Emportal HRMS Becomes First Commercially Available HR SaaS Solution to Leverage Power of Microsoft Office Fluent

WALNUT CREEK, CA--(Marketwire - June 12, 2008) - Uniting the way business works with the way people work, Emportal today announced it is the first SaaS-based Human Resource Management System (HRMS) vendor to leverage the increasingly popular Microsoft 2007 user interface (UI) in its core application, Emportal HCM. Named Microsoft Office Fluent, but more commonly referred to as "The Ribbon," this user interface model is designed to make the features of Emportal HR more discoverable and accessible with fewer mouse clicks as compared to the menu-based UI that's inherent in most software applications.

Mark Robinson, Emportal's co-founder, president and CEO, shared, "One of the biggest complaints about business-critical applications is that they require users to work with unfamiliar user interfaces that slow down productivity and, by default, discourage user adoption. When users aren't fully leveraging an application's functionality, then the investment in that application is not recognized."

Houston, Texas-based ION, a leading technology-focused seismic solutions company, is one of Emportal's newest clients. ION replaced existing systems, such as ADP Employease, with Emportal to manage their global workforce of 1,400 workers. ION's HRIS Director, Deanna Newsome, said, "Selecting an HRMS with an intuitive user interface was a tremendous factor in our decision-making process. With Emportal HCM, our users have the familiarity of the Microsoft desktop coupled with an intuitive solution that enables them to toggle between applications and complete tasks without skipping a beat."

The Ribbon user interface is designed to help users quickly find the commands they need to complete a task. Commands are organized in logical groups, which are collected together under tabs. To reduce clutter, some tabs are visible only when needed.

Dave Wright, industry director for SaaS ISVs at Microsoft, concluded, "Independent software vendors such as Emportal can drive higher levels of customer adoption when they utilize an application interface that their customers are familiar with. Emportal's approach is cutting-edge and will certainly be a competitive advantage for them in the HR market."

Robinson agreed, "We're seeing significant demand for Emportal HCM, especially among organizations that are seeking to break free of the inherent constraints of the traditional HRMS model. Our ribbon UI, combined with the proven scalability and flexibility of our SaaS solution, is allowing Emportal to gain significant traction in the HR market."

About Emportal

Emportal was founded in 2005 to enable companies to choose and integrate the best HR vendors and services for their businesses, while at the same time having them delivered through a single, flexible, coordinated, integrated, highly scalable, modular and managed enterprise platform. Comprehensively supporting and managing the workforce of both today and tomorrow -- an ever-changing mix of employees, vendors, and alternative labor sources (independent contractors, temporary workers, consultants, etc.) -- Emportal truly delivers a "have it your way" blend of next-generation technology and services. More information can be accessed at www.emportal.com.