Allegiance's SilentWhistle Drives Ethics Reporting for Yamaha Motor Corporation USA

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 17, 2008 - Allegiance, Inc., a premier provider of Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) solutions, today announced that Yamaha Motor Corporation USA has selected Allegiance SilentWhistle as its ethics reporting system. The Web-based and phone-based system provides Yamaha employees and shareholders with a safe, convenient and confidential communications channel to ask questions, submit comments and/or express any potential concerns that they may have related to fraud, waste, theft, harassment or discrimination.

Yamaha will promote the hotline through letters to employees, an ad campaign in the corporate newsletter, as well as through ongoing ethics training provided by the Allegiance Professional Services Group. The Allegiance Ethics and Compliance Training Course includes live-person presentations and online classes about everything from Code of Conduct and Raising and Resolving Ethical Issues to Ethical Decision-Making and Proactive Ethical Leadership.

“We want to be known as an ethical company, and while we aren’t currently subject to Sarbanes-Oxley or Japanese financial reporting legislation, we want to proactively demonstrate to our employees and consumers our company’s ongoing commitment to conducting business in the highest ethical manner,” said Chris Stehman, Human Resources Division Manager at Yamaha Motor Corp. “Our ethical policies come from the top down, and by implementing Allegiance’s SilentWhistle, we are encouraging our employees to help us build upon the foundation of integrity that was established more than 53 years ago.”

Stehman added, “SilentWhistle is a core component of our ethics initiatives, and is more than a check-the-box reporting tool. It is a functional and flexible solution that presents a positive and professional image of ethics that matches how we want to be viewed from both inside and outside our company.”

Yamaha’s employees, partners and customers can visit a customized SilentWhistle online portal to submit their questions or concerns. Once the information is captured, it is analyzed and categorized. The submission is then routed to the appropriate executive, manager or board member to facilitate accountability and a timely response from the organization. The system is designed to help employees overcome their reluctance to report problems by providing them with a convenient, confidential forum and guiding them through the submission process quickly and easily. SilentWhistle also serves as a reliable, two-way employee communications channel that allows managers to access information, clarify complaints and answer questions while maintaining anonymity, and quickly resolve issues that might otherwise create a variety of potential problems.

“Yamaha is a company that is known for its quality products and prides itself on being an ethical company,” said Adam Edmunds, president and CEO of Allegiance, Inc. “By deploying SilentWhistle and engaging with our services team for ethics training, Yamaha reinforces that reputation and reassures its employees that the company is serious about ethics. SilentWhistle actually encourages and improves the quality of feedback and promotes Yamaha’s management’s desire to hear about anything that may impact the company’s reputation or harm employees or customers in any way.”