WhiteCross SYSTEMS TARGETS ONLINE MEDIA INDUSTRY

WhiteCross Systems, one of the world's leading analytical solution providers for the telecom and IP industries, announced a new initiative to offer its analytical/data mining services to the online media industry. Towards this effort, WhiteCross has signed an agreement with ABC Interactive (ABCi), the industry's premier online verification service. ABCi is the interactive affiliate of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), the world's oldest and largest media industry auditing organization.

The partnership aligns WhiteCross' strength in outsourced and automated data reporting and ABCi's solid reputation for delivering objective, credible online activity verification. Companies that choose the combined offering from WhiteCross and ABCi will benefit from highly dependable site traffic measurement data, which in turn helps to speed the audit delivery process.

"WhiteCross offers superior measurement technology including data acquisition and cleaning processes. It's a complete activity measurement infrastructure that provides clear, concise data to help streamline the auditing process for our clients," explains Dick Bennett, ABCi's senior vice president, information technology auditing. "These dependable online activity figures help advertisers negotiate reasonable banner ad prices and enhance the accuracy of their advertising revenue predictions."

Liz Leonard, IDC's senior analyst for marketing services observes, "The partnership between ABC Interactive and WhiteCross makes a lot of sense for both parties, and creates a nice bridge for analytics to cross over into media and for the media industry to gain effective, accurate measurement tools. Media companies can take advantage of this simple-to-use, yet sophisticated data reporting and analysis to impact various aspects of their business in an effort to increase their profitability."

WhiteCross' new focus on the online media industry stems from its current partnership with ABCe, the interactive auditor and ABC affiliate in the United Kingdom. Through that partnership, WhiteCross is providing accurate site traffic measurement for Teletext, a leading online news service in the U.K., and has signed several yet-to-be-announced online/electronic media industry customers as a result. WhiteCross plans to leverage its experience with these leading companies and expand its focus on providing the online media industry with reporting and analytical solutions.

"The online media industry is ready for a fast, accurate measurement and reporting solution," said John Thompson, vice president of Worldwide Marketing for WhiteCross Systems. "Media executives and senior managers need to have accurate and reliable information to support their rate cards and CPM rates. And, with the expanded emphasis on new advertising formats, pay for performance advertising deals, and the increasing demand for accountability, we see this as a perfect time for a service-based solution that is flexible and robust enough to meet these new challenges."

"This service also has the additional benefit of providing accurate, base level information for auditors. This first-stage measurement data has often been fraught with errors, inconsistencies and delays. We have built and implemented technology and processes that automate and improve the production and delivery information for audit and verification purposes, thus helping to streamline and speed up the audit process."

Using WhiteCross' infrastructure, technology and expertise, media executives in sales, marketing and operations receive filtered and tailored measurement information on a daily basis. WhiteCross also provides intelligence to facilitate proactive, informed decisions about a number of items, including content and reader consumption, as well as information to better manage business decisions and affiliate activity.

Beyond the production of information to assist in completing audits in a more timely fashion, WhiteCross offers a service to media companies that allows senior managers and executives to receive customized data reporting and analysis for their line of business needs. WhiteCross also provides consulting expertise to seasoned media professionals to augment their strong intuitive sense of how to improve existing franchises. Using WhiteCross' infrastructure and services, executives can base decisions on intuition supported by real data.

About ABCi

An innovative business leader in the online auditing arena since 1995, ABCi was created in response to demand from the advertising community to provide independent third-party audits and industry-developed standards for Web site and other online advertising. ABCi audits Web sites, search engines, e-mail delivery systems, chat rooms and Internet broadcasters, and has been delivering dependable unique visitor analyses since 1999. New offerings include browser-based auditing and privacy verification, while affiliate partnership tracking and wireless auditing services are currently in development. For more information about ABCi's services, visit their Web site at www.abcinteractiveaudits.com or contact Evelyn Hepner via e-mail at hepnerea@accessabc.com or by phone at 847-879-8282.

About WhiteCross Systems

WhiteCross Systems is a leading provider of business and customer intelligence solutions. WhiteCross provides critical infrastructure services for companies interested in receiving timely and customized data analysis in order to strengthen customer relationships, as well as managing the health and outlook of their businesses. The outsourced services include automated, tailored and supported data feeds for line-of-business executives; and reporting and analytical CRM applications that enable organizations to make more informed decisions. WhiteCross' reporting and analytical technology, partnered with its consulting services help companies increase revenue, earnings and profits, while cutting costs on internal IT operations. The company specializes in providing its technology, expertise and actionable insights to premier media, e-business, telco and IP Services companies. WhiteCross Systems has headquarters in San Francisco, Calif., USA; and Bracknell, Berkshire, United Kingdom. For more information, visit the WhiteCross Systems Website www.whitecross.com.

Contact msr.comm for WhiteCross Systems, Kerry Coutler, kerry@msrdotcomm.com, 415-447-6115 or for ABC Interactive, Marybeth Meils, 847-879-8442.