Verity Assists The Hartford in Recruiting New Employees — Through Internet and Intranet HR Applications

Business Wire, Sept 21, 1998

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 21, 1998--Verity Inc. (Nasdaq:VRTY), a leading provider of knowledge retrieval solutions for the enterprise and Internet, today announced that The Hartford, one of the nation's oldest and largest insurance and financial services operations, has rolled out a human resources Internet and intranet application based on Verity Information Server.

"Current Openings," available at www.thehartford.com, use Verity's technology to enable potential employees to conduct complex searches of all of the job listings available within The Hartford.

The Hartford application is unique because it allows job seekers to search by metatags, a feature in the Verity product for developers to add more specific information for more accurate searching. Now, a potential employee can search The Hartford web site for positions by geography, division, profession, job function and more.

This capability helps filter out the jobs that might mention a search term, but not offer a job specific to that search term. For example, in a less sophisticated system, a query of "communications" might yield more than 100 job listings because almost every corporate job requires "communications skills." Verity's search technology allows The Hartford system to provide more accurate responses.

Unlike potential employees, those currently with The Hartford can search the "Current Openings" information via the corporate intranet. Built using the same Verity solution, the intranet site supplies even more data, such as job grade, with each listing.

Like the Internet site, however, the intranet listings are completely automated and integrated with The Hartford's Staffing Management system. Each night, HTML pages are generated and sent directly to the corporate Web server. Upon receiving the information, Verity's technology then automatically re-indexes the collection.

"With so many different job postings in so many different divisions, we wanted to make it easy for potential employees to find the information they are seeking," said Jim Gworek, a senior member of The Hartford Life Internet Commerce Group. "We needed a solution that provided the most features for complex and accurate searching and seamlessly integrate with Lotus Notes."

The Hartford also uses Verity's indexing and spidering solutions for use within two new intranet sites -- Recruiter's Workbench, a site containing procedures and guidelines for hiring, and "LifeLine," The Hartford corporate intranet. Within the Recruiter's Workbench, Verity is used to obtain relevant staffing reports. Verity is used in LifeLine to provide a focused collection for viewing current articles and news.

"Verity's enterprise knowledge retrieval solutions are ideal for large companies like The Hartford that need to collect and distribute precise, personalized information automatically," said Anthony Bettencourt, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for Verity Inc. "Our advanced searching, indexing and distribution technology allows some of the largest enterprises in the world to customize solutions to best fit their information needs." About The Hartford

The Hartford is one of the nation's oldest and largest insurance and financial services operations, with 1997 revenues of $13.3 billion. As of March 31, 1998, The Hartford had assets of $141.4 billion and shareholders' equity of $6.3 billion. The company is a leading provider of commercial property and casualty insurance, automobile and homeowners coverages, and a variety of life insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management plans.

The Hartford's Internet address is http://www.thehartford.com. About Verity

Verity is a leading provider of enterprise knowledge retrieval solutions for corporate intranets, online publishers and OEMs and ISVs. Verity's product suite enables organizations to turn corporate intranets into a powerful knowledge base, making business information accessible and reusable across the enterprise. Verity's leadership has been recognized by numerous organizations, most recently by Delphi Consulting, which gave Verity the Market Recognition Award based on a survey of 600 corporate users.

Verity's comprehensive and integrated product family enables enterprise-wide document indexing, classification, search and retrieval, personalized information dissemination, and hybrid online and CD publishing -- all from the same underlying Verity collection. Verity's KeyView products also enable viewing of source documents stored in more than 200 formats.

Verity's products are used by more than 1,000 corporations, government agencies, on-line service providers, Internet publishers and software developers worldwide. Verity alliances include Adobe Systems, AT&T, CNET, Cisco, Compaq, Dow Jones, Ernst & Young, Financial Times, NewsEDGE Corporation, Informix, Lotus, NEC, Netscape Communications, SAP, SCO, Siemens Nixdorf, Sybase, Tandem and Time Warner's Pathfinder.

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to Verity and the expected performance of its Verity Information Server product, as well as integration of its Verity Information Server product into customer environments. Other risks relating to Verity and its products are as set forth in its Form 10-K and Form 10-Qs as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.