Esker Awarded Patent For DeliveryWare Rules Engine

Esker Software, the leading provider of intelligently automated document delivery solutions and services, today announced it has received a patent (US Patent 6,906,817, issued June 14, 2005) for the technology behind its DeliveryWare Rules Engine, an innovative mechanism for enabling content-based document delivery.

The DeliveryWare Rules Engine forms the heart of the Esker DeliveryWare document delivery platform. As electronic documents and data are captured by Esker DeliveryWare, the patented technology automatically recognizes and extracts data from electronic documents to determine formatting, conversion and routing actions that need to take place, as defined by previously-built rules.

"Patents are awarded strictly for innovations that offer a truly unique approach to solving a problem. This patent separates our platform from other products in the marketplace and demonstrates our advanced technological leadership," noted Jean-Michel Berard, Chief Executive Officer for Esker. "The DeliveryWare Rules Engine is what makes our product flexible and enables customers to easily automate information exchange to help them streamline business processes."

Most document automation solutions in the current marketplace require end-users to manually embed special tags into documents to assure they are properly routed. The DeliveryWare Rules Engine is unique in that removes this requirement by automating the entire document process, from content-based recognition of routing information during capture, through formatting and conversion, and finally to actual delivery.

"The DeliveryWare Rules Engine is the ‘brain' that allow customers to achieve document automation without custom programming," said Jean-Jacques Berard, Executive Vice President of Research and Development for Esker. "We designed this to make things easier for organizations who want to automate paper-intensive business processes. A wizard-like interface enables non-technical users to easily model and replicate these processes, keeping documents electronic throughout."

Esker DeliveryWare is already in place in over 750 organizations worldwide, and helps achieve automation for thousands of documents per day. Providing a single platform for automating document capture and delivery via fax, email, postal mail, and even wireless phones via SMS, Esker DeliveryWare features the industry's broadest range of delivery media and file format conversion options.

"Since we entered the marketplace, our approach has been recognized by analysts as an innovative and cost-effective way for organizations to achieve greater efficiency," added CEO Jean-Michel Berard. "This patent further validates our leadership and the decision so many enterprises have made to implement Esker DeliveryWare."

About Esker Software
Esker is the intelligent document delivery leader. With software and hosted delivery services to automate every phase and every type of document delivery, Esker helps organizations streamline manual, paperintensive business processes providing significant and immediate operational efficiencies, cost savings and measurable ROI in as little as three to six months.

Esker intelligent document delivery solutions include:
Esker DeliveryWare – a single and universal information exchange platform that captures, formats, converts, routes and stores documents – automatically – from any enterprise application. It features the industry's broadest range of delivery media and file format conversion options and is the only solution with the DeliveryWare Rules Engine for document processing intelligence that eliminates the need for custom programming.

Esker on Demand – document delivery services enabling physical mail, fax, e-mail and SMS delivery from enterprise and desktop applications with no printers, mailroom equipment, fax machines, office supplies, etc. The worldwide Esker on Demand network can be accessed via Esker DeliveryWare or online via Esker on Demand for Office.

Founded in 1985, Esker operates globally and has over 70,000 customers and millions of licensed users worldwide. Esker has global headquarters in Lyon, France and U.S. headquarters in Madison, WI. For more information, visit www.esker.com or www.eskerondemand.com.