Rapattoni leads Single Sign-On implementations for MLSs

Nearly 50 fully operating SSO installations completed

SIMI VALLEY, Calif., December 3, 2007 – Rapattoni Corporation announced today that Single Sign-On (SSO) has become very popular and successful among many of its MLS customers and third parties, with close to 50 installations to date. "Single Sign-On brings great convenience to MLS users," said Nick Rapattoni, president of Rapattoni Corporation. "It is also paving the way for effective reciprocal agreements and data sharing agreements between MLSs."

Rapattoni provides its customers with SSO software and hosting at no charge. This feature allows members to log on one time — using their user ID and password, and optionally a stronger token-based authentication — and then be able to access any other authorized website without having to log on again.

The company has been installing SSO for its customers, and helping third parties to implement it, since January of 2007. The list of SSO implementations is rapidly growing. Some of the organizations that are now fully implemented include:

Realtor® Associations and MLSs

• Bay Area Real Estate Information Services, Inc.
• Brunswick County Association of Realtors®
• California Association of Realtors®
• Cape Coral Association of Realtors®
• i-Tech MLS
• MetroList Services, Inc.
• MLSListings, Inc.
• Northern Kentucky Association of Realtors®
• Realtor® Association of Greater Fort Myers and The Beach
• San Francisco Association of Realtors®
• Tucson Association of Realtors®
• Victor Valley Association of Realtors®
• Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors®

Third-Party Industry Vendors

• CAR.org
• Courthouse Retrieval Systems
• eNeighborhoods (MLSAlliance)
• InstanetForms
• Listingbook
• Rapattoni Internet Member Services (IMS)
• RealTown
• RELAY®
• TransactionDesk
• WINForms®
• ZipForm®

Rapattoni Corporation supports several SSO standards. One is Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), and another is OpenID. SAML is the standard most widely used by the commercial security industry including financial institutions. This standard, which is based on Liberty Alliance-compliant SAML version 2.0, has been adopted by commercial banks, mortgage lenders, etc. OpenID is an emerging SSO standard that has been adopted by Microsoft, AOL, and Verisign. It is easier and less expensive for vendors to implement; however, it does not support the higher levels of assurance available in SAML. Either standard can be adopted depending on the application. Rapattoni's SSO service will work with both SAML and OpenID simultaneously.

"By utilizing industry standards, SSO convenience for MLS participants can extend far beyond the real estate industry," said Peter Williams, chief information security officer for Rapattoni. He went on to say, "We are pleased to see SSO being implemented by other MLS vendors and to see it being considered as a part of the RETS [Real Estate Transaction Specification] standard. SSO must be based on standards and be vendor-neutral so that any SSO portal can interact with any other SSO portal, regardless of who the vendors are. SAML has emerged as the standard for the commercial world, and OpenID is emerging as the standard for Web 2.0 collaboration. There are over 100 million OpenIDs in service, and close to 2,500 relying parties already accepting OpenID."

About the company
Rapattoni Corporation has been serving the real estate industry under the same name and management for 37 years. The company provides an array of integrated products and services for real estate associations and MLS organizations including Internet MLS systems, association management software, and Secure Logon with Single Sign-On identity portals for online security and convenience. The company's MLS products are serving about 300,000 agents nationally and its association management customers represent more than 85% of the nation's Realtors®. Rapattoni's headquarters are located in Simi Valley, California.

For more information contact Public Relations at (800) 722-7338, or visit the company's website at http://www.rapattoni.com/