So far we have no direct competitors who can offer the same scope of features, i.e. dynamic content and transaction management combined in a single product. Currently, our main competitors are the American company Firma Vignette Inc. in the fields of content management and e-business, the company Bea Systems AG in the field of transaction management and CoreMedia AG in the field of dynamic page creation.

What makes you stand out from the competition? What are your strengths?

None of our competitors have combined as many features as we have in a single, off-the-shelf software product: a dynamic content management system supporting an information platform together with a transaction system providing e-business solutions.

Do you have any other competitive advantages?

In the field of dynamic content management software we are between six and nine months ahead of the competition in terms of development.

How long has HEXMAC been in this market?

We have been providing our HPS software to customers since 1995 with excellent results. This has given us several years of constant development time in our core competencies in this highly-dynamic segment.

How many people work at HEXMAC?

Currently we have 65 staff working at HEXMAC. By the end of the year we intend to increase this figure to around 70 to 80 associates. Of these, roughly 35 percent work in sales and marketing, 25 percent in professional services, i.e. customer projects, 13 percent in product development, 12 percent in support and the remaining 15 percent in the corporate area including the campus.

How many sites does HEXMAC have?

The headquarters of HEXMAC Software Systems AG is in Leonburg near Stuttgart. There are additional offices in Hamburg, Munich and Kempten.

How many customers do you have in Germany?

Our customers include companies from the media and industry as well as financial service providers and companies from the new economy. Customers from the German media include Burda with FOCUS Online and FOCUS Money and TV Today from the publishing group Gruner+Jahr. In industry, our software is employed by companies including Mann+Hummel and Wolf Garten. Financial institutions such as Deka Bank and Direkt Anlage Bank also use our software. In addition, HEXMAC-Software has successfully been implemented by e-commerce companies such as Buchungsmaschine AG, eJay and Payback.

Have you started to move into international markets?

To date we have carried out almost 30 installations of our software outside Germany - mainly in Scandinavia and the USA.

Are you intending to expand your international activities?

Our aim is to become a global player in a global market. Our first task is to build up our position in the German-speaking markets. Then, in a second stage starting in 2001, we will be tackling the core European markets. After this, we intend to open branches in Asia and the Pacific region, before entering a final stage of expanding our operations in the target market of North America.