Workscape and Authoria Extend Alliance to Deliver Knowledge-Enabled Benefits and Workforce Management Solutions

Workscape, Inc., a proven provider of benefits and workforce management solutions, and Authoria, the world leader in personalized, Web-based human resource communication, today announced a new agreement under which Workscape will resell Authoria's U.S. Benefits, U.S. Policies, and eSPD Health and Welfare applications, running on the Authoria HR Platform, as value-added components of its employee self-service and benefits administration solutions.  Through this extended relationship, Workscape and Authoria can now offer customers in all vertical markets a set of fully knowledge-enabled benefits and workforce management solutions, driving higher employee adoption and satisfaction, improved decision making, and ultimately, a greater return on self-service technology investments.

Authoria HR, a suite of Web-based applications designed to communicate benefit plan and HR policy information to employees, represents a highly synergistic fit with Workscape's award-winning self-service applications.  Working together, Workscape and Authoria deliver online self-service functionality that enables employees and managers to efficiently perform a comprehensive range of HR actions, supported by personalized plan and HR policy information that helps reduce costly data and transaction errors, and drives higher adoption rates for self-service systems overall.  In addition, by offering these integrated applications in multiple deployment options, including both traditional licensed software, as well as a first-of-its-kind hosted solution, customers can implement a self-service solution quickly and securely, ensuring seamless integration with existing HRMS or other back-end data systems within the budget and infrastructure requirements of their specific business.

"Authoria has set the standard for Web-based communication of benefits and policy information," said Tim Clifford, president and CEO of Workscape, "and our shared vision of empowering applications that are designed specifically for the workforce make this partnership extremely valuable for customers.  By delivering fully knowledge-enabled benefits and workforce management applications, Workscape and Authoria are equipping enterprises with both the tools and the information to realize significant cost and performance efficiencies from their HR programs."

Authoria HR, hosted by Workscape, was selected by Ahold USA, a subsidiary of Royal Ahold, as a key component of the company's Manager and Associate Self-Service (MASS) initiative.  "The core objectives of the MASS project are to increase employee retention, decrease turnover, and improve business processes by automating HR transactions through Web technology," said Frank Bartsch, Director of HRIS for Ahold USA. "With these in mind, we viewed the ability to add Authoria HR as a hosted content layer within Workscape's employee self-service application as a key competitive advantage.  Using the combined solution, our corporate and store-level employees can enjoy the speed and convenience of managing their own HR transactions online, as well as the added benefit of personalized benefit and HR policy information that guides them through all the necessary steps and helps them make more informed decisions about their employment."

"Workscape's solutions truly enable organizations to perform at a higher level," said Tod Loofbourrow, President and CEO of Authoria. "Together, Authoria and Workscape are providing employees with the information and tools they need to make successful self-service decisions while supplying organizations with a solution that improves business processes and helps make employee communication initiatives successful."

Each of the Authoria Knowledge Applications to be resold by Workscape, including US Benefits, a collection of U.S.-based benefit information; U.S. Policies, including U.S.-based HR policy intelligence; and the eSPD Health and Welfare application, allowing companies to create, maintain and distribute electronic benefits summary plan descriptions (eSPDs) online, consists of a comprehensive library of domain-specific knowledge that is configurable to the way a customers business processes and HR plans and policies actually work.  In combination, the personalized, highly intuitive design of the integrated Workscape and Authoria applications can help reduce routine HR inquiries as well as in-bound call center activity, ensuring that customers realize the full ROI and performance benefits promised.

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.

About Workscape
Designed for the workforce, Workscape's solutions transform the delivery and adoption of HR services across the enterprise to enable a higher performing organization.  An innovator in HR self-service, Workscape provides a full range of online benefits and workforce management applications including employee self-service, manager self-service, compensation planning, and benefits administration, as well as an employee portal.  Workscape's applications and services are configurable to support each clients unique business processes, easily integrated into multi-vendor environments to ensure protection of existing technology investments, and are available in multiple deployment options to enable rapid implementation and ROI.  Workscape's award-winning solutions have been embraced by millions of employees worldwide at 140 major corporations. For more information, visit the company at www.workscape.com or call (888) 605-9620.

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Contacts for Workscape:
Deidre Moore     
Director, Strategic Communications  
(508) 861-3114     
deidre.moore@workscape.com   

Jeanne Achille
The Devon Group
(732) 542-2000, ext. 11
jeanne@devonpr.com

Contact for Authoria:
David Fleming
(781) 530-2040
david.fleming@authoria.com

Workscape is a trademark of Workscape, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Authoria, Authoria eSPD, and Authoria HR are trademarks or registered trademarks of Authoria, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.