Authoria Fifth Annual User Conference a Success

Authoria, Inc., the world leader in personalized, Web-based human resource communication, today announced the successful completion of its fifth annual user conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. During the event, hundreds of senior HR and benefits executives, directors and managers attended over thirty presentations from Authoria customers, thought leaders and partners.

"Our user conference once again has provided an ideal setting for customers and partners to discuss past, present and future plans to create and implement truly strategic HR initiatives," said Gary McNeil, Authoria's vice president of marketing. "As companies continue to face the challenges of shrinking budgets, rising healthcare costs and complicated employee communications issues, our customers and partners have come to rely on this event to learn from one another and to help plan for the road ahead."

The keynote address from Jenni Lehman, vice president of global product strategy for PeopleSoft's Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS) described a strategy for leveraging technology to optimize the workforce. The presentation served as a launching point for the three-day event that was filled with a series of interactive sessions on technical product development, customer case studies and implementation strategies. These included presentations from Authoria customers like Cinergy, CUNA Mutual Group, S.C. Johnson, Motorola and Capital One.

Authoria technology partners exhibiting at the event included Accenture, Cedar, Deloitte & Touche, Mercer, PeopleSoft, SAP, Workbrain, Working Concepts, a Towers Perrin Company, and Workscape.

Authoria's CEO, Tod Loofbourrow presented the fourth annual Authoria Legend Makers Award to Ted Orszak, vice president of corporate development and Kristine Alther, HRIS manager of Zurich North America, a leading commercial property-casualty insurance provider. Zurich used Authoria to support its eServices strategy and power its HR portal called answers@work. Partnering with Cedar, a leading global enterprise consulting organization, Zurich's implementation success was highlighted by a flawless open enrollment program where 10,000 employees enrolled online through SAP with virtually no technical problems.

Next year's Authoria User Conference will take place in Boston, Massachusetts May 16-19, 2004 at the Boston Long Wharf Marriot.

About Authoria 

Authoria is the world leader in personalized, Web-based human resource communication. Authoria HR is the knowledge application standard in the software industry.  Over one hundred organizations worldwide rely on Authoria to dramatically improve employee communication while streamlining costs. Authoria's knowledge applications manage and communicate human resource information to millions of people at some of the world's largest companies, including Boeing, Motorola and Wells Fargo. Among Authoria's partners are industry-leaders PeopleSoft, Towers Perrin, IBM BCS and Accenture. Based in Waltham, MA, Authoria has been ranked three times by Inc. Magazine as one of America's fastest-growing private companies and has been recognized by Deloitte & Touche in the New England Fast 50 four times and the National Fast 500 twice. For more information, please visit www.authoria.com.