CrownPeak Advances Federal EGov Initiative with Advantage CMS Implementation for Office of US Trade Representative.

Business Editors/Political Writers/High-Tech Writers

MARINA DEL REY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2003

Hosted Content Management Provider Gains GSA Certification

CrownPeak Technology, the leader in hosted content management systems, announced today that it has been selected by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to provide content management services for the USTR public web portal, www.ustr.gov.

USTR will deploy CrownPeak's Advantage CMS(TM) solution as part of an effort to build greater transparency into the development of trade policy through a complete overhaul of its online presence. A new website employing CrownPeak's CMS is expected to launch this summer.

The Office of the USTR is responsible for developing and implementing trade policies that promote global economic growth, and creating new opportunities for American businesses, workers and agricultural producers. The USTR's website is the primary channel of communication between the agency and the general public, and requires a continuous updating of content to keep pace with the administration's trade agenda.

CrownPeak also announced today that it has been awarded certification by the US General Services Administration (GSA) and has been added to its prime contractor's line of products and services. Advantage CMS can now be acquired directly by federal and state agencies.

"Our solution is a natural for government agencies, and GSA certification is an important step in enabling our government clients to purchase our services easily," said Jim Howard, CEO, CrownPeak Technology. With its GSA certification, CrownPeak now offers its Advantage CMS to any federal or state agency directly from www.gsaadvantage.gov .

Earlier this year, CrownPeak Technology unveiled AdvantageMail(TM), a complete email campaign solution that provides customers with interface components for rich media email creation, publishing, and management, all incorporated into Advantage CMS. The AdvantageMail system draws on a partnership with EmailLabs, a leading provider of advanced email marketing technology solutions. This partnership enables non-technical USTR staff to create, edit and publish email alerts and newsletters, automatically building the HTML version, the text version, and the AOL-friendly version and pushing them out to the USTR subscriber list.

"Outsourcing is ideal for government agencies, where the imperative is get maximum bang for the buck," said Howard. "USTR is the winner here, able to tap into our experience and our value proposition -- that a world class CMS can be made available as a service to organizations of all sizes and budgets."

As part of its commitment to government, CrownPeak has developed specific features to ensure compliance with accessibility, workflow and archival standards. For example, based on a 508-compliant site design, CrownPeak can guarantee continued conformance with Section 508 of the federal government's accessibility standard. Advantage CMS's customizable workflow and access control capabilities were designed with the government's sophisticated requirements in mind. In addition, CrownPeak's versioning and content monitoring tools, combined with the company's industry-leading archival and backup procedures, enable governmental organizations to come into instant compliance with data archive regulations.

As part of the USTR project, CrownPeak will implement a completely new navigation and indexing system for www.ustr.gov, fully integrated with its search system. The new navigation system will include multiple search categories and indexes for complex sets of trade documents. By enabling the USTR staff to publish out specialized indexes and establish new categories and sub-categories for site content, the agency can expand and adjust the site as needed in the always-changing environment of international trade. The goal is to make it easier for the public to locate, inspect and copy federal government documents, contributing to the goal of a more transparent government.

"We've pioneered quick, risk-free CMS deployment and a feature set equal to or better than any enterprise package on the market -- complete with end user templates and developer tools that empower government official users and technology specialists alike," Howard said. "We've helped transform E-Government's content management segment because software-as-service makes such clear strategic and economic sense."

About CrownPeak Technology.

Based in Los Angeles, CrownPeak Technology is the first company to provide world-class Web content management software as a service. The company's Advantage CMS(TM) platform is the only solution that combines enterprise-level power and flexibility with the cost and speed-of-implementation of a hosted software application. Advantage CMS(TM) features the easiest-to-use interface of any CMS, and is the only hosted CMS to offer a full API and developer environment. Serving such clients as Crain Communications, Honeywell, The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the University of Southern California, and the State of Virginia, Advantage CMS(TM) manages and publishes hundreds of thousands of Web pages. CrownPeak has been named to eContent's 100 most influential companies list, has won eWeek's prestigious Analysts Choice Award and is a 2002 SIIA Codie Award finalist in two categories: Best Content Management System and Best Software as a Service.