CCH Incorporated, Tower Group, Inc. Join To Deliver

Contact:
NEIL ALLEN
847-267-2179
allenn@cch.com [1]

MARY DALE WALTERS
847-267-2038
mediahelp@cch.com [2]

(RIVERWOODS, ILL., October 9, 2001) – Companies will soon find it easier to bill their customers for the correct amount of sales and other taxes thanks to an agreement between CCH INCORPORATED (CCH), and the Tower Group, Inc. (Tower Group). Under the agreement, the Tower Group will create modules that will allow companies to integrate the authoritative tax data from CCH’s DPC division into their billing systems.

“The joint venture utilizes the recognized strengths of the two companies,” said Rick Cline, CCH State Tax executive editor.

“We see this as the perfect marriage of CCH’s content with Tower Group’s superb track record in providing integration solutions. Together, we will be able to offer solutions that ensure smooth incorporation of the correct sales, use and telecommunications taxes into client billing systems,” Cline said.

John Tower, Sr., CEO of the Tower Group, noted that building accurate tax calculation into a billing system can be a major problem if firms try to do it themselves.
“We look forward to applying our experience in implementing tax systems to DPC’s outstanding data so we can streamline and simplify what otherwise can be a nightmarish problem,” Tower said.

The first Tower/DPC module, expected to be released before the end of the year, will be for telecommunications firms wishing to integrate DPC’s specialized telecom tax data with systems operating in the Unix Sun Solaris environment accessing Oracle databases. Further modules, designed to facilitate integration of DPC’s tax data for Utilities tax and general retail in both Unix-based and Windows NT environments, will follow.

About DPC

The DPC division of CCH provides sales and use tax information and compliance tools covering more than 25,000 state and local jurisdictions in the United States and Canada. Its core software product lines are used primarily by corporations, accounting firms and tax consultants. They include ZIPsalesä Lookup, for sales tax look-up and calculation; ZIPsalesä Database and Tax$olverâ, a sales and use tax form preparation system.

In addition, DPC offers a line of specialized software products for businesses in especially complex sales and use tax environments, including retail, telecommunications (ZIPcommä), utilities (ZIPutilä), leasing, food and automobile industries.

About the Tower Group

The Tower Group is an international taxation and information technology consulting firm headquartered in New Milford, Connecticut. With partners throughout North America, Tower Group consists of a unique combination of tax specialists, business and information systems professionals. Tower Group works in any program language and any operating environment, supplying clients with supplemental software and services which enhance their management of tax administration and reporting.

About CCH INCORPORATED

CCH INCORPORATED, headquartered in Riverwoods, Ill., was founded in 1913 and has served four generations of business professionals and their clients. The company produces more than 700 electronic and print products for the tax, legal, securities, human resources, health care and small business markets. CCH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wolters Kluwer North America. The CCH web site can be accessed at www.cch.com. The CCH Federal and State Tax Group web site can be accessed at http://tax.cchgroup.com [3].