B2B Technologies Meets Increased Demand for Collaborative Portals from Hickory Public Schools

Atlanta, Georgia - June 23, 2005 - B2B Technologies, a leading e-business technology expert, Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and Microsoft Education Partner, continues to see increased demand for its expert technical assistance as schools and their respective districts require the advanced collaboration that only web-based portals can deliver.

Hickory Public Schools (North Carolina) recently selected B2B Technologies to build and deploy a collaborative portal built on Microsoft's Learning Gateway Framework (LGF), an integrated solutions platform which connects the people, information and processes that improve education. In addition to building the collaborative portal, B2B Technologies provided consulting, development and training services related to the integration and deployment of Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server.

Each of Hickory's K-12 schools worked with B2B Technologies to integrate and deploy two components of Microsoft's Learning Gateway Framework: SharePoint Portal Server and Class Server. The school system uses these two technology components as the platform for public and private websites, an executive-level decision support system, and a collaborative portal solution to link parents, students and teachers.

"Collaborative educational portals link parents, teachers, staff and administrators into one, cohesive academic support team," said Frank Fuerst, president of B2B Technologies. "Schools and districts that leverage Web-based collaboration tap into the power of enabling all these educational partners to work together to improve student achievement."

About B2B Technologies
B2B Technologies, a leading e-business technology expert and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, helps mid-market companies in the manufacturing, financial services and education sectors derive maximum business benefits from the latest Microsoft and e-business technologies. B2B Technologies is a privately held company based in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, visit the company's web site, www.b2btech.com.