State Governments Select Arbortext Software to Streamline Legislative Processes

["Beth Ambaruch" <bea@arbortext.com>]

State Governments Select Arbortext Software to Streamline Legislative
Processes


ANN ARBOR, Mich., June 9, 2003 -- Arbortext, Inc., a leading global
provider of XML-based software for content creation, editing and
multichannel publishing, today announced state governments are using its
software to create and publish statute data, bills, amendments and
regulations, and to automatically generate journals, committee reports
and assignments, and other necessary reports that support the
legislative process.

State governments currently using or planning to implement Arbortext
software for their legislative applications include the State of
Alabama, State of Idaho, State of Maine, State of Minnesota, State of
North Dakota, State of Oklahoma, and the State of Texas.

Drafting and approving legislation is a dynamic and complex process
involving many parties, including legislative chambers, committees,
state agencies and the legislative services group (often comprised of
drafters and revisors who are lawyers and administrators that author
proposed legislation and maintain confidentiality with the legislators).
Arbortext software enables these groups to work in a collaborative
environment that supports confidential information exchange so that
legislation can be efficiently drafted, tracked and published in the
multiple formats required.

Managing changes and maintaining integrity of statute data is critical
for an efficient legislative process. Arbortext software provides
capabilities such as support for shared drafting, change tracking, and
automatic line and page numbering.  These capabilities are critical for
timely updates to statutes when there is session activity.

When sessions are in, state legislatures are working in a time-critical
environment resulting in heavy workloads.   For example, one legislature
meets for 90 days out of each year to act on more than 2300 bills.
Ensuring the accuracy of the information created during this time is
critical because errors that are introduced into a bill may require new
legislation to correct the error, a time-consuming and costly fix.
Arbortext software helps eliminate errors through reuse because it
minimizes the amount of information that needs to be re-entered during
the legislative process.

“Arbortext’s ability to leverage the XML standard to create intelligent
standards-based content makes our software a perfect fit for legislative
applications,” said Mike Sundquist, Product Marketing Manager for
Arbortext.  “We offer state governments the unique capability to support
collaborative drafting through each phase of a proposed bill’s life
cycle, and provide comprehensive change management which enables them to
create, manage and deliver legislative documents that are accurate,
relevant and timely while maintaining the integrity of the statutes,
ultimately addressing the needs of their constituents.”

About Arbortext
Arbortext is a leading global provider of XML-based software for content
creation, editing and multichannel publishing to Web, print, CD-ROM and
wireless devices.  Arbortext’s software is installed at over 1,300
organizations worldwide.

Current customers include American Express Financial Services, Audi,
Boeing, Bombardier, British Aerospace, Caterpillar, DaimlerChrysler,
Ericsson Telecom, Ford, General Electric, GM, IBM, International Thomson
Publishing, Lucent, Nokia, Nortel Networks, PeopleSoft, Pfizer, Ricoh,
Sun Microsystems, Toyota, United Airlines, Volkswagen, and Volvo.
Arbortext is a founding member and active participant in the XML
Activity of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Headquartered in Ann
Arbor, Michigan, USA, Arbortext has offices around the world.  For more
information please visit http://www.arbortext.com.

Contact: 	Beth Ambaruch, APR			David Stone
	  	Arbortext, Inc.				Ketchum
	  	+1 734.327.6014				+1 312.228.6967
	 	bea@arbortext.com				david.stone@ketchum.com

		Press room:  http://www.arbortext.com/html/press_room.html
# # #