Certus Software Announces Governance360(TM) to Enable Compliance Self-Service; Enterprise Governance Management Solution Delivers Personalized Composite View of Relevant Compliance Information to Users at All Levels of an Organization.

BALTIMORE -- Certus Software, Inc., the leader in corporate governance and compliance software for the enterprise, today announced Governance360(TM), a compliance-portlet solution that provides personalized access to specific compliance information and activities across the enterprise, integrating compliance and good governance practices into daily business routines.

Post Year-One SOX Challenges

Organizations striving to embed and distribute ownership for ongoing compliance throughout the business are exploring how technology can facilitate this process. Such technology must provide the necessary visibility and access to the wealth of compliance information created in SOX Year One, while offering a robust means to manage the substantial amount of information that underpins their system of internal controls.

"From the internal auditor to the CFO, every stakeholder needs access to the right information, at the right time, in the right form from compliance, financial and business performance applications," said Lee Dittmar, Principal, Deloitte Consulting. "Compliance portals help deliver sustainable compliance across the enterprise while seamlessly weaving compliance into employees' everyday business duties."

Governance360 Enables Compliance Self-Service

Today, some of the world's largest and most complex companies in consumer products, energy, financial services, manufacturing and retail use Certus Governance Suite(TM) as their financial controls system-of-record to help them comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act and ensure the integrity and quality of their underlying financial results. With the addition of Governance360, companies can include key compliance information -- such as control data, issues, summaries, reports, and near real time alerts -- in a financial management portal or enterprise information portal (EIP) in the form of "compliance portlets." With Governance360, Certus compliance information can now be displayed side by side with information from other compliance or business performance applications. As a result, compliance activities can be more easily integrated into daily routines and monitored closer to real time, providing companies with far greater insight into the link between compliance activities and the overall health and performance of their business.

Compliance Self-Service Via the Desktop

As part of an enterprise information portal, individual users can set up personalized views of compliance-related information from various enterprise information systems used regularly to support decision making. For example, CFOs and CEOs approaching a company's quarterly close and disclosure process need the relevant supporting 302 evidence at their fingertips. Today, the review is mostly a manual, time-consuming process. With Governance360, critical summary information about the status of sub-assessments, sub-certifications, and material changes to the control environment can be presented through the enterprise information portal. Similarly, progress in identifying and resolving significant deficiencies and material weaknesses can be continuously reported to management, the audit committee, and external auditors. If a user needs more detailed information about compliance performance on their personalized screen, they can click through to get directly into the application to drill down on the problem.

Technology is a key to success: According to a study from IDC, a leading provider of global IT research and advice (Sustainable Corporate Governance: The Role of the Enterprise Portal by Brian McDonough and Kathleen Wilhide, Doc #31990, (October, 2004)), "By implementing structured compliance information management processes supported by technology, the benefits of focusing and streamlining the requirements placed on various groups of employees result not just in core compliance but in improving overall business performance and ultimately achieving best practices of good corporate governance."

Governance360 leverages existing IT investments, presenting information to the user in a familiar way that promotes user adoption and avoids training costs and "application fatigue" from introducing new software systems.

Complies with Industry Standards

Governance360 conforms to the JSR168 standard specification for portlets to ensure out-of-the-box integration and customization with industry-standard enterprise portals. If companies don't have an enterprise portal, Certus will deliver Governance360 based on the Vignette(R) Portal product.

"Our customers tell us they want their investment in Certus to take them beyond the first step of complying with Sarbanes-Oxley and help them manage all their governance issues," said Bruce Johnson, president and CEO, Certus Software, Inc. "With Governance360, companies can integrate information from Certus with other systems to gain far greater insight into all compliance activities as well as the performance of their business."

Availability

Certus Governance360 will be available in the fourth quarter of 2005.

About Certus

Certus Software, Inc., the proven leader of corporate governance and compliance software for the enterprise, helps organizations build a consistent and sustainable compliance practice that extends beyond compliance requirements to generate lasting business value. Its powerful Certus software suite ensures the transparency and accuracy of internal controls, while leveraging Sarbanes-Oxley conformance as a change agent for immediate accountability and even greater business benefits in the future. Certus' customers include Alcon, Countrywide Financial, Dell, DIRECTV, E*Trade, Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance, Jones Apparel Group, The Mills Corporation, Nextel Partners, PepsiCo, Polaroid, Seagate Technology, Ross Stores and T-Mobile USA. To learn more about Certus, visit www.certus.com.