McGraw-Hill Selects Progressive Information Technologies' Vasont to Improve Content Management, Cross-Media Publishing & Workflow Efficiencies.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

EMIGSVILLE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 28, 2002

Progressive Information Technologies, a leader in the information management and publishing services industry for more than 50 years, today announced that The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP) Professional group has selected Vasont, a powerful cross-media publishing system for content management, to manage and publish the content of its Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment (CMDT) publication.

McGraw-Hill is implementing an application service provider (ASP) version of Vasont, which enables McGraw-Hill to access its data for review and editing through a Web browser interface and to publish simultaneously to the Web, print, and CD-ROM.

Composed of nearly 2,000 pages full of text and graphics, CMDT is the most comprehensive and timely reference available to answer common questions in everyday clinical practice. The publication covers all aspects of outpatient and inpatient care including gynecology, obstetrics, urology, dermatology, psychiatry, neurology, otolaryngology, and ophthalmology as well as authoritative descriptions of new developments in medicine.

"Because we publish CMDT annually and it provides updated information on more than 1,000 diseases and disorders, we needed a content management system that would save us from manually revising and then repurposing every piece of content and would ensure that the data is always accurate," John Williams, McGraw-Hill VP of Editing Services, said. "Vasont addresses our content management issues and, unlike other content management systems we evaluated, enables us to instantaneously cross-media publish CMDT to the Web, print, and CD-ROM."

Improving Workflow Efficiencies

McGraw-Hill will use Vasont's workflow capabilities to empower more than 75 content contributors across McGraw-Hill's Professional group worldwide. McGraw-Hill can define a customized workflow process through Vasont's dynamic workflow capabilities, providing a set of checkpoints and email notifications that alert users of the project's status and next step. As contributors and editors access CMDT's content via the Web browser, they will be presented with specific workflow tasks and permitted to access only the content related to tasks that are assigned to them.

Because Vasont stores an SGML version of CMDT in its robust repository, contributors can work from authoring tools that they are most comfortable using. When users initiate workflow for a chapter of CMDT, the SGML for that chapter will be converted into a Word document for contributors to supply their revised editorial work. When the document has completed the appropriate workflow cycle, it will convert back to SGML.

Maximizing Content Re-use

As a cross-media publishing system, Vasont makes it possible for McGraw-Hill to maximize the content re-use of CMDT because it automatically updates content for all of its uses throughout the entire system when a user makes a change to the original content. Through Vasont's exclusive Tag Neutral Technology(TM), Vasont can store content separately from tags, enabling the data to be created and managed in XML, SGML, HTML, and WML formats and instantly published across all media channels, including print, CD-ROM, Web, and wireless.

"As a global information services provider, McGraw-Hill has contributors from numerous offices that develop CMDT," Richard Schiding, Progressive Information Technologies CEO, said. "Because maintaining accurate and timely content is critical for the success of CMDT, McGraw-Hill can benefit from Vasont's flexibility to re-purpose data in many media and technology formats, while ensuring content integrity."

About Vasont

Vasont(TM), formerly TARGET 2000, is a powerful cross-media publishing system that enables organizations to create, organize and manage content for publishing to print, electronic, Web, wireless and future media channels. Vasont is driven by its exclusive Tag Neutral Technology(TM) that stores content in its purest form -- free of tags. Users access and control content on demand, which is then automatically customized for any tagging scheme, enabling complete integration for various publishing needs. Vasont's customer base includes Fortune 1000 companies and spans a variety of industries, including: manufacturing, automotive, publishing, pharmaceutical and education. Vasont's impressive client list includes: WB Saunders; Hewlett-Packard; Detroit Diesel; American Society of Healthcare Pharmacists (ASHP); McGraw-Hill Professional; and Merck & Co., Inc. For more information, go to www.vasont.com.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies

Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education, and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, BusinessWeek, and McGraw-Hill Education. The Corporation has more than 350 offices in 33 countries. Sales in 2001 were $4.6 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com.