SAN JOSE, Calif., April 13, 1999�The Salutation Consortium's architecture for information sharing got a boost today at the AIIM Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, where IBM announced that NuOffice, a Lotus Notes-based office system, will be available in June in North America and Canon, Muratec, and Ricoh said they would ship Salutation-compliant multifunction peripherals supporting NuOffice. NuOffice and the supporting peripherals are the first major products in the United States to incorporate the Consortium's technology for information sharing.

According to Robert F. Pecora, managing director of the Consortium, the Salutation Consortium provided information-sharing technology that simplifies the transfer of data to and from office equipment. The products announced today, which incorporate Salutation technology, support sites with many mobile or telecommuting users.

The NuOffice office system includes Salutation extensions to Lotus Notes that enable users to print, scan, fax, and email without concern for device drivers or directories. Together the products deliver a unified system for scanning, document management, e-mail, messaging, fax, and distributed printing. NuOffice is the first major software application in the United States to incorporate the Consortium's technology for information sharing.

Announced today were:

NuOffice software and supporting devices adhere to the Salutation Architecture, open middleware technology for locating and controlling equipment across the Internet or a company intranet. Once a device has been located, Salutation can facilitate the attachment of the proper device drivers, allowing maximum possible use of the device and its capabilities.

"Salutation leads the way in enabling products to support network users with a new level of information- and device-sharing technology. Our open-systems approach to service discovery and management is supported by major manufacturers in North America and Japan. Salutation-compliant products have been shipping for more than a year in some markets, and the catalog of tools and development aids is growing rapidly. A Windows-based Port-of-Entry tool provides desktop users with Salutation service discovery for existing peripherals, extending the appeal of building new applications right away." said Pecora.

NuOffice is already a successful product in Japan, with supporting peripherals and software from Canon, Fuji Xerox, Hitachi Seibu Software, Mita, Muratec, Ricoh, and Sony. Market momentum around the NuOffice effort has resulted in Fuji Xerox adopting the Salutation Architecture as a company standard for networking office automation equipment. Pecora said, "While other proprietary solutions for service discovery and information management are just coming off the drawing boards, the availability of products supporting Salutation continues to expand."

The Salutation Consortium is a non-profit corporation with member organizations in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Member companies include Adobe Systems, APTi, Axis Communications, Brother, Canon, Cisco, Fuji Xerox, Fujitsu, Granite Systems, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Kobe Steel, Komatsu, Konica, Matsushita, Mita, Mitsubishi, Murata (Muratec), Oki Data, Ricoh, Sanyo, Seiko Epson, Sharp, Sun Microsystems, Toshiba, and Xerox.

Information about the Salutation Architecture is available on the Consortium's web site (http://www.salutation.org).

(30)