CHICAGO, IL -- September 28, 2003 -- NPES, I.O. Technologies and the Graphic Communication Institute (GrCI) of California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) announced today a collaborative market development effort as an early element of NPES' Greater China Project. The announcement was made at a joint Press Conference during Graph Expo at McCormick Place. This initial effort will consist of a China-based portal, serving core-skills educational material intended to bridge the gap between printing practices in North America and China. "It is our belief that an educated consumer will be much more likely to invest in the newer technology products and services offered by our members," said Ya Ping Zhou, NPES Project Director. "The portal will also provide a strong target marketing link for our member companies, and as the market matures, may also be used to provide product-specific training and support." NPES will provide a China-based business office, portal, hosting, and e-commerce services. I.O. Technologies will provide their ollÈ web-based learning environment, relevant content, and their ollÈ InfoFind interactive glossary of industry and related terms. Cal Poly GrCI will provide additional courseware development, and certificates of completion for ollÈ courseware. The Shanghai Technical Institute will provide courseware translation and marketing services to the Chinese market under a separate agreement with NPES. Cal Poly Quote... "We are delighted to be part of this project, which is a natural extension of our existing relationships with I.O. Technologies," said Harvey Levenson, Department Head, Graphic Communication Department. "We are extremely pleased with the ollÈ environment, and the exceptional quality of their courseware and performance support environment," continued Levenson. IO Quote... "In addition to our involvement in the Greater China Project, we are also announcing at Graph EXPO the availability of our ollÈ(tm) AuthorNet tool-set for corporate licensing," said Eric Kenly, CEO of I.O. Technologies. "The tool set makes it possible for organizations, like NPES and their member companies to develop their own content in the ollÈ environment. The tool set will be used extensively by the Greater China Project in the translation and localization of popular courses into the Chinese language," continued Kenly. This same tool set may be used to create content in any language supported by Microsoft Word. To find out more about licensing ollÈ(tm) AuthorNet, please contact I.O. Technologies at [email protected] It is expected that the first translations and portal delivery will take place by the end of 2003. Some of the courses being considered include courseware supporting the Color Imaging Professional (CIP) Certification. Find out more about CIP at www.colorimagingpro.com.