Assist Micro and Xythos Complete First Annual Japanese Partner Summit; Growing Channel Responds to Demand for Basic Content Management.

TOKYO & SAN FRANCISCO -- Assist Micro and Xythos Software, the leading developer of essential document and file management software, today announced the successful completion of their first annual partner summit. The event was attended by key Japanese technology integrators and reseller partners including Canon Supercomputing S.I. Inc., Computer Engineering & Consulting, Ltd., CTC Laboratory Systems Co., Inc., Information Services International-Dentsu, Ltd., Memorex Telex Japan Ltd., KYOCERA COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS Co., Ltd., and TECHNOVAN Co., Ltd. The event also featured presentations by Assist Micro customers JAL Information Technology Co., Ltd. and Tokyo National College of Technology, in which each reviewed its Xythos implementation experiences and discussed plans to continue to leverage their open standards-based document and file management systems.

Demand for improved content security and easy to use document collaboration applications has continued to drive interest within the manufacturing, services and transportation industry in Japan. While these organizations maintain corporate headquarters within the country, many have facilities and partners across the globe and are discovering that email and fax technologies can no longer meet their marketplace's competitive demands for increased collaboration. New industry and government regulations are also driving demand for Xythos solutions, especially among multinational organizations required to comply with both domestic and international document management standards.

Current Assist Micro and Xythos customers JAL Information Technology Co., Ltd. and Tokyo National College of Technology each provided detailed summaries of how their organizations are putting Xythos technology to work to address these kinds of content management challenges to the assembly of current and new Assist Micro partners. In addition to improving content security, they highlighted the advantages they have achieved by reducing the time and costs associated with document collaboration, as well as the ability to become more responsive to customer and end user needs. A key benefit cited was the lack of training and support required when introducing Xythos solutions due to the application's web standards-based design.

The increased interest in basic content management solutions by Assist Micro's new partners is also gaining the attention of technology industry analysts. A recent Gartner report co-authored by Research Director Karen M. Shegda notes, "Demand is increasing for low-cost, low-complexity platforms that safely create, access, share and deploy documents and files across the corporate intranet and the Internet. Much of this demand is driven by the pressure to stop sharing documents in e-mail and to stop using uncontrolled file servers, as well as by compliance and legal discovery requirements."

According to Taro Momose, president of Assist Micro, "While the entry of Oracle and Microsoft into the market is contributing to the growing interest in Basic Content Services, many customers are demanding open standards-based solutions to address this need. The partners and customers with whom we are working are proof of this demand -- and demonstrate that when it can be met, they are willing to invest in technology from proven vendors like Xythos." Xythos and Assist Micro have been actively developing the market for these types of solutions together since signing a master distribution agreement for the Japanese market in April 2004.

"Xythos has remained focused on delivering basic content management solutions designed to work together with customer's existing network infrastructure and application standards," commented Gary Zuckerman, vice president of business development for Xythos. "Our commitment to open standards-based design supports our partners' technology expertise and allows them to provide the best fitting and most cost-effective solution to their own customers. We applaud Assist Micro for successfully expanding the Japanese distribution channel for Xythos and look forward to continuing to support their market development activities," he added.

About Xythos Software:

Xythos Software is a leading developer of easy-to-use solutions for managing and sharing content of any type using open standards-based technology. Xythos' web-enabled document and content management applications and its WebFile Server development platform helps organizations safely capture, manage, store and share content throughout its lifecycle. Xythos products are licensed to over two million users at commercial, education and government organizations around the world. To learn more about Xythos, visit www.xythos.com or call 1-888-4XYTHOS.

About Assist Micro Co., Ltd.:

Assist Micro was founded in 1976. Through a history of three decades, it has established reliance and partnerships with many clients, including those in the central government and financial services. Today Assist Micro is recognized as a specialist in document and content management throughout Japan. For more information, visit www.assistmicro.co.jp or call [phone]