SECPublisher Whitepaper

Today's financial marketplace has placed many extra demands on publicly-traded companies. With the internet making it possible for the average consumer to venture into the stock market, new investors are constantly demanding information that will help them judge whether a company's securities are a good investment.

This information has been available through the U.S. Securities and Exchange® Commission (SEC), which requires public companies to disclose meaningful financial and other information to the public by filing regular reports with it, and then disseminates the information in its Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system (EDGAR) database. However, it hasn't always been in the easiest of formats for the average investor to understand.

As a result of this and the growth of the internet - consumers have increasingly turned to corporate web sites to search for background information on the companies they wish to invest in. In 1998, as a response to advances in technology - most notably the Internet and its use - the SEC embarked on a three-year effort to modernize EDGAR in an effort to improve the presentation quality and structure of SEC filings. During modernization the EDGAR architecture has been converted to an Internet-based system using HTML (at present, HTML 3.2) as the official filing format, which will support the attachment of unofficial graphic files such as Portable Document Format (PDF) and hyperlinks, including links between documents within a submission and to previously filed documents in the EDGAR database. (go to EDGAR modernization.)

While this modernization is making strides in communicating crucial information to the investing public through a more effective and familiar medium, and has eliminated the need for filers to convert material to the increasingly obsolete ASCII format, companies are now faced with the more difficult challenge of converting complex financial documents into HTML that complies with all new SEC standards, while also meeting increasing demand from consumers and investors for internet friendly content on their own corporate web sites.

To help companies efficiently handle the multiple obligations of filing with the SEC and meeting the consumer's demand for information on their web sites, BCL Technologies has developed SECPublisher ®, a new software solution that converts financial documents into HTML 3.2 formats that comply with all new SEC filing standards.

SECPublisher®'s advanced repurposing capabilities help companies streamline the process of disclosing financial information, which usually means multiple-stage repurposing. For example, a company's Annual Report to Shareholders - usually a state-of-the-company report - and its Prospectus - which contains the basic business and financial information on an issuer with respect to a particular securities offering - are both required to be filed with the SEC. At the same time, the Annual Report generally serves as the principal document used by most public companies to disclose corporate information to shareholders, and investors frequently use a Prospectus to help appraise the merits of the offering and make educated investment decisions. As such, both are traditionally printed and mailed to shareholders, and, more recently, have been made available on corporate web sites in addition to being filed with the SEC.

Formatting and reformatting for these purposes is no small feat, especially with documents such as an Annual Report, which generally includes not only an opening letter from the CEO, but also financial data, results of continuing operations, market segment information, new product plans, subsidiary activities and research and development activities on future programs, all information that can be technically and visually complex.

Until recently, this has meant that a company generating documents for filing and for general information has had to prepare them for print dissemination, convert them to ASCII for filing with the SEC, as well as to HTML and often PDF for display on a corporate web site. While the SEC's modernization has made HTML the official filing format, and thus has eliminated the need for conversion into ASCII, a company's repurposing challenges still remain because the HTML required for publishing a document on a company website designed to offer educational information to the average investor is considerably different from that used to submit a document in the searchable, downloadable format required by the SEC for filing and dissemination in the EDGAR system.

SECPublisher ® not only helps public companies simplify the SEC filing process, but also breaks new ground in information management efficiency. Using BCL's patented technology, SECPublisher® is capable of taking a complex document -such as one with multiple columns, tables, graphics and even a change of format in the middle of a page (e.g. a shift from two columns to three) - and automatically separating its structure into zones.

The software employs advanced document analysis techniques that use a number of different algorithms to automatically detect zones and combine the results to produce the best possible breakdown of the document. Each zone consists of a single element - a simple picture, piece of text, list or table.

SECPublisher® automatically sequences the zones into a natural reading order, then passes them into BCL's output filters. These filters can output to SEC-compliant HTML, full HTML 3.2, or RTF, depending on the user's requirements. Users even have control over which tags are used in the resultant output. For very high quality output, users can use BCL's zone editor to either fine tune or resequence (or both) the zones. This allows for a great degree of control over the output.

