Press Releases

Authoria Sets the Standard in the HR Communications Market, Touching the Lives of Millions of Employees Nationwide

New Customers, Key Partnerships, Successful Employee Self-Service Initiatives and Industry Recognition Highlight 2002

Waltham, MA – February 4, 2003 – 

Authoria, Inc., the world leader in Web-based human resource communication, continued to see strong demand for its HR communication software over the past year. Bucking the continued, industry-wide economic downturn, Authoria experienced record revenue growth, added numerous exciting new customers, and delivered a strong profitable business model to its shareholders. Significant new customer wins for the companys flagship Authoria HR software included Motorola, Darden Restaurants, Inc., Cinergy Corporation, and Lafarge North America. Authoria also continued to receive recognition from leading business, HR industry and technical publications for its market leadership and product development.

Authoria closed the year by announcing that nearly one million of its customers employees used Authoria HR for self-service open enrollment. As a result, companies such as Wells Fargo and CUNA Mutual Group were able to dramatically reduce the costs associated with educating employees about HR policies and enrolling them in benefit programs for 2003, while offering better service. These capabilities were recognized earlier in the year as Authoria was selected for the second year in a row by Forbes Magazine as one of the leading companies in the Human Resources category in their October 2002 "Best of the Web: B2B" issue.

"We are very proud of our recent accomplishments and the rapid adoption by Global 2000 companies, despite a continued, tough macro-economic climate," said Tod Loofbourrow, Authoria president and CEO. "By strengthening our commitment to our strategic partners and customers over the past year, Authoria is extremely well positioned to benefit as enterprise portals continue to evolve and drive employee productivity initiatives."

New Customer Wins

Strengthening their market dominance in the HR communication industry, Authoria added numerous exciting new customers in 2002 in a wide variety of vertical markets including the manufacturing, utilities, healthcare, financial services, and defense and hospitality industries. Some of the new customers selecting Authoria products in 2002 included Campbell Soup Company, Capital One, Cinergy, Countrywide Home Loans, Darden Restaurants, Keyspan Energy, Lafarge North America, Motorola, Synovus Financial Corp. and Sutter Health.

New Product Success

As the standard in HR communications, Authoria has built very strong relationships with its customers.  In 2002, Authoria continued to build and introduce new products throughout the year as a result of feedback from its existing customer base. The collaborative relationship that the company has fostered with its customers has provided Authoria with deep insight into the needs of both IT and HR professionals.

In June of 2002, Authoria released Authoria eSPD Health and Welfare, which allows organizations to create, maintain, and distribute summary plan descriptions (SPDs) online. Customers using this award-winning product can achieve dramatic cost reduction around developing and distributing summary plan descriptions.  By December 2002, Authoria had sold and shipped Authoria eSPD to twenty percent of its existing customer base.

Authoria also released Authoria HR UK, a Knowledge Application that provides support for Authorias global customers that have employee populations in the UK. In addition to Authoria's global customers, UK-based HR outsourcer Xchanging, has chosen Authoria to support its client base.

Strategic Partnership Enhancements

During 2002, Authoria announced the expansion of a strategic relationship with Towers Perrin, one of the worlds largest global management consulting firms, and a new strategic partnership with Deloitte & Touche, a leading professional services firm.

Authoria also strengthened their partnership with PeopleSoft by announcing Authoria Connectors for PeopleSoft, which connect Authoria Knowledge Applications and PeopleSoft Collaborative Applications to provide a seamless integration of knowledge and transactions.

Authoria Knowledge World

Authoria's annual user conference, Authoria Knowledge World, was once again a tremendous success with a record number of attendees. The event, which attracts hundreds of senior HR and benefits executives, directors and managers, provides Authoria customers and partners with an open forum to discuss challenges facing the HR industry as well as technologies and techniques for the latest Authoria HR solutions.

Now in its third year, the Authoria Customer Advisory Council (CAC), a select group of HR professionals representing a cross-section of Authoria customers including Alliant Techsystems (ATK), American Family Insurance, Boston Scientific and Motorola, was an important part of the conference agenda planning. The CAC was also instrumental in providing crucial guidance on product and marketing initiatives.

This years conference, Authoria Knowledge World 2003, will be held on May 18-21 at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale at Gainey Ranch, Scottsdale, AZ.

Awards

Authoria, the company and its products were recognized by several leading business and HR publications in 2002. In addition to being named best-in-class HR self-service & communication application in a Reuters Business Insight Human Capital Strategies report, Authoria was also named as one of the leading companies in the Human Resources category by Forbes magazine in the "Best of the Web: B2B" issue. Authoria was also selected as one of New Englands Fastest Growing Technology Companies in the Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 50 Program, named to Software Magazines annual Software 500 and awarded Best Enterprise Application honors by MIMC, the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council. This years achievements marked Authorias second appearance in the Forbes Best of the Web, B2B, second appearance in the Software 500 and fourth in the New England Technology Fast 50.

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.