Strategic Alliance Agreement between Nstein Technologies and HBE Software - nStein and HBE to expland their respective markets by combining their expertise

2001-03-01

MONTREAL, March 1st 2001 - nStein Technologies and HBE Software are pleased to announce that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will lead to the integration of nStein's linguistic technology and HBE's portal software thus offering more intelligent information management solutions.

"This agreement will allow both companies to provide an enhanced knowledge management portal solution to an expanded customer base. Through collaborating with HBE, we'll adapt our linguistic tools to fit the needs of our partner, so that they can be integrated into HBE's product offering," says Mario Girard, President and Chief Executive Officer of nStein Technologies.

Through this agreement, nStein and HBE will enjoy enhanced market coverage through their complementary client lists and will benefit from the sharing of technical expertise. "Both companies will also take advantage of new opportunities in the publishing, media, government and corporate information management by providing rich knowledge management capabilities within a sophisticated and powerful portal solution," says Bruce Pennycook, CEO, HBE Software.

Using nStein's innovative technology, HBE Software will add knowledge management into the HBEPortal 2.0 Information Management Portal Platform, which will expand the scope of its capacities and therefore enhance its performance.

About nStein Technologies

nStein Technologies is a public company listed on The Montreal Exchange since June 2000. It develops and markets innovative business solutions based on linguistic intelligence.

It is now estimated that the growing rate of Web pages is 7 million a day and the rate of emails 10 billion a day. The demand for intelligent tools to manage this exponential growth of electronic texts has therefore become increasingly urgent. nStein technology distinguishes itself by its efficiency and its unrivalled precision to analyse, classify and organize large volumes of documents in pertinent order, in several languages. nStein currently markets its technology to the information management industry. NStein is now positioning its cutting-edge technology to address the rapidly growing needs of the portal, "CRM" and e-Marketplace markets.

About HBE Software

HBE Software Incorporated is a Montreal-based software technology company. HBE has developed an advanced portal solution currently targeted at the on-line publishing market. HBE has developed, installed and supported very high-traffic and high-visibility sites in Montreal and Ottawa and is now deploying their portal solution for several organizations including Howard Publications, Inc. (Munster, Indiana), the Canadian Solicitor General's Office and Air Transat.

HBEPortal" is a complete Web-based content management solution that provides server-based Internet applications for delivery to Web browsers, wireless Internet devices, WebTV, and hand-held devices. HBEPortal" is licensed as a suite of server applications or, optionally, as a hosted service. HBEPortal is a sophisticated software package that provides the most common portal features and applications in a pre-built application framework.

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• Any statement that appears prospective shall not be interpreted as such.

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