Content Management: Epic Cycle Announces General Availability Of Argus 3.0 Content Management Platform

Epic Cycle Interactive, Inc. www.epiccycle.com announced general availability of its Argus 3.0 Content Management Platform recently here at Ad:Tech, one of the industry's preeminent interactive advertising and technology conference.

The product is the offering from Epic Cycle, provider of on-demand solutions for interaction management that enable organizations to easily manage content, digital media and interactive community, and drive ecommerce, marketing and other functions to maximize the customer experience.

Argus 3.0 provides a rich set of easy-to-use features and functionality to empower staff at all levels to manage and publish content to support enterprise content management, community management, ad management and email marketing. The platform delivers the performance and scalability required to support Web traffic up to hundreds of thousands of concurrent users.

"For nearly 10 years, Epic Cycle has enabled clients to build award-winning websites that drive repeat interactions and forge deep, lasting relationships with their customers, employees and partners," said James Fitzgerald, president and CEO of Epic Cycle. "Our Argus 3.0 platform provides the latest technology to enable organizations to develop websites that are timely, relevant, creative and rich with 'sticky' content, while lowering the overall costs of managing those sites via streamlined processes."

Argus 3.0 offers features to streamline and simplify content management -- which enable users to quickly publish content in any given look and feel; these including in-context editing, and access to site navigation menus and style sheets. The platform leverages SmartForms, user-friendly templates that contain features such as WYSIWYG editors and checkbox controls that make content management easy -- even for non-technical users -- yet also offer sophisticated functionality, such as RSS feeds and breadcrumb trails.

The Argus 3.0 platform stores and organizes digital assets in secure shared libraries under a folder structure that mirrors the site navigation, for easy search and reuse of shared assets across the organization.

New mobile services functionality enables organizations to fully leverage the increasing popularity of mobile web browsing and offers an additional touch point to help build customer relationships. Argus 3.0 is WAP-enabled, and content can be flagged for streamlined delivery to mobile web browsers.

Argus 3.0 also offers web analytics capabilities to track metrics such as traffic, referral, abandonment and conversion rates, to provide needed insight to help improve website design and content. Organizations can track and report key metrics for executive, corporate sponsors and partners and other vested parties. Data can be presented and viewed in real time or historically, and/or via custom reports tailored to specific needs.

Additionally, Argus 3.0 offers the following features and functionality:

• List Management - Provides the ability to feature top content.
• Events Management - Streamlines management of calendar of events.
• Photo Management - Enables the creation of photo albums via simple drag-and-drop functionality.
• News Editor - Allows organizations to create articles and other HTML content through a simple WYSIWYG editor.
• Publishing Tools - Streamlines management of workflow processes and publishing schedules.
• Security Services - Offers secure log-in process, and allows organizations to set up user authentication and permission levels.
• Search Services - Incorporates site search with contextual messaging/advertising.
• Mobile Services - Enables content to be re-purposed for WAP publishing.
• External Data Feed Services - Enables content from outside sources to be dynamically pushed or pulled via RSS feed.

Since Argus 3.0 is delivered as a fully supported, on-demand solution, it can be rapidly implemented with minimal upfront investment. Subscribers receive both ongoing enhancements made to the platform as well as dedicated account team support.

In conjunction with the Argus 3.0 platform, clients can opt to leverage other Argus products, including Epic Cycle's Argus Multimedia Center, which offers unparalleled flexibility in media delivery, supporting Flash, Windows Media and RealPlayer rich media formats for smooth uninterrupted delivery and superior viewing experience. The solution features a powerful, intuitive control panel that allows organizations to incorporate rich media and advertising on the Website within minutes -- for simplified management and publishing of digital assets. Users have access to a rich set of viewer features such as play list creation and video sharing capabilities.

Epic Cycle
Epic Cycle Interactive, Inc. (Epic Cycle) is a leading provider of Web-based interaction management technology solutions that enhance customer loyalty, optimize business processes and improve marketing return on investment. Since its inception in 1998, Epic Cycle has been dedicated to providing web-based software as a service for interactive marketing solutions.

Epic Cycle clients include sports franchises such as the Washington Redskins, Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders, Carolina Panthers, Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Red Wings, LiveNation Motorsports, Mavericks Surf, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Ampere Media, and Metabolife. For more information on Epic Cycle, visit www.epiccycle.com.

SOURCE: Epic Cycle Interactive, Inc.