Contact Information

CCH Tax and Accounting Transforms Tax Research with CCH@Hand™

Industry Leader CCH Seamlessly Integrates with Microsoft^® Office to Speed, Advance Research

(RIVERWOODS, ILL., November 2, 2004) – CCH Tax and Accounting (CCH), a leading provider of tax and accounting information, productivity software and services, has launched CCH@Hand™, a breakthrough application to speed and integrate tax research with the workflows of accountants, tax preparers and lawyers, as part of its award-winning CCH^® Internet Tax Research NetWork^TM. CCH is a Wolters Kluwer company.

The innovative CCH@Hand gives users one-click access to research answers in CCH’s Tax Research NetWork from Microsoft^® Office 2003 programs—allowing users to conduct all of their research right within an Office application, such as Word, Excel^® or Outlook^®, without ever having to leave the document before them. CCH@Hand also provides productivity gains beyond Office 2003 research, offering integration with the Windows^® desktop, Microsoft^® Internet Explorer browser and more.

"CCH@Hand transforms tax research, giving the green light to faster, easier research and integrating those research results right into the professional’s workflow," said Kevin Robert, CEO of CCH Tax and Accounting. "With CCH@Hand, a user working in a Word document, such as a research memo, can instantly pull in CCH tax research content without ever opening a browser or logging in, and they can stay in Word throughout the entire research process."

Professionals have come a long way in streamlining work processes in recent years, using software and online resources, but the process is still a disjointed one, where users working on a single client’s issue have to navigate back and forth between different windows, or juggle several different applications.

"With CCH@Hand, users can go straight to the authoritative answers in CCH tax research resources from wherever they are working, and, what’s just as important, seamlessly integrate the results of their research. It’s a tremendous breakthrough in streamlining workflows and enhancing productivity," Robert said.

CCH is the first and only provider of comprehensive tax research information to offer professionals this groundbreaking productivity tool and only CCH Tax Research NetWork customers have access to the clear competitive advantage CCH@Hand delivers in research speed, ease and accuracy.

CCH@Hand is available to CCH Tax Research NetWork subscribers at no additional cost as new functionality on the latest release of CCH’s Tax Research NetWork.

A demonstration of CCH@Hand can be seen by visiting athand.cch.com.

Microsoft Office 2003 Integration

CCH@Hand provides special benefits for professionals who have adopted the Microsoft^® Office Professional Edition 2003 suite of products.

"Microsoft has partnered with CCH to create CCH@Hand. The innovative combination of Microsoft^® Office Professional Edition 2003 and CCH’s Tax Research NetWork gives users the powerful ability to connect information and business processes like never before," said Michael Gorriaran, Microsoft Midwest Enterprise District General Manager.

With CCH@Hand, users never have to leave a Microsoft^® Office 2003 document to conduct their research. With a click of the mouse, they can launch a search directly from within the document, view their results in the Research Task Pane on the same screen, copy and paste results directly into their Office 2003 program, e-mail the results straight to clients or save their results to a variety of locations.

And, CCH citation Smart Tags breathe new life into existing electronic documents by enabling users to easily check the validity of conclusions.

The Smart Tags recognize citations in the text of Microsoft^® Word documents and allow users to view the full text of the cited document, retrieve it into a new Word document, retrieve related explanations, regulations, annotations and committee reports from citations to a Code or regulation section and create links in Word documents to the underlying full text on the Tax Research NetWork.

In addition, users can immediately link from a citation in Microsoft^® Word to CCH’s Citator and get the history of a case or ruling.

"CCH@Hand’s integration with Microsoft^® Office 2003 reinforces our commitment to open systems and research solutions that enhance the total productivity of our customers’ operations," noted Jeffrey Margulis, CCH Tax and Accounting’s Platform Director.

Easy Desktop Access Further Enhances Productivity

CCH@Hand also offers additional productivity gains beyond research within Microsoft^® Office 2003, with new features that provide easy access to answers from a variety of locations.

A CCH@Hand browser toolbar, much like the familiar Google^TM Toolbar, sits at the top of users’ Microsoft^® Internet Explorer browser window. With the toolbar, users can type in phrases or citations for searches or launch a search by highlighting text on a web page. Results appear in a separate "mini-browser" window, so users never lose their place.

In addition, search phrases and citations can also be entered in a CCH@Hand search box on the Windows desktop, providing fast access to CCH content without even having to open the browser.

"With CCH@Hand, wherever you are – in e-mail or a memo, on your desktop or out on the web – CCH Internet Tax Research NetWork is right there, right at hand and ready to go to work for you," Robert noted.

News Alerts also ensure that with CCH@Hand, users will never miss out on the latest developments in the world of taxes. "Alerts" appear at the bottom of the their screen, displaying the current day’s Tax News Highlights and customized Tax Tracker News to inform them of developments that can affect their clients.

Overall, with easy access to timely, comprehensive tax research, CCH@Hand helps firms better manage risk, notes Catherine Wolfe, CCH’s Vice President of Tax and Accounting Publishing, since users are unlikely to take short-cuts and are more likely to complete their research.

"I think of it as ‘no excuses’ tax research," said Wolfe. "You’ve got no excuse not to keep on top of developments, no excuse not to check a citation, no excuse not to follow the best research practices and deliver the best results to your clients."

A History of Leadership

That CCH has advanced tax research in this significant way will come as no surprise to customers who know they can count on CCH for this kind of leadership. Since 1913, CCH has led the publishing industry with a history of firsts—from offering the first tax loose-leaf reporting service, to being the first to offer in-depth research publications on the Internet, and offering the first integrated tax research and compliance software product on the market.

"We pay close attention to what our customers need, and lead the market in delivering the highest quality solutions first," said Robert. "I’m pleased to say, with CCH@Hand, we’ve done it again."

For More Information

CCH@Hand is available to CCH Internet Tax Research NetWork customers at no cost. For more information about CCH@Hand, call a CCH sales representative at 1-888-CCH-REPS (1-888-224-7377) or visit athand.cch.com.

About CCH Tax and Accounting

CCH Tax and Accounting (www.tax.cchgroup.com), based in Riverwoods, Ill., is a leading provider of tax, audit, and accounting information, software and services. It has served tax, accounting and business professionals and their clients since 1913. Among its market leading products are The ProSystem fx^® Office, CCH^® Tax Research NetWork™, Accounting Research Manager™ and the U.S. Master Tax Guide^®. CCH Tax and Accounting is a Wolters Kluwer company (www.wolterskluwer.com). Wolters Kluwer is a leading multinational publisher and information services company. Wolters Kluwer has annual revenues (2003) of €3.4 billion, employs approximately 18,750 people worldwide and maintains operations across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

-- ### --

nb-04-97