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Five analysts and top management from eighteen sector firms examine the Document & Database Management Software sector in this special 93-page issue from The Wall Street Transcript, available at (212/952-7433) or http://www.twst.com/info/info407.htm

TWST: Bob, would you give us your views on what’s going on in the document and database management area at the moment?

Mr. Austrian: Well, I would start off by saying that this category is dealing with the same challenges that the overall software — and probably the overall technology space — is dealing with. More specifically, we’re talking about buyers adjusting their willingness to spend, the speed with which they get the conclusion, all as a result of the economic reality we’re coping with. So at the high-end level I’d say this space is “going with the flow,” which is a negative flow, of late, in terms of demand and spending and ambition and timetable — all a part of accommodating the reality of the economic environment, and to some degree, even “anniversarying” the dot-com sort of bubble. But on the plus side, thinking a little longer term, the volume of data and documents and the urgency with which we need access to them with higher reliability is only increasing fundamentally. And, as I’m sure we’ll discuss, that is the primary long-term driver of demand for solutions that help house such data and documents and make these accessible quickly and reliably over the Web or any other network. So it’s somewhat this dichotomy of, short term, dealing with the negatives of the economy and everything that came with the “Internet bubble,” and the longer-term fundamental positive of never-ending growth and supply of information and the desire we have to get access to it.

TWST: Okay, Bob, as we look out over the next two years, what do you see going on that’s going to create change, or be different from what we’re seeing at the moment?

Mr. Austrian: Well, hopefully, one thing we will see is growth and profitability in the Fortune 500, whereas today we are in a profit recession, and many companies aren’t growing nearly as quickly as they had hoped. Not to be cheeky about it, but the main thing we’re hoping to see over the next one to two years is a healthy growth environment with healthy profit expansion — and that’s quite the opposite of what we’re seeing today! New Approaches

TWST: Against that background, are there new approaches or products coming that may lead to greater prosperity for the group?

Mr. Austrian: The answer is yes. We’re still very much in the early phases of benefiting from integration of the Internet into business practices. So you’ve heard the three of us talk about the never-ending, voracious appetite for data and for information. And while that’s absolutely true, at the same time, we’re just at the beginning now of figuring out in the investor community how to build applications that actually provide access to the volumes of data at the high velocity Chris mentioned. So the main innovation, if you will, continues to be the leveraging and intelligent usage of the Internet as a business tool. So for example, very few of the Fortune 500 business customers and business suppliers can get access to the data of one another on a satisfactory basis. And once we come out of this economic malaise — or panic, whichever way you choose to characterize it — once we get out of this period, I still believe that figuring out how to leverage the Internet as a ubiquitous and lower-cost network to make information sharable across enterprises will be the main big-picture driver of growth.

TWST: There’s no need to rush today. If you were looking out at, say, late this year, and at a better 2002, what would you focus on? Are there two or three names that you would want to look at at that point?

Mr. Austrian: Sure. In a recovery I would feel much better than I do today about Siebel (Nasdaq:SEBL), which I like quite a bit. In the smaller cap arena one of my favorite picks is a small application service company called Digital Insight (Nasdaq:DGIN). They service the financial sector on a purely hosted software basis, so it hits some of the themes that we’ve talked about. And Digital Insight is one of my favorite small cap names. But again, I put all this forward for readers with the caveat that I don’t believe there’s any urgent rush here in August.

This special issue includes:

1) Document & Database Management Software - In an in-depth (10,300 words) Analyst Roundtable, Robert Austrian, Managing Director at Banc of America Securities LLC, Brendan Barnicle, Vice Principle at Pacific Crest Securities and Christopher Shilakes, First Vice President at Merrill Lynch & Co., examine the outlook for the sector including, long term trends, developments in technology and share specific stock recommendations.

2) The TWST confidential Off-The-Record survey of management performance at seven sector firms asked market insiders about the ability of management teams to create shareholder value.

3)Storage Hardware & Software Stocks - In an in-depth (2,600 words) Analyst Interview, Nitsan Hargil, Senior Analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc. examines the outlook for the sector and shares specific stock recommendations.

4)Enterprise Software - In an in-depth (2,000 words) Analyst Interview, Greg Vogel, Managing Director at Banc of America Securities LLC, examines the outlook for the sector and shares specific stock recommendations.

5) CEO interviews (average 2,500 words). Top management of eighteen sector firms examine the outlook for their firm and the sector.