These capabilities mean that a company can repurpose an original financial document for filing with the SEC or for dissemination on its own web site in one efficient process. Even with the complexity of the algorithms used in zone detection and breakdown, SECPublisher® is capable of converting documents at a rate of about one page per second. The resultant documents will meet all SEC standards, and, by selecting a different output filter, a company can also make the documents accessible to any consumer or company employee viewing it with an HTML 3.2-compliant viewer.

The technology behind SECPublisher® is based on BCL's ground-breaking repurposing software solutions, designed for content providers who need efficient ways to take documents originally published for the more traditional print media and repurpose (or convert) them for a variety of electronic media. BCL has developed software for conversion of partial or whole documents, extraction of graphics and server-based solutions that convert and catalog documents, readying them for access.

EDGAR

The SEC initiated the EDGAR system in 1984 "to automate the receipt, processing, and dissemination of documents required to be filed under the Securities Act, the Exchange® Act, the Public Utility Act, the Trust Indenture Act, and the Investment Company Act. Since 1996, it has required all domestic public companies to make their filings electronically through the EDGAR system. EDGAR filings are disseminated electronically and displayed on the SEC web site at http://www.sec.gov. The EDGAR system's broad and rapid dissemination was designed to benefit the public by allowing investors and others to obtain information rapidly in an electronic format that made it easy to search and lends itself readily to financial analysis, using spreadsheets and other methods."

- From Rulemaking for EDGAR System. April 24, 2000. Effective date: May 30, 2000. [Release Nos. 33-7855; 34-42712; 35-27172; 39-2384; IC-24400 File No. S7-05-00] (File name: 33-7855.htm) http://www.sec.gov/rules/final/33-7855.htm

Modernization

One of the major milestones of with the modernization was reached in June 1999 with the incorporation of HTML documents into the system, when filers were able to begin submitting their filings to the SEC in HTML format, with EDGARLink updated to allow the acceptance and validation of HTML documents, and dissemination of HTML documents, their optional PDF courtesy copies and current format documents to the public. New rules for the EDGAR system (proposed in April 2000 and effective May 30, 2000), which are a part of EDGAR Release 7.0, have adopted a new set of HTML 3.2 tags which permit the inclusion of graphic and image files in HTML filings as well as more hyper-links, including links between documents within a submission and to previously filed documents in the EDGAR database at www.sec.gov. Release 7.0 also includes the addition of the Internet as an available means of transmitting filings to the EDGAR system.

Benefits
According to the SEC, one of the goals of EDGAR modernization has been to benefit all users by achieving consistency with familiar and widely accepted industry standards. "Investors will benefit because they will receive documents that communicate more effectively. Graphics can make documents easier to read and so will likely increase investors' understanding of disclosure documents. Hyperlinks should make documents easier to navigate and information easier to locate.

"The ability to transmit filings over the Internet also should provide increased flexibility to filers. Moreover, since filers would be able to use their own Internet Service Providers and send filings to the EDGAR system at no charge, filers located outside of the immediate Washington, D.C. area may reduce their costs for long-distance telephone service. EDGARLink filers also should benefit from being able to prepare and transmit their filings to the EDGAR system using more convenient and familiar browser-based software. The modernized EDGARLink, a significant update from the older technology of the current EDGARLink product, should benefit filers by eliminating their dependence upon maintaining old equipment that is no longer supported in the computer industry."

- From Section IV. Cost-Benefit Analysis, Rulemaking for EDGAR System. April 24, 2000. Effective date: May 30, 2000. [Release Nos. 33-7855; 34-42712; 35-27172; 39-2384; IC-24400 File No. S7-05-00] (File name: 33-7855.htm)
http://www.sec.gov/rules/final/33-7855.htm

BCL's Patents

BCL Technologies holds patent numbers 5,956,422 and 5,737,442 for the technology behind SECPublisher®. Both are methods of extracting tables and tablets from printed documents.

For more information, send an email to info@bcltechnologies.com