HandySoft and Plumtree Announce Solution to Automate Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
Best-of-Breed Solution Provides Process Improvement, Collaboration and Real-Time Reporting, Accelerating Auditing Process

28.May.03 - VIENNA, VA and SAN FRANCISCO, CA - HandySoft Corporation, the leader in business process management (BPM) solutions, and Enterprise Web leader Plumtree Software today announced the Sarbanes-Oxley Accelerator, a solution that helps publicly traded companies comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. This solution combines best-of-breed technologies to accelerate the Sarbanes-Oxley auditing process, simplifying the auditing of internal controls and the preparation of financial reports.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is the cornerstone of federal regulators' financial accounting reform and attempts to protect investors by holding executives of public companies directly accountable for any misrepresentation of a company's financial information. According to AMR Research's May 2003 report CIOs: There is a Sarbanes-Oxley Project in Your Future-Do you know what it is?, "61 percent of companies expect business process change will be required [to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley legislation]." Many public companies are using technology to automate the enforcement of financial rules and processes to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This compliance effort is also an opportunity for companies to reap wider business benefits as their business and financial processes are evaluated, improved, automated and strictly enforced.

Both companies will conduct a series of Web seminars including product demonstrations. For more information on how to register visit: http://www.plumtree.com/sarbanes-oxley, or http://www.handysoft.com/solutions/sarbanes-oxley/.

"Most enterprises should take a step further than 'just complying' with Sarbanes-Oxley," said Debra Logan, analyst with Gartner Research. "If you must keep certain records for the purposes of Sarbanes-Oxley, don't stop there. Most enterprises have huge content management problems, uncontrolled explosions of e-mail, and lack of policy and procedure around many document-based processes. Take advantage of this forced opportunity to roll out document and records management software and procedures to gain business efficiency as well, rather than just using it to reduce the risk of noncompliance."

"With the SEC's unanimous vote yesterday detailing new Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, it's imperative that companies start addressing these complex reforms, using the timeline extension to insure that the audit process is comprehensive, timely, and accurate," said Stuart Claggett, chief operating officer of HandySoft. "To address these challenges we are continuing to develop rapidly deployable, process-based solutions that reduce time-to-compliance, improve audit quality, and provide public companies with the flexibility to deal with future regulations and the management of on-going financial process improvement."

To design the processes within the Sarbanes-Oxley Accelerator, and to validate auditing and internal control reporting requirements mandated in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HandySoft consulted leading auditors including Ernst & Young. The Sarbanes-Oxley Accelerator will help customers establish the requisite internal controls and reporting procedures, while providing a platform for collaborating with auditors and board members, and for building best practices around the collection and reporting of financial data.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Accelerator combines business process management from HandySoft's award winning BizFlow platform with collaboration, search, and a personalized portal experience from Plumtree's Enterprise Web Suite. The solution gives each member of the extended accounting team a personalized view of the compliance process based on his or her responsibilities:

• Account teams can collect and document financial evidence, submit account information into a defined workflow through electronic forms, collaborate on documentation, and receive assigned tasks;
  
• Internal and external auditors can monitor compliance and drill down into supporting evidence, and can review reports, policies and procedures to identify any gaps with regulation;
  
• Controllers can manage the planning, testing, and reviewing of internal controls, identify and resolve issues in process or documentation, review and approve documentation, and assign tasks; and
  
• Executives, boards of directors and audit committees can access the breadth of information needed to attest to the effectiveness of internal financial controls, review the audit status reports or a timeline of tasks in real-time, and drill-down into supporting details.

"The Sarbanes-Oxley Accelerator is a major milestone in our 'No Empty Portals' campaign to build partnerships and bring to market applications that deliver value for every line-of-business," said Plumtree CFO Eric Borrmann. "As businesses face new challenges such as Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, Plumtree customers can assemble solutions quickly based on a set of shared services for portal, collaboration, content management and search."

The Sarbanes-Oxley Accelerator is expected to be available in June from both companies, offered as a stand-alone solution or as an add-on to existing HandySoft or Plumtree products. The public can learn more about the offerings at www.plumtree.com or www.handysoft.com.

About Plumtree
Plumtree Software is the Enterprise Web leader. Plumtree's mission is to create a comprehensive Web environment for employees, customers and partners across the enterprise to interact with different systems and work together. Plumtree's Enterprise Web solution consists of integration products for bringing resources from traditional systems together on the Web, foundation services such as collaboration, content management and search for building new Web applications, and a portal platform for delivering these Web applications to broad audiences. Plumtree's independence and its Web Services Architecture allow this solution to span rival platforms and systems, maximizing customers' return on their existing investments. With offices in more than a dozen countries, Plumtree has over 480 customers, including Boeing, Ford Motor Company, Procter & Gamble and the U.S. Navy.

Plumtree is a registered trademark of Plumtree Software, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries. All other registered and unregistered trademarks in this document are the sole property of their respective owners.

About HandySoft Corporation
HandySoft is the premier provider of configurable software solutions that simplify and automate business processes; capture and enforce best practices; improve productivity and quality while reducing costs; integrate information technology; and foster collaboration among employees, customers, and partners.

The foundation for HandySoft's industry and departmental solutions is BizFlow®, the award-winning platform for business process management, automated workflow, and collaboration. BizFlow offers complete capabilities for building and managing automated business processes, including tools for designing and monitoring the processes, presenting and accessing work, integrating existing IT systems, and administering the platform itself. With offices in the U.S. and the Pacific Rim, HandySoft has software installations at over 380 sites worldwide. For more information about HandySoft or BizFlow, please call 1-800-753-9343 or visit http://www.handysoft.com.

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HandySoft, the HandySoft logo, BizFlow, and BizFlow Accelerator Suites are trademarks of HandySoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, please contact:

Sarah Hedges
HandySoft Corporation
703.442.5600
shedges@handysoft.com

Dennis O'Connor
Peter Arnold Associates (for HandySoft)
781.239.1030
doconnor@parnold.com

Carilu Pozorski
Plumtree Software
415-399-7047
Carilu.Pozorski@plumtree.com