Xerox And ESPS to Provide Integrated E-Publishing Solutions - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, March 6, 2000

Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX) Thursday announced a long-term, multimillion-dollar technology development and reseller agreement with ESPS, Inc. (Nasdaq:ESPS). ESPS provides business-to-business software that speeds the assembly and publishing of mission critical documents to paper, the Internet, CD-ROM, and various digital file formats.

Xerox and ESPS have agreed to collaborate on a common product, incorporating the innovative functionality and features of Xerox Dossier Publisher (XDP) and ESPS' CoreDossier into a single, "best of breed" Web content publishing solution.

Xerox will provide sales, distribution and marketing support for the ESPS product suite, while continuing to deliver publishing solutions, software products and related professional services. The agreement will also incorporate ESPS' purchase of certain Xerox technology assets; creation of a Xerox seat on the ESPS board of directors; and Xerox participation on the ESPS Technical Advisory Board.

Future offerings may incorporate other Xerox knowledge management tools such as ContentGuard, which tracks and protects digital property rights; Astoria, offering XML capabilities; and askOnce, a powerful database and web search tool.

"Xerox and ESPS have been working with customers separately to move from traditional, cumbersome processes of producing compliance-related documents to digital, automated, Web-based methods," said Olivier Groues, senior vice president and general manager, Worldwide Industrial Business, Xerox. "Now, we will co-develop and will market a publishing solution that reduces the time, effort and compliance costs."

"By collaborating with a premier partner, Xerox, we will open up new global markets to our technologies, and extend our level of world-class services and support. What makes this relationship special is that both parties see significant benefits for existing and new customers and therefore will strive to make this partnership a mutual success," said Terrence Brennan, president and CEO of ESPS.