Office software developed in China begins international sales campaign

BEIJING, Dec. 3, 2002 -- Evermore Software today began international sales of Evermore Integrated Office (EIOffice), exporting to Taiwan copies of the first Office software developed in China.

"This is the first step in our international marketing strategy for EIOffice, with far-reaching influence on the Chinese software industry," said Gus Tsao, chief executive officer of Evermore.

"There is increasing resistance to Microsoft around the world, especially in Norway, the United Kingdom and Germany. We know from demonstrating EIOffice at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany, in March 2002, that there is strong interest in open-source and other alternatives. And, with policies advocating competition, we expect to soon begin exporting EIOffice to European and American markets," said Tsao.

EIOffice is the "First Real Office," unlike conventional Office suites that are dictated by a marketing plan. Suites are built by throwing a range of applications together into one bigger box - a word processor, a spreadsheet, presentation graphics, and more - then forcing the applications to work together. Different teams of programmers develop each application separately. Each application comes with its own user interface and command structure - and users must master each. Even if they need to share information across applications, users must launch each application separately - which is less than convenient even as it strains system resources. Each application uses its own file format to store data - and complex, error prone technologies are needed to share data between different applications.

EIOffice is a new approach focused on enhanced user productivity. It is tightly integrated - one program, one user interface, programmed under one roof, by one team, with one design. Users launch EIOffice, not a word processor, then a spreadsheet, then a business graphics application. Text, worksheets, slides, presentations, charts, tables, graphs, video and audio share one set of icons, keystrokes, function keys, command menus, dialog boxes and one method for entering data. EIOffice stores all text, worksheets, graphics, audio, video and slides in one file format -- .eio. One "binder" stores all related cell ranges, text, graphics, audio and video objects, an approach that synchronizes an entire project and eliminates complex hyper linking and embedding.

EIOffice delivers true data integration. With one file format, text, graphics, worksheets and slides work together, the way they should. Make a change to the data source, and EIOffice applies that change automatically, immediately, correctly, to all other memos, reports, presentations, worksheets, text, and graphics that use that source data, ensuring proper data synchronization.

EIOffice achieves true integration by using the Data Object Oriented Repository System (DOORS), patent-pending technology developed by Evermore Software. DOORS creates a seamless Office by storing multiple cell ranges, text and data, graphics, audio and video objects in a grid similar to a spreadsheet. This approach gets rid of complicated procedures and keystrokes often needed to link data in other office products.

This approach to integration makes EIOffice the Web-friendly Office for which the global enterprise and small business have been waiting. Users may share and edit EIOffice binders online, while working with colleagues in the next office or around the world.

Written in Java, EIOffice works across platforms. Choose the operating system best suited to your business model, not the operating system best suited to your word processor. EIOffice runs on all operating systems that support Java, including Windows® and Linux®. Support for Macintosh OS X and Solaris is in development. Chinese and English versions of EIO are available for worldwide markets.

"We've implemented a standard interface, file and data structure for all applications, and solved many of the problems associated with OLE technology," said Tsao.

Twenty months in development by a research and development team of more than 120 programmers, EIOffice uses Unicode to support multiple languages and is the first Office software to comply with the GB18030 Standard for encoding Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Yi, and Wei characters.

"It is illegal to sell software in China that does not meet the GB18030 standard," said Tsao, "and open file formats are critical to success in international markets."

Evermore Software, www.evermoresw.com, is China's leading developer of Office software. The company is a joint venture with the Wuxi New District Economic Development Corporation. Evermore Software's research, development and executive Offices are located in Wuxi City, 1.5 hours by train from Shanghai. Evermore was founded in 2000 and employs over 180 world-class software engineers.