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Travis Announces "TravisHosting" Service for TravisCobra Internet Access Module

Houston, TX - October 18, 2005 -- Travis Software Corp., a market leader providing Advanced Employee Benefits Software, announces "TravisHosting" Service for TravisCobra Internet Access Module.

At Travis, we're excited about the recent changes to the systems which allow our TravisCobra users to offer the ability for their clients and PQBs to have access to PQB entry and status information via the Internet. We would like to tell you about those changes, and about new reduced pricing on the Internet module that is part of the TravisCobra product family.

We're also now offering a new "TravisHosting" Service, through which Travis Software takes over the responsibility of implementing and operating the Internet system for you. Travis Hosting is a web-hosting service designed specifically for the TravisCobra Internet Access Module and the TravisFlex Internet Access Module and can be customized and branded by your webmaster to match your current website.

Here is a summary of the offers and changes:

TravisCobra Internet Access Module
First, we've changed the name of the system formerly known as "TravisCobra/Web," which has been available since 2001, to the "TravisCobra Internet Access Module" or TCIAM. By using TCIAM, you are able to:

  1. Offer your employer/clients the ability to enter new employees and new PQBs via the Internet, and have that information automatically downloaded into TravisCobra, saving you the need to key-enter the information and saving your client from having to fill out forms and mail or fax them into you
  2. Offer your clients the ability to view the status of any of their PQBs at any time
  3. Allow PQBs to view their own status via the Web to get information about how many days they have left to enroll, when their continuation period ends, whether you received their latest premium payment, how much they owe, etc., so that you don't receive as many telephone calls.

Also, we made some important additions and improvements to TCIAM earlier this year, giving the system a new look and adding functionality, including:

  1. All HTML pages have been redesigned. The pages have new backgrounds, fonts, and graphics that are much improved.
  2. Additional PQB searches have been added-by QBID and by Qualifying Event Date.
  3. Calendars have been added to date fields for easier entry.
  4. TCIAM is supported by the TravisSupport team, just like TravisCobra, so through your subscription to the TCIAM Support and Update Plan whenever your staff has questions about how to best use the Web system you call or email TravisSupport just as you do now. And each time a new version of TravisCobra is released, we also release a new version of TCIAM, adding new features to that system as well. So TCIAM's set of features continues to expand, just as does TravisCobra's.

TravisHosting
TCIAM installs as part of your organization's website. It becomes a "sub-page" of your site. Not everyone knows that the actual system doesn't need to be installed at the same place where your website is installed. For example, your website can be installed (hosted) on computers in your office, but a sub-page (such as a copy of TCIAM) can be installed on another Internet server, connected to your homepage by a simple "link." Or, your website might be hosted on a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) in your home town and the sub-page could be located on an Internet server at another ISP or hosting service in another state or another country!

Finding an ISP to host your copy of TCIAM can sometimes be difficult -not all ISPs will agree to host a system that includes a database. Also, some ISPs adjust the settings on their Internet servers frequently, which can cause the Internet module to not be available temporarily or dependably.

As a result, Travis now offers, effective November 1, 2005, TravisHosting, a service that provides you a secure, dependable environment for your copy of TCIAM, managed by the company that developed the software.

As a TravisHosting customer

  1. We implement your copy of TCIAM on our Internet servers
  2. We link your copy of TCIAM to your website, and maintain the link so that the system is consistently "up" for access by your clients and PQBs
  3. You pay a small monthly fee for hosting your copy of TCIAM
  4. You have the option of paying for support and updates on your copy of TCIAM monthly rather than annually, as you're paying for the hosting
  5. For example, TravisHosting typically costs $75/month. When support for TCIAM is also paid monthly, the total fee is $195 per month for hosting, support and updates of your copy of TCIAM.

New Lower Pricing on TCIAM
If you're going to use TravisHosting, you first need to license your copy of TCIAM. And to help you do that, we have reduced the price of TCIAM through the end of 2005 for those who also sign up for TravisHosting at the same time the system is licensed. The new pricing is $1,995 (a reduction of 50%) if the system is licensed by November 30, 2005, and $2,500 (a 33% reduction) if the system is licensed during December.

What Should You Do?
If you don't use TCIAM or TravisCobra/Web now and would like to explore what the system can do for you, please call TravisMarketing so we can demonstrate the "live" TCIAM system to you and answer any questions you have about how having a Web capability working with your copy of TravisCobra could help you and your customers, and make you more competitive in the marketplace as you compete for new COBRA clients.

If you already have a copy of TravisCobra/Web, you will receive your new copy of TCIAM during the next several weeks. You then have a choice - implement it as an upgrade of your current copy of TravisCobra/Web, continuing to host your copy of the system where you do now, or call TravisMarketing to explore the possibility of beginning to use the TravisHosting service.

If you decide to use TravisHosting to replace your current method of hosting, we will:

Help you set up your TravisHosting account

  1. Get the information from you or your IT people so that Travis personnel can link your copy of TCIAM to your website
  2. Implement your copy of TCIAM on TravisHosting and help you do the initial data transfer from your copy of TravisCobra
  3. Help you establish procedures, if you don't already have them, for automatically updating the data stored with your copy of TCIAM so that it is always fresh.
  4. Work with you to coordinate the timing of the implementation of new releases of TravisCobra with the implementation of new releases of TCIAM.

Once your copy of TCIAM is implemented on TravisHosting, you will have the option of staying on the annual or going to the monthly support/update payment plan. If you elect the monthly plan and you've paid for support through a future date, the monthly fees won't begin until your current covered period of support has expired.

Why are we offering TravisHosting now?
In part because the national ISP with whom we have worked for the past five years, HostCentric, has decided to no longer host database systems such as TravisCobra/Web. Rather than find another ISP to recommend, we decided to host the system ourselves. We've been hosting copies of TravisCobra/Web and TravisFlex/Web internally for several years, so the service is nothing new to the Travis staff, and we know that offering a secure, stable environment for the copies of our Web systems will be a benefit to you, our users.

We are looking forward to speaking with you about TCIAM and TravisHosting, or if you have questions about any other products that Travis Software provides, please contact TravisMarketing at (281) 496-3737, ext 111or 124, email Travis Software at inf@travisoft.com or visit TravisHosting at www.travishosting.com.