MATERNA and Fincom International a.s. Agree on Strategic Partnership / Successful MATERNA Brand Anny Way Expands European Presence

Dortmund/Hradec Kralove (PROTEXT/ots) - Dortmund-based software vendor MATERNA Information &Communications and Czech reseller Fincom International a.s. planto work together as strategic partners in the future. From now,the MATERNA umbrella brand Anny Way will be marketed in theCzech, Slovak and Polish market by Fincom Systems, a 100 percentsubsidiary of Fincom. Fincom Systems will also be active as anoperator. MATERNA has thus successfully entered the rapidlygrowing telecommunications market in Eastern Europe. With this commitment in the East European markets, MATERNA isintensively pursuing its internationalization activities. Newbranch offices have already been opened in Paris and London thisyear and, with a joint venture in Hong Kong, the first footholdhas been established in the Asia Pacific region. "For us,partnerships with experienced and established local companiesform the basis for successful international activities", saysManaging Director Helmut an de Meulen. "Fincom currently has morethan 40 percent of the market for remote-access products andmodems. As the largest telecommunications distributor on theterritory Poland, Czech and Slovak, it is the ideal partner forour expansion policy in the East European markets." For MATERNA, geographical proximity and EU plans to expand toEastern Europe were not the only decisive arguments for expandingsales activities to the east. According to estimates, the numberof East European customers in GSM networks alone is expected toincrease from approximately 24 million today to almost 70 millionin 2004. In addition, experts expect the number of distributedSMS messages to increase to one billion per month in EasternEurope (compared with 0.5 billion per month in North America). Value Added Services for Professional Users MATERNA offers integrated added-value services in the field ofmobile communications under the Anny Way name. The Anny WayCarrier & Provider Solutions and Anny Way Business Solutions inparticular are to be marketed in Eastern Europe. Network carriers and service providers are the target groupfor Anny Way Carrier & Provider Solutions. The base technologiesinclude SMS, WAP, GPRS, Internet, E-mail and Fax. Today, Anny Wayis already the market leader worldwide for SMS added-valueservices. The Anny Way SMS solutions include information andgateway services, entertainment, and publishing services. AnnyWay WAP solutions are implemented as a one-stop shopping solutionand range from individual WAP applications all the way tomanaging a complete WAP infrastructure. Anny Way Business Solutions provides products, services andsystem solutions for businesses. Based on mobile communicationstechnologies, CTI and messaging platforms, Anny Way offersunified messaging, gateways, portals, applications and contentplatforms in this field. Further Activities Planned in Eastern Europe The interest in mobile solutions and unified messaging in theEast European market is evident, as initial talks with networkcarriers, providers and businesses have shown. "The underlyingconditions are right, the market potential is there. We arealready noticing great demand for our Anny Way services",exclaims an de Meulen. The commitment in the Czech Republic,Slovakia and Poland is thus due to be followed by the entranceinto the Hungarian market in the medium term. MATERNA Information & Communications The MATERNA Group is one of the leading software vendors inthe field of information and communications technology. MATERNAcurrently has a staff of 1,000 employees throughout Europe. In1999, the company earned 252 million German marks in revenues. Inaddition to its headquarters in Dortmund, MATERNA has branchoffices and subsidiaries throughout the Federal Republic ofGermany and is present in France, Austria, Belgium, TheNetherlands, Great Britain, and Hong Kong. MATERNA's range ofservices includes products, solutions, and services based on e-business, mobile solutions and unified messaging. otsOriginaltext: MATERNA Information & Communications Im Internetrecherchierbar: http://recherche.newsaktuell.de For furtherinformation, contact: MATERNA Information & Communications AntjeZimmer Media Relations Director Vosskuhle 37 44141 Dortmund /Germany Phone +49-231-55 99-531 Fax

+49-231-55 99-67 531antje.zimmer@materna.de http://www.annyway.com

Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug"PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to bepublished under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial serviceproviding distribution of press releases from clients, who areidentified in the text of Protext reports and who bear fullresponsibility for their contents.