LONDON - July 12, 2001 - Zygon, a leading provider of product content management software for e-commerce, and Quark, the market leader in publishing software, announced a strategic alliance today that will build a bridge between online and print channels. Zygon will integrate Quark's electronic publishing and merchandising software with its own technology to provide a multi-channel sales solution for the retail, catalogue, and distribution sectors. According to Charles Abrams, research director at Gartner, "Retailers must expand beyond, but not ignore, the traditional channels they are using today and prepare for multiple channels to carry their content." Organizations can transform themselves into true multi-channel enterprises using integrated software from Zygon and Quark. "The combined offering from Quark and Zygon creates an infrastructure that supports retailers and cataloguers on a strategic and operational level," said Linda Chase, director of product management for business systems at Quark. "Zygon and Quark will deliver a powerful software solution that seamlessly integrates print and online channels to support cost-effective multi-channel marketing." The integrated software will enable organizations to increase their marketing reach and sales across electronic and paper-based channels. Zygon's customers achieve faster time to market for product launches and promotions; greater cross-sell and up-sell capabilities; accurate product information that is synchronized and delivered across all channels in real time; and enhanced customer service and brand consistency. These benefits are realized as a result of rapid delivery of consistent and comprehensive product information to the right channel at the right time. The software is designed to minimize the cost of managing rich product content, including digital assets, for multiple channels such as the Web, print, stores, digital TV, call centers, and wireless devices. James Dobree, CEO of Zygon, commented, "In today's electronic environment, consumers and businesses are demanding 24/7 service and the ability to make purchase decisions through any channel. In order to meet this challenge, organizations need to take control over their product content." He continued, "By integrating Zygon and Quark technology, we have created a powerful product content and digital asset management system, enabling customers to access rich product content from a single source that is coordinated across all channels in real time. This solution, combined with Quark's print publishing merchandise analysis software, allows customers to fully exploit their rich product content for multiple purposes. As a result, customers can streamline their paper and online catalogue production, rapidly create and customize online promotions, and maintain information and brand consistency across all channels." Together, the Zygon and Quark technologies will significantly reduce the costs of managing and maintaining rich product content, including digital assets for multiple channels. The combined solution will improve market effectiveness in order to drive sales, increase productivity, and build collaboration within and between organizations. The Quark and Zygon technologies are platform-neutral and were designed for ease of integration with other business systems, and to grow according to the needs of each customer. About Zygon Zygon is a leading provider of product content and catalogue management software for retailers, cataloguers, and distributors. Zygon’s software enables the management, manipulation, and flow of rich product content from multiple sources to multiple channels via a central repository, which provides organizations with rapid access to dynamic and tailored product content, including digital assets, for multiple purposes. Zygon's technology is based on an open architecture and is platform-neutral and channel-independent. Its flexible infrastructure enables organizations to manage an unlimited product range, create unlimited associations between products to maximize cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, and to provide tailored views of that information for various business users in a format that is meaningful to them.