Exari Media Release
November 5th, 2003
Dow Jones Chooses XML Document Automation for Global Sales Contracts
San Francisco and Melbourne - Exari today announced that Dow Jones, is rolling out Exari's enterprise document automation solution.
Dow Jones' Legal Department will use the system to deliver tailored first drafts of sales contracts to its global sales team and then on to Dow Jones' customers.
"When it's time to close a deal, you want the contract yesterday, not in two weeks. We built this system to deliver tailored contracts very quickly, without the risks of last minute cut and paste," said Jamie Wodetzki, Exari CEO.
The XML-based system lets business users generate their own draft contracts without having to wait in line for legal sign-off. From anywhere in the world, a sales executive can simply answer some questions - Where are you? Which products are being sold? What pricing was agreed? - and the system will immediately deliver a draft contract with all the right clauses for the deal.
"Business users are happy because they can quickly create contracts for a wide range of deals. The lawyers are happy, because they have more time to focus on negotiating the customer's response to the automated draft, the big deals, contract compliance and other strategic issues. It's a clear win-win," said Mr. Wodetzki.
"The Exari solution helps corporate legal departments like ours to manage an increasing workload without excessive legal costs. Our sales force simply answers a few questions that our Legal team has drafted, and based on their responses the Exari software selects the appropriate clauses for the first draft of the contract," said Mitchell Mackler, Assistant General Counsel, Dow Jones.
"I estimate that our salespeople will be able to get a first draft to the customer within a half-hour after agreeing business terms, no matter where in the world they are located, no matter whether the lawyer normally assigned to them happens to be otherwise engaged. This makes it easier for customers to work with Dow Jones, while improving risk management and internal workflow at the same time," added Mr. Mackler.
Dow Jones selected the Exari solution because it supported global delivery via a standard web-browser and offered the flexibility of delivering documents in different formats. The XML foundation of the Exari system allows users both to edit contracts in Microsoft Word and to generate contracts as a read-only PDF. The Exari system will also allow Dow Jones to share contract data with other enterprise systems, such as customer relationship management and billing.
About Dow Jones
Dow Jones & Co, is the #1 global provider of business content, research and services, including the exclusive combination of The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Dow Jones and Reuters news-wires and the Associated Press.
About Exari
Exari is a global leader in enterprise document automation solutions for large law firms, corporations and government agencies. The company develops and markets software that improves the way large enterprises create and deliver legal and commercial documents. Exari’s customers include law firms, corporate legal departments, and contracts managers in Europe, the US and the Asia-Pacific region.
