Snap-on Sells Online With Onlink; Consumers to Buy Online For First Time in The Company's History

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 21, 2000--OnLink, a leading provider of eCommerce sales, marketing and service applications, today announced that Snap-on Incorporated (NYSE:SNA), a global leader in tools, diagnostics and equipment, is using the OnLink Commerce Suite on its newly announced eCommerce public Web site.

Snap-on is utilizing the OnLink eCatalog(TM) application on www.snapon.com to sell online to consumers for the first time in the company's history. Snap-on's eStore represents the company's complete Snap-on(R) product catalog in a rapid, interactive format that allows customers to easily locate, intelligently navigate and select the desired tools based on their individual needs.

"Our new public site provides the opportunity to drive more business to Snap-on's dealers and to expand the availability of Snap-on(R) tools to unserved and underserved markets," said Alan Biland, vice president and chief information officer, Snap-on Incorporated. "Snap-on's leadership has been built on relationships, innovation and unparalleled customer service. Using OnLink's guided selling expertise, we reinforce this customer focus on the Internet."

Proven eCommerce Success

In 1998, Snap-on sought a solution that would effectively guide its industrial customers through the 14,000 products listed in its catalog and provide them with the details needed to make a purchase decision, including technical specifications and illustrations. OnLink delivered a comprehensive eCommerce sales application for Snap-on's industrial extranet site and fully integrated the solution with Snap-on's ERP and order management systems.

"OnLink's interactive sales application quickly adapted to the growing demands of our business," added Biland. "This made OnLink the natural choice for expanded use on our new public Web site."

The OnLink Commerce Suite

The OnLink Commerce Suite encompasses the software platform and the OnLink Sales(TM) Applications needed to help customers make better online decisions in the eCustomer Relationship Management (eCRM) categories of marketing, sales, and service. OnLink Sales Applications including OnLink eAdvisor(TM), OnLink eCatalog(TM) and OnLink eConfigurator(TM), allow companies to mimic the skills and behavior of their best customer-facing employees on the Web. The platform, comprised of OnLink Composer, OnLink Gateway and OnLink Surveyor, includes the software tools required to build, maintain, integrate and analyze OnLink Sales Applications.

The OnLink Commerce Suite is built on a patent-pending Customer Decision Architecture (CDA) that enables all aspects of suppliers' product or service offerings to be managed as relational data, instead of complex code, accelerating deployment and reducing ongoing maintenance costs. In addition, logic processing occurs in the Web browser, providing reliable, interactive and instantaneous customer interaction sessions.

About OnLink

OnLink is a leading provider of eCommerce sales, marketing and service applications that dramatically improve the online buying experience. Built from the buyer's perspective, the OnLink Commerce Suite transforms eCommerce interactions by enabling the customer decision process -- gathering customer requirements, providing consultative guidance and recommending valid solutions. OnLink empowers buyers to make informed choices that lead to greater satisfaction, while sellers can capture and learn from customer shopping behavior to increase marketing effectiveness.

OnLink is a privately held company located in Redwood City, California with field offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Washington, D.C. and the United Kingdom. Global eCommerce customers include Amdahl Corporation, Ariba, Boise Cascade Corporation, General Electric, INRANGE Technologies, Snap-on Incorporated, Sony Electronics, Inc. and Tellabs. For more information about OnLink visit http://www.onlink.com.

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