced that Excite@Home, and William Blair & Company L.L.C., a leading domestic investment bank, have taken minority interests in Zengine for an undisclosed cash investment.
Zengine's complete e-commerce solutions begin at the point of shopping or browsing and continue through its clients' Web site-branded fulfillment and customer service. This ensures customer control of the end-user e-commerce experience. Zengine's proprietary personalization technology is supported by the proven merchandising and distribution infrastructure of its parent company Miami Computer Supply Corporation and its ten North American distribution centers. MCSC ships more than 1 million packages annually, representing over $650 million in annualized sales.
From the leading portal/broadband network, Work.com is a new online destination designed to meet the growing needs of business professionals and their companies. Work.com provides applications that assist users in running their businesses, including business email, voice mail, calendaring, business site and storefront creation and hosting. In addition, the new site also provides business content, resources and product information across 36 industries. Work.com will continue to evolve into a comprehensive business portal customizable to business users' needs.
``The AV Store on Work.com is designed to offer small and medium-sized businesses cost-effective, value-added technology products that help them manage their businesses effectively,' said Don Hutchison, senior vice president and general manager of @Work, Excite@Home. ``Excite@Home is renowned for its leadership in personalized content, and our relationship with Zengine allows us to carry that through to our online AV Store. We are very excited about Zengine's proprietary technology and, as such, have decided to invest in this strong, viable partner driven by a great management team.'
``The Work.com b-to-b portal is the ideal platform from which to market leading-edge audio, video, digital and broadband products. These products and services coupled with our personalization technology and infrastructure for commerce facilitates all merchandising, targeting and profiling with no disruption of brand or service to the business user. This is why savvy marketers such as @Work and Talk City, Inc. have embraced our e-commerce solutions strategy,' said Joe Savarino, president, Zengine, Inc.
About Zengine
Zengine's proprietary and infinitely scaleable technology and infrastructure enables high-speed, dynamically generated personalization for commerce. Zengine combines its exclusive technology with the proven merchandising and distribution expertise of its parent company, Miami Computer Supply Corporation, to provide complete commerce services for Web site and corporate customers. More specifically, Zengine provides its customers with the opportunity to ``self-brand' starting at the point of shopping through purchase, transaction processing, fulfillment and customer service, as opposed to redirecting loyal users to third-parties. For more information, visit www.zengine.com.
About Miami Computer Supply Corporation
Miami Computer Supply Corporation is a reseller of computer products and accessories and a reseller and integrator of audio-visual products throughout the United States, Canada and in certain foreign countries. Miami Computer Supply Corporation resells over 1,800 core products primarily to middle-market and smaller companies and to governmental, educational, and institutional customers, including federal, state and local governmental agencies, universities and hospitals and, to a lesser extent, to computer supply dealers. MCSC primarily sells nationally known, name-brand products manufactured by approximately 500 original equipment manufacturers, including Sharp, Epson, Infocus, Sony and Proxima for audio-visual presentation products and Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, Imation and Canon for computer supplies. Additional information regarding MCSC can be obtained at www.mcsinet.com. |
