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History and making of Easypress Technologies Limited Easypress Technologies was founded in 1995 in Rayleigh, Essex, originally under the name of Internet Advertising. The Internet was only in its infancy but the company could see that it would be the media of the future. The original idea behind the company was to set-up some specialist Websites and sell advertising on the sites, hence the company’s name. Internet Advertising registered domains including fishing.co.uk, gardening.co.uk and shooting.co.uk. Incidentally, fishing.co.uk is still in operation today and runs as a profitable fishing Website. Publishing Focus The Internet was so new in 1995 that it proved to be too early to be able capitalise on online advertising. Therefore the company re-evaluated its mission and began developing Websites for publishers. Not only did the company develop the Websites, they helped market them and build visitor numbers with the intention of selling contract advertising on behalf of the publishers in the future. This enabled the company to gain valuable experience both on a technical and business level, understanding what worked and what didn’t, particularly in relation to online revenue. Initially each publisher’s Website was a custom solution but this was expensive both for the customer and Internet Advertising, particularly in maintaining the content. In 1996, one particular customer requested a low-cost solution that would enable their non-technical staff to be able to manage their Website through an easy to use graphical user interface. Initially the system was just used for publishing news and sports articles online but such was its success that its features were extended to cover other aspects of the Website. Easypress is Born This solution developed into the company’s first product, Easypress 1.0. Little did the company realise at the time that what they had developed was one of the first Application Service Provider (ASP) solutions. The uniqueness of the product and its obvious cost and control benefits to customers meant that other UK publishers started running their Websites on Easypress. The company received external investment in 1998. This enabled the further development of the Easypress system, additional employees and subsequently solid growth in its UK installed user base. RVC Acquired 1999 was an eventful year for Internet Advertising with the company moving its offices to Islington, London. The year also saw the Periodical Publisher's Association (PPA) found the PPAi - the interactive division of the PPA. Easypress Technologies was selected as its Website partner for this venture, subsequently developing the PPAi Website. Demand from many publishers to be able to publish content online that originated in print in QuarkXPress, prompted the acquisition of London-based RVC, also in 1999. RVC had spent over 3 years developing a suite of XML products for professional publishers that solved exactly this problem. However they were in need of a partner to help bring their products to market. The match in strategy, market and technology made for a perfect fit. Easypress Technologies now develops and markets the Atomik product. During 2000, the company began trading under its current name of Easypress Technologies.
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