CrownPeak Technology Enables Site Creation via Content Management System for the First Time.

Business Editors

MARINA DEL REY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 14, 2003

Meharry Medical College, Heifer International Gain New Site and

Intranet, Respectively, Created by CrownPeak's Framework Model, New

AdvantageCreate Feature Set

In a natural next step in its product evolution, CrownPeak Technology, the leader in hosted content management systems, has deployed its best-practice site navigation systems and frameworks for clients who need a new website or intranet. Using Advantage CMS(TM) for two content-rich non-profits -- Meharry Medical College, www.meharry.org, of Nashville, Tennessee, and Heifer International, www.heifer.org, based in Little Rock, Arkansas -- CrownPeak added a custom design to each framework, providing a complete website with an operational content management system in a matter of days.

The deployments represent the first time a world-class publishing system is offering pre-configured site navigation and structures, with the ability to quickly customize the graphic design and layout as well as the workflow and roles. They also mark the debut of AdvantageCreate, a unique combination of features within Advantage CMS, along with a simplified design process that enables customers to build fully customized web sites from scratch -- with a CMS already attached.

Meharry Medical College, the nation's largest private, independent historically black institution dedicated solely to educating health science professionals, and State Farm Insurance, the nation's largest auto insurer, commissioned a research and information website on minority seatbelt use. CrownPeak provided a navigational framework, already implemented in the Advantage CMS(TM) system, and Meharry provided custom graphic design. Within the next several weeks, the site will be operational and completely enabled for non-technical participants in the nationwide study to author and update complex site content.

CrownPeak similarly deployed Advantage CMS(TM) for Heifer International, a humanitarian group working to end hunger worldwide, by developing a corporate intranet infrastructure into which the organization can grow -- at minimal expense and with minimal effort. In this case, the framework CrownPeak provided was designed expressly for intranets and their requirements -- document repositories, calendars, directories, and so on. CrownPeak also provided the graphic design in this case, and again, within a few weeks, the intranet was ready for end-user training and content input.

"Typically, a content management system is used to manage an existing web site," said Jim Howard, CEO, CrownPeak Technology. "Both of these engagements go above and beyond that mandate, empowering these two non-profits to get a handle on dynamic, complex content requirements and support future expansion, all the while keeping costs at an absolute minimum. As these two deployments demonstrate, the strength of AdvantageCreate lies in our ability to partner with internal design groups. We train them on the unique advantages of leveraging Advantage CMS into their designs.

"Over our years in operation, working with many hundreds of site designs, we have developed 'best practice' site navigational and content structure frameworks," Howard said. "When you break down the makeup of a site, whether it's Heifer International or the Meharry/State Farm alliance, the three basic components are the same: graphic design, navigational design and content. Each should be completely independent.

"By complementing our core content structure capabilities with proven, tested navigation design and giving some direction with image sizing and placement, we can present an entirely custom website look and feel, tailored to our client's brand, very quickly."

Meharry: Building from the Bottom Up

Founded in 1876, Meharry Medical College has provided superior health sciences education primarily to African Americans and other students of color. The Meharry-State Farm Alliance was formally created in February 2002 with $10 million in support from State Farm pledged over five years.

The initiative relies on a continuous quality improvement process in the design and implementation of community-based participatory research, culturally appropriate public information and community outreach programs focused on increasing the appropriate and consistent use of seat belts and child seats among African-Americans.

Typically, populating content into research and information campaign sites is a tedious and time-consuming process involving a hand-off from content creators to technical staff. In this case, Meharry needed non-technical staff members to take a site devoid of content and populate it directly so that the site becomes an expanding portal for research information. Technical staff were not budgeted for this project, and training needed to be simple for content contributors to simply populate what will become a complex information repository.

CrownPeak chose a structure for the Meharry-State Farm website to take advantage of Advantage CMS from the outset. The site was built from a bottom up approach, which means that content authors can create one piece of content, which is then spread dynamically through the system. This makes it easy for substantive changes to be made to the site, just by changing a single piece of content, or slotting it in a different way.

"The Meharry-State Farm alliance site will have hundreds of content contributors from all around the country, primarily from our graduates," said Lauren Ferguson, Meharry Director of Informatics. "We don't have an IT department, so Advantage CMS is an ideal empowerment tool to orchestrate all this information into one cohesive website."

For Heifer, an Elegant Intranet

Heifer International was founded on a simple belief: ending hunger begins with giving people the means to feed themselves. Since 1944, Heifer has helped more than four million hungry families in the United States and 118 other countries move toward self-reliance through the gift of food and income-producing animals and training. Recipient families pass on the gift by sharing one or more of their animals' offspring with other struggling families. This process enhances self-esteem, ensures project continuity, builds solidarity and multiplies the benefits of the original gift for generations to come.

For Heifer, CrownPeak implemented a corporate intranet using a proven, tested navigation system and content structure. CrownPeak was able to create a custom design and launch the intranet framework in roughly three weeks' time. The intranet framework included a complete content management system, enabling various departments within Heifer to manage content, update the event calendar, the company directory, and create document repositories.

"We were already a CrownPeak customer when we sat down to plan our new intranet, so we knew how strong Advantage CMS is, " said Brad Clayton, Business Systems Analyst/Web Services, Heifer International. "When CrownPeak brought up the idea of using Advantage CMS to 'create' our intranet, it just made sense. In just a few weeks, we had launched the framework for us to begin populating content. It is a much more easy-to-use and economical system than we found anywhere else."

"This is a visually appealing, elegant intranet," said CrownPeak's Howard. "It is highly functional, very simple to use, and it was exceptionally economical to deploy. An intranet can provide high levels of ROI when it enables efficient sharing of content across a geographically dispersed organization. With this simple-to-use intranet, with easy-to-update content and great auditing features, Heifer will achieve a quick return on a relatively modest investment."

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's 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.