Epigraph's Xcellerant Supports Microsoft Office

Business Wire,  Dec 16, 2002  

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office

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Business Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 2002

Manufacturers and distributors now able to create and

edit product information using Word, PowerPoint, Excel

and other desktop applications

Epigraph, Inc., a leading provider of self-service software solutions, announced today that the latest release of Xcellerant provides seamless integration with Microsoft Office, enabling manufacturers and distributors to connect more effectively with customers, partners and business processes, thus enhancing the overall productivity of their organization's selling processes.

"Xcellerant's latest release is all about leveraging your current investments in desktop and legacy technologies," said Christopher Assif, CEO of Epigraph. "If you know how to use any of the applications in Microsoft Office, such as Word, Excel or Outlook, you already have a good base of knowledge for understanding Xcellerant. Epigraph has made it easier for companies to be more productive by removing unnecessary barriers to communication over the Web."

Simplifying Product Communication Throughout the Demand Chain

Mid-market manufacturers and distributors are facing increasing competitive threats as well as a growing need for higher levels of customer service from online partners and dealers. With this added pressure, companies are trying to eliminate the inefficient business processes associated with re-creating information that needs to be pushed to the Web. Without the ability to leverage current assets on the Web, namely desktop applications like Microsoft Office and existing ERP systems, companies are risking the introduction of errors to the data they share with partners and customers. This is costing companies money and time.

According to a recent Aberdeen report, companies that deploy centralized product information management solutions have increased productivity by 20% and have saved over 200 person-hours per quarter.

"Manufacturers that support their sales channel with (online) tools reap rewards that include increased overall sales, greater market reach, improved sales channel relations and greater customer satisfaction," said Kent Allen, Research Director at Aberdeen Group.

Through its support of worldwide standards such as XML (Extensible Markup Language), Xcellerant makes leveraging the data created within Microsoft Office easy and straightforward. Xcellerant reduces the costs of deploying content and product information to the Web by enabling non-technical workers to publish and collaborate on information and documents in a secure way and without technical know-how. Xcellerant is making mid-market manufacturers more productive while at the same time increasing channel sales and customer retention rates.

Dramatically Increases Productivity

A few of the features Xcellerant can perform include the use of Smart Tags and Web Services, which streamline interaction between online business processes, Web Pages and Office applications like Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. By enabling a shared collection of knowledge from legacy and desktop documents, Epigraph improves the ability for mid-market manufacturers to collaborate more successfully with partners and customers via the Web.

Epigraph's technology and Office integration advantages, as well as a huge base of third-party support of Office, ensures Xcellerant's success in and around Microsoft's productivity software. By automating the interactions between Office applications and the Web, Xcellerant creates dramatic efficiency improvements in handling desktop information and pushing this information out to channel partners and end customers. Leveraging leading-edge technology, including XML and the Microsoft .NET platform, Epigraph is able to provide its customers access to online and offline information through an intuitive and non-intrusive interface that maximizes efficiency.

Xcellerant's multi-focus model covers the integral areas of catalog, document and marketing program management. With Microsoft Office integration, Xcellerant can transparently manage documents according to defined business rules set up by the system administrator. Improved personal productivity allows more time for value-added activities and more informed decision-making. It also minimizes the time spent searching for documents and content.

About Epigraph, Inc.

Epigraph is a provider of self-service applications that create immediate business value by helping companies create and manage business information more efficiently. Effective brand and marketing management has enabled Epigraph customers to benefit from improved time-to-market, significant cost-savings throughout the sales and marketing process and an enhanced ability to deploy brand-consistent messaging through traditional and new channels all through the power of the Microsoft .NET platform. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Epigraph can be reached at 312-245-9620 or on the Web at www.epigraph.com.

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