San Francisco's Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Selects Percussion's Rhythmyx 5 for Content Management

STONEHAM, MA – March 16, 2004 - Percussion Software, a leading developer of practical software solutions enabling customers to maximize the value and quality of enterprise content, today announced that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, has selected Percussion's Rhythmyx 5 Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system as a key element of its major Web site upgrade. The upgrade is intended to prepare MTC's Web presence for steadily increasing demand.

MTC functions as both a regional transportation planning agency, and as a federal metropolitan planning organization (MPO), responsible for coordinating the development of mass transit, highway, airport, seaport, railroad, bicycle and pedestrian facilities. MTC's Web presence comprises several thousand pages and serves about 30,000 visitors monthly. It includes the main site - www.mtc.ca.gov - as well as sub-sites for the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) and Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). The Web site acts as the primary information resource for the public, as well as MTC's many local, regional, state and federal partner agencies, by providing access to transportation-related reports, presentations, data, services, and funding information.

According to Joel Markowitz, MTC's Manager, Advanced Systems Applications, MTC has a fairly complex Web site and a small staff, and as demands on the site grew, the staff was having a hard time keeping up. They wanted to redesign the site, to add cutting-edge interactive functionality, and also eliminate the difficult and time-consuming manual processes they were using to create and track content.

"MTC is an unusual organization, offering a blend of transportation planning and funding, service delivery and technical support - for seven million residents of nine counties and 101 cities," Markowitz said. "The Bay Area is served by three major airports, two major seaports, 1,400 miles of highways, 18,000 miles of local roads, and over two dozen transit agencies. We take on a lot, and our Web site has to cover it all. We selected Rhythmyx 5 because it gives our professional users responsibility for creating content, and our Web site visitors easier access to more up-to-date information. Rhythmyx 5 also enables us to automate complex functions like cross-indexing of content, and provides the flexibility to extend content management easily into all areas of the Web site over time."

"MTC's Web site is an ideal example of the kind of dynamic publishing environment in which Rhythmyx 5 thrives," said Barry Reynolds, president and CEO of Percussion Software. "They are expanding their Web initiatives, adding key interactive functionality and taking firm control of their content - with limited IT resources. Rhythmyx 5 works for MTC now, and will continue to play a key role as they grow and leverage its capabilities across MTC's entire Web presence."

Key Reasons for Selecting Rhythmyx 5
MTC used over 100 evaluation factors to define key business and functional requirements in its search for a content management system, and compiled summaries of the factors to compare competing systems. Rhythmyx 5 had the top score on all summaries, and was seen as a more complete solution out-of-the-box. Key reasons that MTC selected Rhythmyx 5 included:

• Easy Implementation– Percussion's Rapid Ownership Program provides a proven methodology – and seasoned consultants – to help MTC outline the scope of their initial implementation and insure proper training for both IT staff and professional content contributors.
• Quick Learning Curve– Rhythmyx 5's easy, intuitive interface simplifies learning for content contributors. With it, MTC's various departments will control their own content – for example, HR will handle job announcements and the press office will do press releases – and the Webmaster will not have to intervene to get content to the Web.
• Depth for Future Expansion– MTC's Rhythmyx 5 rollout begins with one of the Web site's more complex areas, and also provides the depth to expand across the entire Web site over time.
• Affordable Budget– MTC operates with a tight budget, and could not afford to hire more staff to handle its CMS solution. Percussion provided the flexibility to get MTC the content management they need, within an affordable – and predictable – budget.
• Microsoft Office/Word Integration– Another capability key to MTC's Rhythmyx 5 solution is tight integration with Microsoft Word. Users access Rhythmyx 5 easily by clicking an icon on the Word tool bar, in the same familiar way that they access many other functions.
• Content Separated from Presentation– Rhythmyx 5 separates content from presentation, making it easy to deliver content in the way users want – via native file formats such as Word or PDF documents, or in specialized formats for the vision impaired.
• Automated Content Tracking– MTC's Web staff had been using cumbersome and time-consuming manual processes to keep track of content. Rhythmyx 5 automates tracking and cross-indexing of content, ensuring that content is stored properly and can be served easily as needed changes are handled properly throughout the content lifecycle, for both the original content as well as its related instances.

MTC's Rhythmyx 5 implementation is scheduled to roll out in the spring, in time to meet peak loads expected later in the year. Challenges facing the Web site include support for new interactive features such as audio casting, expanded information related to the California budget crisis, a major federal transportation reauthorization now in process, and related tax measures that appeared on a recent ballot. MTC also will update the regional transportation plan this year, an activity that happens only once every three years, and creates volumes of information that must be supplied to the public and to government partners, some of which need immediate access to information in order to make key decisions.

About The Metropolitan Transportation Commission
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) – www.mtc.ca.gov – is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. Created in 1970, MTC functions as both the regional transportation planning agency – a state designation – and for federal purposes, as the region's metropolitan planning organization (MPO). As such, it is responsible for the Regional Transportation Plan, a comprehensive blueprint for the development of mass transit, highway, airport, seaport, railroad, bicycle and pedestrian facilities.