Percussion Software Introduces Rhythmyx FastForward, Sharpens its Focus on the Mid-Tier ECM Market

WOBURN, MA - June 28, 2004 - Percussion Software, a leading developer of practical software solutions enabling customers to maximize the value and quality of enterprise content, today strengthened its lead in serving the ECM needs of mid-tier enterprises by introducing Rhythmyx FastForward. Rhythmyx FastForward is a series of key enhancements to the company's Rhythmyx 5 Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solution, designed to speed implementation, deliver more application functionality out-of-the-box and require less customization services to meet common customer needs.

The Rhythmyx FastForward series is the first set of ECM product features specifically designed to address the unique application needs of the mid-tier enterprise market. Not an add-on product, FastForward is a feature set of Rhythmyx, and ships with Rhythmyx modules at no additional cost. Rhythmyx FastForward for WCM (Web Content Management) is the first of the series. It is currently in beta test and will be available next quarter. The second in the series, Rhythmyx FastForward for DM (Document Management) will be available later this year. Others in the FastForward series will be announced with future releases of Rhythmyx.

"Mid-tier organizations require ECM solutions that meet their enterprise scale needs, but require fewer resources than those at the high end - not only in terms of cost, but also in terms of people, ease-of-use and time-to-value," said Andy Warzecha, senior vice president at META Group, a leading provider of information technology research, advisory services, and strategic consulting. "When we project the content management market through 2006, we foresee the application layer as a critical battleground for the mid-tier segment of the market. Delivering more rapid implementation, more application functionality out-of-the-box and requiring less customization services will continue to be important customer requirements in the mid-tier. ECM vendors that have tailored their solutions on these specific needs of the mid-tier enterprise will be best positioned to succeed in this market segment."

Rhythmyx 5 and its FastForward enhancements are designed to deliver the right balance of product vs. services, allowing mid-tier ECM customers to focus their customization budgets ONLY where they would do the most good - not on re-inventing the wheel. By providing a solution well suited to the needs of the mid-tier enterprise, Percussion enables customers to choose between two major benefits: either less customization overall, or customization applied to build a richer set of application capabilities than would otherwise be possible.

"We have an extensive content delivery environment, with a pool of servers that expands seasonally to meet increased demand," explained Brad N. Rosenthal, Director of Internet Strategy at Thrifty Car Rental, a subsidiary of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE: DTG). "As a result, one major concern, when we looked at content management solutions, was to find the most flexible, affordable structure, one that would enable us to scale and grow the content delivery environment without huge incremental costs. Percussion Software, with their Rhythmyx De-Coupled Delivery Architecture offered the best value, in terms of both functionality and price. Rhythmyx 5 ECM was designed for needs like ours, and with the FastForward enhancements, Percussion is extending its lead in the mid-tier ECM market."

Many of the needs of mid-tier enterprises seeking ECM solutions set them apart from those of small businesses and large enterprises. Among those needs are the following:

• The right balance between purchasing out-of-the-box functionality and the need to customize for the organization – i.e., “more buy, less build,” to deliver more value for the budget;
• A solution that fits limited resources – in terms of both budget and personnel – meaning more, and richer, functionality out-of-the-box, rapid implementation and easy ongoing administration by IT;
• Affordable services contracts tied to short implementation time frames and customization focused on meeting specific customer needs – often the tactical needs of a specific line-of-business – for real-time ROI. It also delivers a service-to-license ratio far lower than the typical ratios of high-end vendors that can range from 3:1 to as high as 10:1;
• Industry standards-based solution designed to integrate easily into a heterogeneous IT environment;
• The ability to scale the content management production application independent of delivery requirements and a flexible, affordable licensing structure for scalability and growth of the content delivery environment without major incremental cost;
• Flexible, extensible development platform for future growth – meaning a complete application layer and the associated services layer to support the application, with the ability to produce a wide variety of content applications, including DM, WCM, DAM, imaging and Portals;
• Ease of end-user adoption – meaning little required training, as well as integration with standard office productivity products, such as Microsoft Office and Outlook;
• Powerful content production capabilities that enable content reuse across multiple channels, such as: customer and partner extranets, corporate Web sites, mobile devices, on-line newsletters and print production, projects and campaigns. Content reuse capabilities are essential in enabling organizations to improve knowledge worker productivity and avoid creating “content chaos,” and,
• Content collaboration tools to improve knowledge sharing and teamwork within the organization, including project collaboration capabilities including discussion forums, bulletin boards, team calendars, to-do lists, and file-sharing.

"The mid-tier ECM market is significantly different from the small business or large enterprise markets," said Barry Reynolds, president and CEO of Percussion Software. "The typical mid-tier enterprise needs more ECM application capability delivered 'out-of-the-box,' to yield a faster implementation and quicker time-to-value. We have been a pioneer in the mid-tier enterprise content management market, and with today's introduction of FastForward, we are strengthening our leadership position among the few ECM vendors who are successful in this segment. The Rhythmyx FastForward enhancements are just the latest example of our commitment to continuously improve our ECM solutions for our customers."

Rather than segmenting the mid-tier market by the size of the enterprises only, Percussion defines the mid-tier ECM market according to the unique content management needs of these customers - needs that are consistent across a wide range of organizations with many different profiles. For example, these customers include midsize companies making strategic purchases, as well as Global 2000 corporations making tactical purchases. They include government agencies solving the content problems of a single Web presence and moderately sized companies that are "betting the farm" on a global ECM implementation.

Rhythmyx 5 is an award-winning ECM solution that combines industry-first capabilities to solve the key enterprise content management problems facing mid-tier organizations: content reuse and multi-channel delivery of documents, Web site content, imaging and digital assets. Rhythmyx does this by providing the industry's only De-Coupled Delivery architecture for cost-effective scaling; the industry's first Intelligent Relationship capability for proactively managing all content dependencies and connections; and Active Assembly, a unique graphical user interface for enabling business users to easily reuse content. Rhythmyx's Intelligent Relationships capability enables proactive management of the connections or dependencies among enterprise content ensuring no incorrect or untimely content is published. Active Assembly enables enterprise content to be organized and grouped for documents and Web pages without the need for costly and time-consuming template redesigns from developers.