Batesville Casket and Legacy.com Partner to Create the Largest National Online Obituary Network

Batesville Casket Company, the leader in the funeral service industry, announced an alliance with Legacy.com, the largest provider of online memorials and obituaries, combining the reach and resources of two industry innovators to give funeral homes access to the largest nationally networked obituary system. ?

The company made the announcement today at the National Funeral Directors Association conference in Boston, MA.

Through relationships with more than 750 newspapers, Legacy.com hosts online obituaries, memorials and guest books for more than 70% of the people who die in the United States. The Legacy.com network of sites has become the most popular online destination for obituary information, with more than 14 million visitors each month. This new alliance allows funeral homes to be part of this national network through Batesville’s exclusive ObitLink online obituary and memorialization solution.

“Legacy.com has built an online obituary network that is second to none – in size as well as functionality,” said Troy Brake, General Manager of Batesville Interactive, the company’s technology solutions group. “ObitLink allows us to bring that national network directly to a local funeral home’s website, and add the very latest interactive memorialization features not available with traditional print obituaries.”

ObitLink will be fully-integrated with Legacy.com’s extensive network of online obituaries, death listings, memorial websites and guest books, bringing a new level of connectivity to funeral homes and the communities they serve. Funeral homes using Batesville’s industry-leading WebLink(TM) website solution will have direct access from their local funeral home websites to Legacy.com’s expansive database, which includes 100 million detailed newspaper obituaries, guest books and death listings, updated throughout each day.

Recognized for a history of manufacturing excellence, product innovation and superior service, Batesville is also the largest provider of hosted funeral home websites in the U.S. The company’s highly functional websites are designed for simplicity and affordability, making them an ideal fit for funeral directors and their staffs.

“Batesville has an unsurpassed reputation in the funeral industry,” said Stopher Bartol, Chief Executive Officer for Legacy.com. “They are innovators who understand the role of the Internet in funeral service – and are forward-looking in their desire to build bridges that connect newspapers, funeral homes and the families they serve.”

As more consumers seek information online, websites have become one of the primary ways funeral homes connect with their communities. Online obituaries and guest books take center stage in a funeral home’s website, driving as much as 60% of traffic to the site. By establishing an interactive connection between the funeral home website and the national obituary network, ObitLink increases the visibility and impact of the funeral home’s online presence.

ObitLink is being developed as part of Batesville’s new ConnectivitySuite, a group of modular web-enabled products aimed at connecting funeral homes to the families and communities they serve in new and innovative ways. The ObitLink product is expected to be available in January 2010. Other ConnectivitySuite offerings include WebLink funeral home websites and TributeLink(TM) online video tributes. Each of these affordable products utilizes web technologies that can be easily implemented into the funeral home’s operations with minimal infrastructure and training.

ABOUT BATESVILLE

Batesville Casket Company (www.Batesville.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE: HI), is a leader in the North American death care industry through the sale of funeral services products, including burial caskets, cremation caskets, containers and urns, selection room display fixturing, technology solutions, and other personalization and memorialization products. For more than 125 years, Batesville has been dedicated to helping families honor the lives of those they love. Our history of manufacturing excellence, product innovation, superior customer service and reliable delivery has helped Batesville become – and remain – a market leader.

ABOUT LEGACY.COM

Founded in 1998, Legacy.com (www.Legacy.com) is the world’s most timely and comprehensive resource for online obituaries and the undisputed leader in Web-based memorialization. The Legacy.com domain is among the 100 most visited on the Internet, according to comScore, and includes a network of more than 750 newspapers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. By making interactive memorial content accessible directly via the websites of newspapers and funeral homes, Legacy.com helps a fast-growing number of people expand the ways in which they can express condolences and share remembrances of loved ones. A privately held company, Legacy.com is headquartered in Evanston, Ill.

SOURCE: Batesville Casket Company