British Airways Taps CommuniGate Systems to Unify Communications

Airline selects CommuniGate Pro to link frontline workforce with web delivered messaging solution

Mill Valley, CA - 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 Flex™ 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 Unified Communications and media delivery software for broadband and mobile operators to deliver value-added services and SaaS solutions. CommuniGate Systems delivers powerful mashups of Unified Communications technology mixed with media and entertainment applications for portals, social networks, enterprises and mobile communities. CommuniGate Systems is revolutionizing the Unified Communications industry with a unique Flash-based client framework Pronto! bringing together all forms of communication and breaking the leash to the desktop with Web 2.0 mobility.

CommuniGate Systems is the first choice in technology solutions for over 12,000 customers with over 130 million subscribers unifying e-mail, collaboration, IM, presence and VoIP with a single identity. The Unified Communications platform provides flexibility, performance, and scalability with benchmark proven architecture remaining unchallenged in the industry. Our technology powers OEM partner products ranging from embedded real time systems to powerful unified messaging platforms at top tier global network operators. The open development environment's simple APIs deliver extensible flexibility with a unique clustering technology for 99.999% uptime for the most demanding application environments.

The company is a trusted and financially stable vendor, maintaining the highest customer satisfaction levels in the Unified Communications industry with over 175 members in its partner network worldwide.