Hosted CMS Leader Registers 300 Percent Year-to-Year Growth, Adds New Service Offerings

MARINA DEL REY, Calif. (October 14, 2003) - CrownPeak Technology (www.crownpeak.com), the leader in hosted content management solutions, today announced it has achieved a series of major milestones for 2003, including record growth, a battery of product upgrades and the addition of new clients that have taken the company to 250 ongoing CMS projects.

Finishing its third successful year in business, CrownPeak has recorded 300 percent year-to-year revenue growth for the second consecutive year, while keeping organizational costs and staff levels unchanged.  CrownPeak has also continued to drive innovation by adding a range of new product features and service offerings.

At the same time, CrownPeak announced that it has surpassed the 250 mark for projects launched, expanding its reach within the government, publishing, non-profit and manufacturing sectors. Among the companies joining the CrownPeak client roster are Trek Bikes, Cisco Learning, Dearborn Financial, National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), the City of Norfolk Virginia, Tillamook Rainforest Coalition, NXTBook, and CurtCo Media, publisher of The Robb Report.

"The market continues to validate the Software Services model, applied to enterprise-level content management," said Jim Howard, CEO, CrownPeak.  "Our revenues are growing steadily and our customer list is expanding rapidly.  And best of all, we've been able to deliver more than 250 live projects without a real increase in costs.  The promise of the model is playing out.  In another 12 months, we expect to more than double our 'installed base' while continuing to refine and expand our product offerings.

"Where an installed product company would be announcing a major release, CrownPeak releases new product elements all the time," Howard said.  "Our clients appreciate it when we call them and ask if they'd like to have a given feature.  We then suggest that they take a look - and find that it's already in there.  Three years on, we're delighted to be able to say that Advantage CMS remains the only Web content management system to combine enterprise-level power and flexibility with the cost and speed-of implementation of a hosted software application."

Demonstrating its product leadership in the hosted CMS sector, CrownPeak has expanded Advantage CMS with a series of enhanced capabilities.  Newly incorporated into the core software platform is a Text Output Manager, which enables automated Section 508 and other accessibility compliance as well as managed syndication output. 

Packaged Options like turnkey intranet systems, secure extranet systems and calendaring enable companies to launch an integrated suite of communications applications in days.  Online Collaboration additions include embedded chat and task management systems.  A Visual Workflow Manager empowers business users to use a graphical interface to design and create complex workflows for content management.

CrownPeak's Similarity Engine uses artificial intelligence techniques to automatically create related links by "reading" all content on the site and deciding what content resembles other site content; Site Monitor, a standalone system, monitors client Web sites and reports if any links to external web sites are broken.  In addition, Site Monitor ensures that all site changes are logged and externally validated.  As part of a new client project, CrownPeak has also launched a new set of translation workflow and reporting features. 

"CrownPeak has changed the industry's expectation for what a hosted content management solution can achieve," Howard said.  "More and more, we've been competing with the big players in the content management business.  They've been pursuing the larger projects in the mid-market and government sectors, and we have been gathering momentum and exposure.  Through this process, it's clear that the Software Services model has reached and passed the tipping point, where experienced IT buyers now understand that hosted content management is the intelligent alternative."

About CrownPeak Technology

Based in Los Angeles, CrownPeak Technology is the first company to provide world-class Web content management software as a service.  The company's Advantage CMS platform is the only solution that combines enterprise-level power and flexibility with the cost and speed-of-implementation of a hosted software application.  Advantage CMS features the easiest-to-use interface of any CMS, and is the only hosted CMS to offer a full API and developer environment.  Serving such clients as Crain Communications, Honeywell, The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the University of Southern California, and the State of Virginia, Advantage CMS manages and publishes hundreds of thousands of Web pages. CrownPeak has been named to eContent's 100 most influential companies list, has won eWeek's prestigious Analysts Choice Award and is a 2002 SIIA Codie Award finalist in two categories: Best Content Management System and Best Software as a Service.

Press contact:
Erin Lumley
SHIFT Communications
elumley@shiftcomm.com
415.591.8414