Download the pdf version of this press release
Kristen Conte
eMeta Corporation
800.804.0103 ext. 142
Standard & Poor's Selects eMeta to Power Enhanced Digital Commerce Capabilities
Move to eRights Software Platform Provides Greater Flexibility to Increase Revenue and Cut Maintenance Costs
NEW YORK, NY - September 10 , 2002 -- eMeta Corporation today announced that Standard & Poor's, a global leader in financial information and investment analysis, is the latest division of The McGraw-Hill Companies to choose eMeta's technology as the software platform to enhance and customize the extensive global financial data offered to clients over the Web.
Under the agreement, eMeta will provide Standard and Poor's with its flagship eRights solution, the leading information access control and commerce software. As an open infrastructure software solution enabling the management of the products, subscriptions and user authentication necessary to facilitate the sale of digital content, eRights will serve as the backbone for all Standard & Poor's digital publishing efforts as the company centralizes and expands all its Web-based financial database offerings.
"We selected eMeta after an extensive functional and technical evaluation and found that it met all of our critical needs," said Brian Whitehead, Vice President and Chief Technology Architect at Standard and Poor's. "The switch to the eRights platform will allow us to replace a lot of legacy code, which we expect will increase our functionality by a level of ten, while cutting our maintenance costs in half."
Two examples of increased functionality Standard and Poor's will gain by implementing eRights include the ability to offer free trials of products and services and to conduct micro payments via individual credit cards - opening up new markets and potential revenue streams the incumbent legacy system couldn't address. Development of new products and services is also expected to be much easier and quicker. "We believe eRights is a unique product in the marketplace. It's ideal for anyone serving content over the Web," Whitehead added.
Standard and Poor's initially plans to move its Market Insight investment service product to the eRights platform, which Whitehead anticipates will be a fairly "straightforward project to be accomplished in three months." When completed, clients will be able to subscribe to any number of subsets of the Market Insight database of over 10,000 global companies - based on geography, depth, asset class, timeframe or other unique interest. From a customers' perspective, the "improved" Market Insight service will remove the constraints of a "one-size-fits-all" product by enabling them to subscribe only to the content that has the highest value to them. It will also simplify the user interface by eliminating clutter. Moving forward with the eRights platform, Standard and Poor's expects to bring similar improvements to its other existing products, as well as to quickly bring other new products to market, such as one based on mutual funds.
Standard & Poor's is one of several divisions of the McGraw-Hill Companies working with eMeta. Platts and Aviation Week's digital commerce initiatives are also powered by the eRights technology.
"Standard and Poor's selection of eMeta and eRights is a huge validation of our successful partnership with two other divisions of McGraw-Hill," said Jonathon Lewin, eMeta's Founder and Chief Technology Officer. "It serves as a further endorsement of our single-minded focus on our customers' success and why we are continually being selected as the platform of choice for companies to maximize revenue from their online content."
About eMeta Corporation
eMeta is the leading provider of access control and commerce software for media and software companies. eMeta’s advanced solutions and services enable its many globally recognized customers to sell and control their digital goods and services, maximizing the value of their digital assets. Recognized by Deloitte in 2004 as one of the fastest growing technology companies in North America, eMeta counts Pearson, The McGraw-Hill Companies, IEEE, New York Times Digital, Wolters Kluwer, Celera Genomics, and iVillage among its many clients. The company is based in New York City. Additional information is available at www.emeta.com.
About Standard& Poor's
Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP), provides independent financial information, analytical services, and credit ratings to the world's financial markets. Among the company's many products are the S&P Global 1200, the premier global equity performance benchmark, the S&P 500, the premier U.S. portfolio index, and credit ratings on more than 220,000 securities and funds worldwide. With more than 5,000 employees located in 18 countries, Standard & Poor's is an integral part of the global financial infrastructure. For more information, visit http://www.emeta.com/news/www.standardandpoors.com.
