Why EXE Technologies Probably Should’ve Changed Its Name–But Didn’t

Those sneaky e-mail worms have led to plenty of jokes and confusion. In 1999, people teased friends named Melissa, and in 2000, they couldn’t help but snicker when they whispered “I love you.” Viruses are no laughing matter, though, and users need periodic reminders telling them to avoid opening e-mail attachments that have bizarre extensions with more than one dot or six letters, or extensions such as .exe, .vbs or .bat.

With that in mind, we were taken aback when we received an e-mail from Dallas-based EXE Technologies and were told to check out its website, www.exe.com. Turns out the website is innocuous and so is the company, which has no desire to change its unusual moniker.

“It’s really a great play on what we do,” says Ben Hood, vice president and general manager of the fulfillment product group for the supply chain software vendor. The name EXE resulted from the 1997 merger of Dallas Systems and Neptune Systems.