MERQE Mercury Interactive (MM)

- Unveils Major New Version of Mercury IT Governance Center LAS VEGAS, Oct. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at Mercury World 2005, Mercury Interactive Corporation (NASDAQ:MERQE), the global leader in business technology optimization (BTO) software, announced Mercury IT Governance Center(TM) 7.0, a strategic part of Mercury BTO Enterprise(TM). The major new version of Mercury's IT governance optimization center can help customers gain visibility and control over the demands made of IT, manage the portfolio of IT projects, and ultimately help measure the business outcomes of strategic IT initiatives and investments. "CIO accountability for delivering and measuring business outcomes of IT has never been higher," said Alex Lobba, vice president of IT governance products at Mercury. "Mercury IT Governance Center will help customers get control over IT demands and changes, eliminate low-value projects, and put the right people on the right projects for the right business outcomes." Mercury IT Governance Center 7.0 is comprised of a new and enhanced set of Mercury application modules, a real-time dashboard and an enterprise foundation. The software modules in Mercury IT Governance Center include Mercury Demand Management(TM), Mercury Portfolio Management(TM), Mercury Program Management(TM), Mercury Project Management(TM), Mercury Resource Management(TM), Mercury Time Management(TM), Mercury Financial Management(TM), and Mercury Deployment Management(TM). New features and enhancements in Mercury IT Governance Center 7.0 include: - Industry's first zero-client enterprise project management module enables customers to work from a common web interface without any client software, plug-in or Active X component. This module helps distributed teams reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO), to help them work in a more integrated and efficient manner; - New automated IT portfolio optimization capability helps customers analyze portfolio scenarios based on user criteria such as net present value, resources, budgets, and business priorities, and automatically selects the best mix of proposed projects, active projects, and application assets; - Enhanced staffing profile capabilities for resource planning and forecasting, allowing users to perform top-down planning and leverage high-level resource profiles with capacity information derived from active project details and work items; - Enhanced enforcement capabilities for project methodologies and policies to help ensure consistent project outcomes across the IT portfolio; - New project methodology capabilities allow flexible project management based on levels of IT process maturity; - Enhanced financial management capabilities to help create cost rate rules that combine multiple factors, such as rates by region and role helping calculate accurate estimates and actuals; - New time management enhancements help streamline and improve the accuracy of recording strategic and tactical work activities; - Enhanced support for incident, problem, change, release, and service- level management to implement and comply with the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Service Management best practices helps enforce repeatable processes and enhance efficiencies; and - Enhanced capabilities for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance activities that help manage the catalog of in-scope processes, risks, control objectives, controls, and tests to reduce the recurring costs associated with compliance activities. "We see growing pressure on IT, not just to deliver, but to report consistently on the value it is delivering to the business," said Matt Light, research director at Gartner, Inc. "To do so requires a defined, and preferably automated, framework for governing new initiatives and managing projects and changes, which then enables better reporting on the returns on the IT portfolio investment." Mercury IT Governance Center 7.0 is planned for release in December 2005 and will be delivered as an in-house deployment or through Mercury Managed Services(TM). For more information, please visit http://www.mercury.com/us/products/it-governance-center. Mercury is a leading IT governance provider in the business technology optimization market. Mercury also received the highest possible ranking and was named the market leader in the AMR Research IT Portfolio Management Report: "IT Portfolio Management Software: Clear Benefits, Converging Marketplace," June 2004. Mercury BTO Enterprise Mercury BTO Enterprise is the industry's first integrated suite of business technology optimization (BTO) offerings designed to help customers optimize the business outcomes of IT. Mercury BTO Enterprise is comprised of new application change and performance lifecycle offerings as well as major new versions of Mercury IT Governance Center(TM), Mercury Quality Center(TM), Mercury Performance Center(TM), and Mercury Business Availability Center(TM). ABOUT MERCURY Mercury Interactive Corporation (NASDAQ:MERQE), the global leader in business technology optimization (BTO) software, is committed to helping customers optimize the business value of information technology. Founded in 1989, Mercury conducts business worldwide and is one of the largest enterprise software companies today. Mercury provides software and services for IT Governance, Application Delivery, and Application Management. Customers worldwide rely on Mercury offerings to govern the priorities, processes and people of IT and test and manage the quality and performance of business- critical applications. Mercury BTO offerings are complemented by technologies and services from global business partners. For more information, please visit http://www.mercury.com/. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties concerning Mercury's future product and service offerings. Mercury's actual product and service plans and results may differ materially from the forward- looking statements made by, or on behalf of, Mercury. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among other things: 1) the timing of the availability of Mercury products, services, product enhancements and service enhancements; 2) the failure of Mercury products, services, product enhancements and service enhancements to meet customers' expectations, needs or perform as described; 3) the dependence of Mercury's financial growth on the continued success and acceptance of its existing and new software products and services, and the success of its BTO strategy; 4) the ability to increase sales through our direct and indirect channels, as well as international sales; 5) intense competition for Mercury's products and services; and 6) the additional risks and important factors described in Mercury's SEC reports, including the Annual Report to Stockholders on Form 10-K for fiscal year ended March 31, 2005, and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2004, which are available at the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov/. All of the information in this press release is made as of the date of this press release, and Mercury undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements. Mercury, Mercury BTO Enterprise, Mercury IT Governance Center, Mercury Demand Management, Mercury Portfolio Management, Mercury Program Management, Mercury Project Management, Mercury Resource Management, Mercury Time Management, Mercury Financial Management, Mercury Deployment Management, Mercury Managed Services, Mercury Quality Center, Mercury Performance Center, Mercury Business Availability Center and the Mercury logo are trademarks of Mercury Interactive Corporation and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other company, brand and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. DATASOURCE: Mercury Interactive Corporation CONTACT: Robin Stoecker, +1-650-603-5854, ; or Heather Sieberg, +1-650-603-5104, , both of Mercury Web site: http://www.mercury.com/ http://www.mercuryinteractive.com/ http://www.mercury.com/us/products/it-governance-center

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