Centor Chooses Semio Content Categorization Technology to Enhance Design Collaboration Applications; Teaming Enables Access to Unstructured Data Within the Design Process.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 21, 2001

Semio Corporation, an information categorization company headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., and Irvine-based Centor Software, makers of collaborative commerce applications, today announced a partnership aimed at improving collaborative design processes through broader access to corporate knowledge. As part of the agreement Centor will integrate Semio's information categorization products, Semio Taxonomy and Semio Tagger, in Centor's suite of applications serving the automotive, aerospace, electronics, and industrial equipment markets.

Users of the combined Centor/Semio technology will be able to access both structured and unstructured corporate data -- including reports, reviews, research, tests, even informal e-mail discussions with colleagues -- within a collaborative design process. Extended design team members benefit by working in an information-enriched environment. They gain access to virtually all pertinent corporate information as well as important contextual data related to new product development and introduction activities.

This extended access is accomplished through the integration of Semio's patented technology, which organizes massive amounts of content into easily understood topic hierarchies by identifying relevant phrases within the content. Centor's applications add business rules and context-rich information to collaborative commerce interactions. Together, the products help the different departments within an extended enterprise collaborate more effectively by correlating all pertinent, high value data and using it within a repeatable and memorialized process. The result is accelerated innovation processes, improved time-to-market and reduction of the cost of goods sold.

"Integrating the Semio technology enables Centor applications to leverage all critical information sources -- even the large volumes of data typically amassed by customers in automotive and aerospace industries," said Dan Camarda, vice president of marketing for Centor. "Semio can also help users identify patterns and meaning in seemingly unrelated documents and points of data. We felt this was a significant value-add to the design process and are glad to be partnering with Semio in the evolution of superior collaborative design applications."

"The Centor and Semio products are a natural match," said Roger Phillip, vice president of marketing and business development for Semio. "Our content categorization technology, together with their industry-specific experience and collaborative applications create a uniquely information-enriched environment of significant benefit to any design team. We are pleased to be partnering with Centor in this area."

About Semio

Semio Corporation is the leading provider of content categorization solutions empowering business and web portals. Semio's solutions help companies optimize the value of their online information and gain a critical competitive advantage by effectively organizing content so that users can easily navigate, retrieve and analyze the information they need. Semio's patented core technology, Semio Tagger(TM) offers unequalled performance in analyzing and categorizing large volumes of information automatically. Semio Tagger can be embedded directly in a portal or used in conjunction with Semio's viewers, Semio Map(R) and Semio Taxonomy(TM). Semio's customers include AT&T, Cisco, DuPont, Stanford HighWire Press, IDG, Procter & Gamble and USPS. Semio has partnerships with major portal vendors such as Epicentric, Plumtree, InfoImage and Sequoia. Semio is a venture-backed, privately held corporation based in San Mateo, Calif., with offices in the U.K. and Australia. For more information, visit www.semio.com or send email to [e-mail].

About Centor Software Corporation

Centor Software Corporation, a leader in collaborative commerce applications, is transforming the way information-rich interactions are conducted by Global 1000 companies. Leveraging patent-pending XML technologies, Centor's solutions enable the extended enterprise to accentuate the innovation process throughout a product's lifecycle, thereby improving time-to-market, reducing costs of goods sold, and increasing quality and market effectiveness. For more information on Centor's applications, visit http://www.centor.com.