FileNet Launches Compliance Framework To Help Companies Meet Regulatory Demands; Comprehensive ECM Compliance Framework Is Designed to Reduce Costs While Automating Compliance Processes and Related Risk Management Decisions

COSTA MESA, Calif., Feb. 9
 
To help companies reduce the costs and risks of doing business in an era of intensified public scrutiny and regulation, FileNet Corporation (Nasdaq: FILE), the leading provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions, today unveiled the industry's first comprehensive ECM compliance management framework. 

Leveraging the FileNet P8 platform, FileNet's Compliance Framework is intended to manage three critical elements of compliance.  First, it helps companies put in place processes to react to changing regulations.  Secondly, it provides organizations with the ability to manage content.  Finally, the framework can connect with various legacy systems found throughout the enterprise. 

The FileNet Compliance Framework helps provide enterprises with increased control and better visibility into their organization -- and can help reduce operational risk by providing an event-driven architecture capable of reacting to "material" events in real time to address current and evolving compliance requirements. 

"Today, organizations demand greater accountability, responsiveness and risk management from their compliance initiatives.  At the same time, they seek to reduce operating costs and meet multiple compliance mandates," said Lee Roberts, chairman and chief executive officer for FileNet.  "To do that, we believe they need a compliance framework -- not a single point solution. FileNet is the only vendor today that can meld best-of-breed Enterprise Content and Business Process Management tools into one flexible framework to address multiple regulatory needs." 

With organizations under increasing pressure to address evolving requirements created by Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), among other government and industry specific regulations, the FileNet Compliance Framework gives them the ability to easily integrate compliance policies and practices into their ongoing business processes.  
"We've been working closely with customers for years to support their compliance initiatives," added Roberts.  "By looking intimately at how different companies are structured and assessing how best they can use ECM technology to streamline internal processes and organize content, we've helped utilities meet Nuclear Regulatory Commission reporting requirements, financial services firms meet SEC 17a-4 trade record retention needs and insurers tackle HIPAA, to name a few.  This hands-on experience has allowed us to design a strong, reliable, secure framework that we believe truly offers customers the best return on their IT investment." 

The FileNet Compliance Framework helps to provide consistency across the organization and better control in the management of records and business processes by tracking real-time information on who's done what, where, and across which departments.  This helps validate the process of how information was gathered for internal auditors and external regulators, and allows them to see how and why decisions were made.  Providing this information in real-time can help reduce risk -- and costs -- over the long-term and gives organizations the freedom to focus more on their business. 

"People get hung up on the idea of compliance -- but in reality, it's all about better control, increased visibility, and the effectiveness of your financial reporting process.  It's also about the speed and accuracy in which you report -- not only to regulators and auditors -- but to shareholders and investors," said Debra Logan, research director at Gartner, Inc.  "That's why there is a greater need in today's enterprises for management of operational, as well as compliance risk.  It's also why Content Management solutions and Business Process Management technologies should be high on an organization's investment list this year."

The FileNet Compliance Framework provides an event-driven architecture, which can identify and initiate responses to material events, such as a change in a financial report.  Powered by FileNet's market-leading Business Process and Content Management capabilities, this functionality allows organizations to define and execute automated, event-driven workflow processes related to changes in records, and other content, including updates made in enterprise applications. 
"Not only must companies put in place an architecture to support the management and enforcement of policy and procedure in a repeatable and affordable manner, but they must do so with an eye toward much broader compliance needs across the company," said John Hagerty, vice president at AMR Research. 

FileNet's Compliance Framework is scheduled for availability during the second quarter of 2004.  For more information, please contact 1-800-FileNet or visit www.FileNet.com/Compliance.

About FileNet 
FileNet Corporation (Nasdaq: FILE) helps organizations make better decisions by managing the content and processes that drive their business. FileNet's Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions allow customers to build and sustain competitive advantage by managing content throughout their organizations, automating and streamlining their business processes, and providing the full spectrum of connectivity needed to simplify their critical and everyday decision-making. 
FileNet ECM solutions deliver a comprehensive set of capabilities that integrate with existing information systems to provide cost-effective solutions that solve real-world business problems.
Since the Company's founding in 1982, more than 4,000 organizations, including 81 of the Fortune 100, have taken advantage of FileNet solutions for help in managing their mission-critical content and processes. 
Headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., the Company markets its innovative ECM solutions in more than 90 countries through its own global sales, professional services and support organizations, as well as via its ValueNet(R) Partner network of resellers, system integrators and application developers

Note to Editors: FileNet and ValueNet are registered trademarks of FileNet Corporation.  All other company or product names referenced in this release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
(1) AMR Research Report, Preparing for Sarbanes-Oxley Year Two: Learning 

From Companies That Are Thinking Ahead, December 18, 2003.

For further information, please contact Sonal Dave-Mehta of FileNet Corporation, +1-714-327-3746, [email protected].

SOURCE FileNet Corporation
 
CONTACT: Sonal Dave-Mehta of FileNet Corporation, +1-714-327-3746, [email protected]