DocuTouch Digitally Signs Contract to Lease OfficeEquipment for New Facility.

Business Editors/Technology Writers

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 31, 2000

Seattle-based DocuTouch today announced it signed a corporate lease agreement with Bothell-based ABCO Leasing, Inc. (ABCO) and Bellevue-based McCommon Leasing Company using its patent-pending online document

The leasing agreement consisted of a dozen pages of legal paperwork and took only a fraction of the time to execute when compared to a traditional leasing process. A typical leasing contract requires:

-- Face-to-face visits

-- Six-to-twenty phone calls

-- Four-to-eight salaried hours

-- Upwards of fourteen days to complete.

With the new technology, DocuTouch digitally signed the legally binding contract in just 15 minutes! All of the documents such as corporate leasing resolution, equipment lease, security deposit agreement, insurance verification, purchase order, required purchase agreement, property acceptance certificate and invoicing paperwork, were uploaded to the DocuTouch repository for permanent archival. The final documents were digitally signed and delivered via UPS secure print and delivery system the following day and without additional overnight charges. DocuTouch recently expanded its office to a 10,000 square foot facility in downtown Seattle, and ABCO supplied DocuTouch with modular office furniture systems for the new office space.

"DocuTouch's document management solution is a straight-through process," said ABCO Vice President Don Shipley. "This technology makes it even easier for parties to manage, administer and sign corporate leasing documents. This is the first of what will be an ongoing mode of operation for our company. We strongly believe that using online document management and digital signature technology will give companies like ours a competitive edge."

"DocuTouch provides a valuable service to the Leasing Industry that I anticipate lessors will quickly adopt to enhance the efficiencies of corporate leasing, saving time and money in the process," stated McCommon Leasing Company CEO Jim McCommon. "We believe we can double our documentation workload without adding personnel."

"Many organizations are exploring how they can offer digital signature capabilities to their customers before October 1st when the E-SIGN Act becomes effective, making digital signatures as legally binding as documents signed with ink," said DocuTouch CEO and founder Mir Hajmiragha. "We are excited that industry leaders, like ABCO Leasing, Inc. and McCommon Leasing Company, are eager to adopt this new technology, giving their clients total control of the legally binding document contracts generated during the office furniture and equipment leasing process."

About ABCO Leasing, Inc.

Founded in 1974, ABCO Leasing, Inc. is a full service equipment leasing company that serves corporations in 13 western states and Alaska. ABCO's primary focus is to serve as a funding source for other leasing companies on those transactions that range in size from $100,000 to $350,000 in size and are more complex or technical than they choose to purchase for their own portfolio. ABCO works for all industries and all equipment types, provides both leasing and contracts.

McCommon Leasing Company

McCommon Leasing Company, a 20 year old independent national lessor with offices in Bellevue, Wash., specializes in technology, heavy equipment and day care facility finance.

About DocuTouch (www.docutouch.com)

DocuTouch is a Seattle-based, privately held ASP (Application Service Provider) that offers corporations technology needed to manage and digitally sign legally binding documents. The company recently released a patent-pending Microsoft Word 2000 Add-In that will allow users to digitally sign documents at the paragraph level. The company's application features a patent-pending process for authenticating anonymous users on the Internet. DocuTouch ensures document security utilizing a proprietary RSA Security Inc. Bsafe(R)-enabled encryption scheme. The company presently represents over 1,000 users in real estate, financial services, insurance, leasing, legal, professional services and enterprise verticals. The company's strategic partners include DataChannel, JurisdictionUSA, LoanStreet.com, Microsoft, NowDocs, Palm.Net, Ricoh, UPS and Webforia. Earlier this year, PC Magazine rated the DocuTouch application "as solid as Fort Knox." The company recently closed a multi-million dollar round of investment funding led by Timberline (the Northwest affiliate of Draper Fisher Jurvetson), joined by Irwin Ventures (an affiliate of Irwin Financial Corporation), and Mitsui Co., Ltd. (a leading world trading and investment company in Japan).

DocuTouch(TM) and DocuSign(TM) are trademarks of Astus Corporation, all other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.