January 25, 2007; 01:38 AM
CHICAGO, Jan. 24, 2007 — Parlano Inc. today recapped its lengthy list of 2006 accomplishments, including record sales and customer acquisition, as well as exciting new product releases that strengthened the firms’ market leadership in persistent group chat. The company’s overall success in 2006 reflects heightened demand for Parlano’s MindAlign™ persistent group chat solutions and the maturing market for enterprise messaging and collaboration. It also reflects a growing interest in unified communications.
“Many forces drove our success this past year,” said Parlano Chairman and CEO Nick Fera. “Organizations want to collaborate and communicate in ways that complement their work functions. This means exchanging knowledge both on the fly and asynchronously among many different ad hoc teams centered on scores of different tasks.”
As part of this evolution, businesses are increasingly recognizing that MindAlign provides a foundation for successful unified communications, according to Fera. “Having video, web and voice conferencing integrated directly into ongoing cross-functional group discussions makes unified communications more efficient and helps organizations avoid the trap of compartmentalized one-off communications silos,” he said. “Our customers have shown that organizing communications in this way not only increases return on investment, but dramatically increases company performance.”
In addition, Parlano’s success in 2006 was driven by a “network effect” of loyal MindAlign users. When customers move to a new organization, they very often can’t live without MindAlign in their new environments. Because of consistent adoption via this channel, Parlano in 2006 formalized a MindAlign Alumni Program and saw significant growth amongst former users.
Other highlights of 2006 include:
· Achieved record annual sales and customer acquisition for both MindAlign™ and MindAlign™ for Microsoft Live Communications Server
· Deepened penetration within capital markets operations, where Parlano customers now include four of the world’s top five banks
· Rapidly expanded MindAlign usage within financial services in areas beyond traditional capital markets, including wealth management, energy trading, and hedge funds
· Broadened MindAlign usage within markets such as telecommunications and high-tech customer support
· Collaborated with Nokia to develop MindAlign Mobile for customers that need MindAlign connectivity on BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Palm Treo devices
· Launched the beta program for MindAlign 2007, Parlano’s SIP/SIMPLE-based persistent group chat solution
· Named Mark Barlow as managing director, EMEA region, responsible for sales, service and support of MindAlign software throughout the territory
· Expanded joint marketing activities with Microsoft, resulting in significant new sales on top of Microsoft Office Live Communications Server and demonstrating the value of MindAlign on top of the Microsoft Unified Communications platform
· Announced a strategic partnership with Formicary Ltd., an IT consultancy firm specializing in providing solutions for the financial services industry. Formicary now delivers strategic and technical consultancy services to enterprises deploying Parlano’s MindAlign products in Europe and North America
· Launched Parlano Edge Services™, an end-to-end services package that incorporates best practices developed from years of successfully deploying real-time collaboration solutions in mission critical environments
Also in 2006, Parlano played a key role in the maturation of the persistent group chat market in the following ways:
· Earned industry recognition for creating “a new paradigm for collaborative software” in Microsoft’s “Innovation Starts Here,” a book published in September by Microsoft’s Emerging Business Team (EBT)
· Received top marks from the Basex research firm for MindAlign’s ability to deliver a significant return on customer investments (from a new report called “Enterprise Community and the Role of Persistent Group Chat in the Enterprise,” available at http://www.parlano.com/asp/forms/form_basex_report.asp)
· Announced support for the 2007 Microsoft® Office system, providing Office customers with ongoing topic-based communication among dispersed, cross-functional groups
“Although 2006 was a great year for Parlano, we expect even greater things in 2007 as the market continues to evolve and organizations across all industries increasingly adopt persistent group chat as a cornerstone for their collaborative messaging solutions,” said Fera.
About Parlano, Inc.
Parlano is a leading provider of persistent group messaging solutions. Parlano's MindAlign solutions deliver instant, intelligent and persistent group and topic-based messaging to securely connect employees, customers and partners with the right people, information and context to execute business processes more efficiently. Companies including ABN AMRO, Bank of America, Cantor Fitzgerald, Cargill, Citigroup, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, UBS and others rely on Parlano to utilize messaging as a strategic business tool. Backed by Longworth Venture Partners and Oak Investment Partners, Parlano supports its customers and partners from its worldwide headquarters in Chicago, Illinois and EMEA headquarters in London.
For additional information please visit www.parlano.com or contact us at our HQ in Chicago at +1 (866) 727-5266 or +1 (866) PARLANO or at our EMEA office on +44 (20) 7743 6480.
# # #
Parlano, MindAlign and the Parlano MindAlign logo are registered trademarks.
All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Copyright © 2006 Parlano, Inc.
All rights reserved.
PRESS BY MONTH
EDITOR'S DESK
SUBMIT PRESS
