Ontario's Chartered Accountant Institute Selects Percussion's Rhythmyx Enterprise Content Management Solution

WOBURN, MA - May 24, 2005 - Percussion Software, a leading developer of practical software solutions enabling customers to maximize the value and quality of enterprise content, today announced that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario has selected the company's Rhythmyx Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solution to improve the performance, workflow and ease-of-use of the content management process for its Web site, www.icao.on.ca. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the Institute is the governing body of over 31,000 Ontario Chartered Accountants (CA) and 3,500 CA students. As a self-regulatory body, the Institute protects the public interest through the CA profession's high standards of qualification and its enforcement of the profession's rules of professional conduct.

The Institute's previous content management system had limitations that caused the organization to search for a new system that could better serve its requirements for delivering timely, accurate information to its members, students and the public. Among those limitations were issues related to performance, flexibility, ease of use and reliability. The organization's IT group also wanted a CMS solution with additional functionality including, for example, a more user-friendly interface, the ability to perform impact analysis on content changes and the elimination of the CMS as a single point of failure. After an extensive competitive review – in which seven content management systems were evaluated – the Institute chose Percussion's Rhythmyx ECM solution.

“Our membership visits our Web site every day looking for current CA news items, applications, events and more. It's such an important part of our communications with members. We update our content regularly and it is important to enable the staff who have this responsibility to have a CMS system that is easy and efficient to use,” said Janet Blais, Director of Information Technology at the Institute. “With Rhythmyx, we can ensure that the members can find the content they are looking for easily, quickly and without incident. In addition, our staff will be able to support the site by contributing content in a more efficient and timely manner.”

Rhythmyx will facilitate end-user content management, providing the Institute with the ability to more easily keep fast-changing content current and fresh. The Institute, which currently has some 1,200 pages on its site, also plans to improve its workflows, since Rhythmyx supports a richer, broader workflow model that can automate the content editing and approval processes in more sophisticated ways.

Among the features cited by the client as major factors in the decision to choose Rhythmyx were its De-Coupled Delivery architecture, Active Assembly and support for Impact Analysis. Rhythmyx's unique De-Coupled Delivery architecture enables the CMS to offer major performance advantages, and to eliminate the CMS as a single point of failure. The Active Assembly and Impact Analysis features were also very attractive to the Institute because, as the amount of content has grown, content reuse is increasingly important. Active Assembly will allow content authors to make page layout changes without involving the IT staff. Impact Analysis will allow the content authors to review all the places where content is used and make informed decisions about updates to that content.

“Professional organizations such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario are now relying on the Internet to deliver the vital regulatory content that is essential to their member services,” said Barry Reynolds, Chairman and CEO of Percussion Software. “As regulatory compliance initiatives continue to evolve, the need to accommodate frequent and rapid content changes in the accounting field increases greatly, placing new pressures on content management systems. By moving to a comprehensive enterprise content management solution like Rhythmyx, the Institute can ensure that it will continue to meet these demanding requirements for its members and the public, both now and in the future.”

About the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario is the qualifying and regulatory body of Ontario's 31,000 CAs and 3,500 CA students. Since 1879, the Institute has protected the public interest through the CA profession's high standards of qualification and the enforcement of its rules of professional conduct. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the Institute is on the Web at www.icao.on.ca.