IBM SPOTLIGHTS TAX TECHNOLOGIES IN NATIONAL PRESS RELEASE

IBM released the attached at 11:50 AM on 7/26/2001 via Business Wire. Tax Technologies was included in the release, providing insight into the decision to host the suite of Internet/Intranet-based tax compliance applications offered by Tax Technologies with IBM e-business Hosting.

IBM Expands Services Following $1 Billion in Web-hosting Customer Contracts

SOMERS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 2001--IBM has unveiled 30 new Web-hosting services to meet growing market demand, following its announcement last week that IBM's Web-hosting customer contracts exceeded $1 billion during the first six month of 2001.

The fully managed services range from programs to help a small business customer get a retail Web site operating quickly, to new security and Linux offerings for larger Web-hosting customers.

IBM Global Services operates 37 e-business Hosting Centers around the world. During the past three months, IBM opened centers in Honk Kong, Taiwan and Buenos Aires, Argentina, and next month will open a new center in Shanghai, China.

"When you're running a company that's dependent upon the Internet, you want your Web sites to be up and running all the time," said Jim Corgel, general manager of e-business hosting services for IBM Global Services. "We continue to invest in new hosting services that allow our customers to focus on running their core businesses. We'll handle their Web operations."

Focus on security services

Half of the 30 new fully managed services deal with security on the Web, which industry analysts say remain a priority for organizations doing business on the Internet.

IBM's new security services, which enhance the existing portfolio of customized security services, can help customers to assess their current Web-hosting systems, to add new security features and to monitor and manage security devices and systems. In designing the security services, IBM called upon experience of IBM Global Services consultants, IBM Research, and customers' requirements.

Tax Technologies Inc., of Haworth, N.J., chose IBM for its Web-hosting needs. The company, which helps organizations to comply with tax law and other financial matters, houses its Internet operations in IBM's e-business Hosting Center in northern New Jersey.

"We deal with highly sensitive tax information for some of the largest companies in the world," said Jeff Wenger, chief technology officer of Tax Technologies. "We turned to IBM for our Web-hosting needs because of its experience in hosting other financial institutions, as well as IBM's secure, high-speed Web environment."

New e-business Hosting Services for security include:

-- Security health check services to enable customers to assess their Web sites, and "ethical hacking" services that suggest ways to improve Web site security.

-- Firewall construction and management to restrict access to authorized users and applications.

-- Intrusion detection to monitor customers' network and servers' systems, including alerts if there's evidence of hacker attacks.

-- Virus alert monitoring so a customer can take actions in connection with the latest known viruses.

Along with security services, IBM is introducing e-commerce and Linux-based services.

e-commerce packages
Small- and medium-sized companies that want to set up a Web-based catalog system, or other forms of e-commerce, can do so rapidly by using new services that feature IBM's WebSphere Commerce Suite Pro, a comprehensive application to get customers up and running quickly for managed e-commerce, including Web domain and address services, server, network and backup and restoration services.

Linux Web-hosting

IBM is adding Linux to the list of core operating systems that it supports in its e-business Hosting Centers, which gives customers the ability to use Linux-based applications for hardware, software, design, implementation and hosting of Linux-based applications. Customers will now have the opportunity to pick support for Linux Red Hat 6.2 along with applications written for AIX, NT, Solaris and Windows 2000.

About IBM Global Services

IBM Global Services is the world's largest information technology services provider, with nearly 150,000 professionals serving customers in 160 countries and annual revenue of more than $33 billion (2000). IBM Global Services integrates IBM's broad range of capabilities -- services, hardware, software and research -- to help companies of all sizes realize the full value of information technology.

CONTACT: IBM Global Services, Somers
Kathleen Ryan, 914/766-4637

About Tax Technologies

Tax Technologies, Inc. is a technology-driven tax services company and leading provider of Internet/Intranet-based tax software. With a variety of Fortune 500 clients using its suite of web-native tax software products (TaxSeries) and audit products (AuditTracker), Tax Technologies assists with the preparation of tax returns, the improvement of tax process, implementation of tax software, and the development of custom applications to meet client’s tax and financial reporting demands.

The company’s headquarters are in Haworth, New Jersey, with the technology headquarters in Bradenton, Florida. Further company information is available at www.taxtechnologies.com.