British Airways Taps CommuniGate Systems to Unify Communications

Released on: October 31, 2007, 2:19 pm

Press Release Author: Brian Blank / FutureWorks, Inc.

Industry: Internet & Online

Press Release Summary: Airline selects CommuniGate Pro to link frontline workforce
with web delivered messaging solution



Press Release Body: Mill Valley, October 30, 2007 - CommuniGate Systems, the leader
in carrier-class Rich Media Internet Communications solutions, announced that
British Airways has chosen CommuniGate Pro to drive communications for the company's
diverse and worldwide mobile employee base. CommuniGate Systems scalable
communications platform has connected the airline's 30,000 frontline employees via
e-mail, giving their mobile workforce convenient access to internal messages and
time-critical updateswhether they are away from base, on the ramp or at the
headquarters.

British Airways relies on a highly mobile staffwith employees working in the
cabin, on the tarmac, and in baggage and maintenance areas, rather than behind a
desk. In the past, these frontline workers did not have access to company e-mail and
the company had to use alternative channels to reach its employees on a timely and
consistent basis. As part of its Employee Self Service (ESS) initiative, the airline
rolled out CommuniGate Pro to frontline employees, equipping all British Airways
employees with a unified @ba.com e-mail account.

"ESS is one of my favorite programs because it has delivered an enormous business
transformational bang for a very small investment buck. It works because it contains
vital services, is easily accessible and above all, is easy to use. So, guess what,
people use it," said British Airways CIO Paul Coby. "The thing I am most proud of is
that ESS is not just an Intranet for office workerslots of companies have
those. ESS is the Intranet for everyone, from baggage loaders, customer service
agents at the airports, cabin crew down-route, pilots, IT people, Engineers, to BA
staff overseasand it has been from the start."

CommuniGate Pro unlocks e-mail from the desktop, enabling airline employees to
access their company e-mail from any web browser, wherever they may be. And with
customizable skins, CommuniGate Pro ensures the British Airways brand remains
consistent across the entire ESS toolset.

Deployment at British Airways followed a series of successful field trials with
representative groups of the airline's customer service, in-flight service, flight
operations, and engineering units. The airline's improved communication channel
proved particularly valuable during last year's security changes at London's
Heathrow airport. With CommuniGate Pro, British Airways was able to keep all staff
members up to date on the latest news and policy changes by sending e-mails every
two hours to staff who would have been hard to reach in the past.

"The use of e-mail and messaging across our business is driving substantial benefits
for our business," said Allen Huish, Manager of Employee Self Service at British
Airways. "We are now able to disseminate corporate and department news faster than
ever to a wider range of employees. With its ease of customization and
administration, along with its unparalleled application resilience and scalability,
CommuniGate Pro gives us the right tool to support our globally-based, mobile
workforce."

"While Microsoft Outlook and other e-mail technologies have long been the ubiquitous
desktop solution for many enterprises, the shift is now to Web 2.0 delivery of
unified communications. It's simple; we are becoming a mobile workforce, with many
devices, and a need for access in ways the old model cannot deliver," said Jon R.
Doyle, Vice President of Business Development for CommuniGate Systems. "CommuniGate
Pro un-locks the world of Unified Communications from fixed locations. Our
partnership with British Airways proves once again that companies are looking for
better ways to improve communications and business processes. "

Completely standards-based, CommuniGate Pro provides an extensible Unified
Communications platform that can support implementations of any sizefrom 5
to 50 million users. Customers can take advantage of the platform's flexible
architecture options and deploy their preferred hardware and operating systems. The
British Airways' deployment leverages CommuniGate Pro's unique Dynamic Cluster
architecture. With no single point of failure, this advanced clustering technology
provides 99.999% uptime and gives the airline the ability to easily add nodes for
capacity, or perform change management without operational impact.

The CommuniGate Pro Enterprise Suite, including Pronto! a sleek, unified
communications dashboard based on Adobe Flash® and Adobe FlexT 2 technology, is
available today at www.communigate.com/community, free for the first five users,
making it a smart choice for small businesses or the home office network. For
installations over five users, the CommuniGate Pro Enterprise Suite is priced
starting at US$849 for 25 users. ISPs, Broadband and Mobile operators, can contact
sales@communigate.com for pricing information.

About CommuniGate Systems
Founded in 1991 and based in Mill Valley, California, CommuniGate Systems develops
carrier-class Internet Communications software for broadband & mobile service
providers, enterprises, and OEM partners worldwide. Over 130 million subscribers
including 47 million voice customers rely upon CommuniGate Systems products for
their voice and data communication today. CommuniGate Systems is the most trusted &
financially stable vendor which maintains the highest customer satisfaction levels
in the Rich Media Communications industry. CommuniGate Systems provides flexibility,
performance, scalability, with the benchmark proven architecture that remains
un-challenged in the industry. Our open development environment with simple APIs
delivers extensible flexibility with a unique clustering technology for 99.999%
uptime for the most demanding application environments. CommuniGate Systems has over
175 members in its partner network worldwide.

Download CommuniGate Pro today and join the initiative to drive interoperability of
Unified Communications and convert nearly 2 billion e-mail accounts to a single
identity for all forms of Internet Communications. For more information, go to
www.communigate.com.

# # #


Web Site: http://

Contact Details: Brian Blank
FutureWorks PR
brianb@future-works.com

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