COURION POISED FOR CONTINUED GROWTH IN 2004 (email this article)

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. - December 9, 2003 -As digital identity continues to sit at the epicenter of conducting business today, Courion® Corporation (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies), a leading provider of self-service identity management solutions, closed the year realizing 30 percent growth over the previous year and is poised for continued growth in 2004.
 
Renowned industry analyst firm IDC predicts that the identity management market will reach nearly $4 billion by 2007. Just this year, Courion gained repeat business from the majority of its customers and added 42 new customers to its base now totaling 178 customers, 14 of the Fortune 100 among them. Most companies continue to tackle the password management problem first and many have added automation of account provisioning operations to the list of top priorities. With that Courion boasts more “in production” customers than its competitors with its Identity Management Suite, and doesn’t consider a customer “in production” until they have achieved at least 35 percent password reset call reduction or provisioning automation. With such widespread adoption, Courion customers are effectively streamlining the user provisioning process from weeks to hours and reducing password reset calls to the help desk by nearly 100 percent, all contributing to significant cost savings and improved productivity as well as increased security.
 
“Courion is unique in its common-sense, value-based approach to quickly delivering ROI for identity management,” said Chris Christiansen, IDC program vice president, Security Products. “We continue to see customers pushing hard on vendors to deliver value in the short term. It’s no longer enough just to have great technology. The technology must be strong enough to quickly alleviate customers' pain points. Moreover, customers want a building block approach that unifies new capabilities without excessive system integration costs.”
 
Courion believes its focus on delivering value to customers is what sets the company apart. “The repeat business we gained this year is proof that we are delivering on our promise to deliver true value to our customers,” said Chris Zannetos, president and CEO. “Digital identity management is multi-faceted, requiring a strong, viable partner with solid technology and a commitment to success. Courion customers get that with our solutions and our team and keep coming back as their digital identity management needs evolve. Our focus in 2004 is to stay one step ahead of our customers so that we can continue to be their ‘right hands’ when it comes to managing their digital identity operations.”
 
This message resonated with customers earlier this year at CONVERGE, the industry’s first provisioning users group conference, hosted by Courion. With presentations from Children’s Hospital Boston, Office Depot and The Boeing Company, Courion customers from around the globe shared best practices for maximizing their return on investment and minimizing the total cost of ownership of their identity management solutions. They gained so much valuable insight and tangible action plans from their peers, customers asked Courion to host the next CONVERGE in the spring of 2004 rather than wait an entire year for the next one, a request with which Courion will comply. "The presenters shared real-life case studies addressing the identity management challenges many of us face." said Chuck Kloka, Vice President, Comerica Bank. "Many of us returned with greater knowledge of ways to leverage Courion's Self Service Attainment program to boost user adoption rates. It was clear that that's our greatest challenge -- getting people to use the system -- but once they do, everyone benefits."
 
Courion offers the Self-Service Attainment (SSA) program to boost user adoption rates and ensure a smooth migration to self-service. Many customers realize a natural resistance to change when they implement self-service solutions. Recognizing this, Courion designed the SSA program to help customers market the solution to the target users and create real incentives for them to migrate to self-service. In the end, users are able to resolve their identity management issues faster and easier and the company maximizes its investment in the technology.
 
In addition to positive customer feedback, Courion’s Identity Management Suite ranked high in the Network Computing review of identity management products in the October 30, 2003 Secure Enterprise supplement (also online at Security Pipeline http://www.nwc.securitypipeline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=15306125&pgno=10). Courion announced a new version of its product suite in October. Identity Management Suite 6.5 is a mature product built on a solid, customer-proven technology foundation, offering the broadest spectrum of information security support, facilitating multi-dimensional views of security administration, help desk and end user staff, while maximizing security policy automation and business value delivered.
 
Additionally, Courion joined the Liberty Alliance this year, declaring its support for an open, interoperable standard for federated network identity and identity-based Web services, underscoring its position that the existing IT infrastructure, no matter how heterogeneous, can be leveraged to gain significant ROI from identity management solutions. The company also joined the TechNet CEO Cyber Security Task Force this year in support of the challenge to companies across the nation to use the Corporate Information Security Evaluation for CEOs to improve their company’s information security posture by National Cyber Security Day, April 4, 2004.
 
With continued pressure to shore up security and achieve regulatory compliance, the market for identity management is strong. With a solid customer base, ahead-of-the-curve technology and deep partner relationships, Courion is set to guide customers along the path to self-service digital identity management.
 
About Courion
Courion Corporation is a leading provider of self-service identity management solutions that help enterprises manage the access rights and credentials of employees, business partners and customers with more speed, more security and less cost. Courion’s Identity Management Suite, anchored by its AccountCourier® user provisioning and PasswordCourier password management product lines, securely automates the resolution of common operational challenges such as user account setup and deletion and password reset and synchronization. Courion’s non-invasive, self-service architecture enforces security policies, while providing measurable cost-savings, operational efficiencies and productivity improvements.
 
Courion’s customers include industry leaders such as American Electric Power, The Boeing Company, Children’s Hospital Boston, Fannie Mae, GE, Office Depot, SunTrust Banks, government institutions such as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Census Bureau, and large not-for-profit organizations such as Kaiser Permanente. Courion is funded by QuestMark Partners, JMI Equity and other private investors. For more information, contact Courion’s headquarters in Framingham, MA, USA at 508-879-8400 or visit www.courion.com.
 
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2003 Courion Corporation. All rights reserved. Courion, PasswordCourier and AccountCourier are trademarks of Courion Corporation. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.