Powwownow Chooses ThinkEngine Networks' VSR1000 to Expand their Worldwide Conferencing Business
ThinkEngine's First European Customer for VSR1000 Conferencing
January 2, 2008 Marlborough, MA and Richmond, England - ThinkEngine Networks, Inc. (AMEX: THN) today announced that Powwownow, Europe's leading provider of free audio and web conferencing has chosen the VSR1000 as the platform to expand their European and Worldwide conferencing business. ThinkEngine's VSR1000 is a TDM & IP capable media server which is coupled with a rich Audio Conferencing application and provides the lowest cost per port for audio conferencing in the industry.
Powwownow is ThinkEngine's first European customer for the VSR1000, Powwownow's business is growing at more than 100% per annum and they have aggressive expansion plans for the rest of the World. They conducted an exhaustive search to find the right platform for their conferencing expansion with several criteria in mind:
- Flexibility — the platform had to accommodate both TDM and IP traffic simultaneously and invisibly to the application, and the platform had to be a true media server that could run a variety of applications moving forward, not just Conferencing.
- Footprint — the platform had to be economical in terms of size and manageability and had to comply with both North American and European environmental, safety, and Telecommunications standards.
- Integration — the new platform had to be able to mirror or emulate the existing call flows at Powwownow so that the internal staff did not have to be retrained, and more importantly, so customers saw no change in the user interface they were familiar with.
- Price/Performance — the platform had to hit aggressive costs per port targets in order to allow for rapid expansion plans, and to provide Powownow the margins they needed for their business.
"ThinkEngine became the clear choice for our business expansion," said Paul Lees, CEO of Powwownow. "Their VSR1000 media server looked like a fit from a specs perspective but we still needed a great deal of customization in terms of call flows to make the integration of the product be seamless here. Their team took the time to understand our needs and provided the customization necessary to mirror our current environment. The switchover to the new platform went very well. Because their platform is so flexible they were able to do the call flow work we needed and still beat our cost targets."
"The challenges at Powwownow are not unusual among our customers," said Mike Wixon, vice president of product management. "As Conferencing Service Providers wrestle with the gradual move from TDM to IP, they need a platform that can accommodate both types of traffic. At the same time they need to preserve their investment in training their staff, while making changes in infrastructure invisible to the customer. Our Call Flow Emulation tool makes it simple for us to replace legacy Conferencing Bridges with a flexible Media Server and provide our customers with a strong platform for today, and moving forward."
About ThinkEngine Networks:
ThinkEngine Networks is a leading provider of TDM and IP capable conferencing bridges and media servers. The VSR1000 includes both TDM and IP interfaces as standard equipment and is capable of processing 968 simultaneous sessions in a compact 1U platform. The NEBS 3 certified platform has been deployed by customers to implement reservationless conferencing, prepaid calling, and IVR applications. The company's CX Series - Exchange Network Media Servers, are a cost-effective and highly scalable family of carrier-class media server platforms. They deliver advanced network media solutions in VoIP networks as well as in traditional AIN and TDM circuit switched and mixed network environments. ThinkEngine is a disruptive force in the marketplace - drastically reducing the cost of implementation while giving customers a migration path from TDM to VoIP. For more information about the company, visit http://www.thinkengine.com.
About Powwownow:
Voice and web conferencing company Powwownow was set up in 2002 with the twin aims of cutting conference call costs and expanding the use of conference calling services to business users across the Europe
Since its inception Powwownow 'no booking, no billing, no fuss' proposition has proven attractive enough to SME's to enable it to grow in excess of 100% per annum into a business that's on target to turn over £5m by the end of this year.
The business currently operates in 14 European territories the USA, Canada and Australia and has expansion plans for 12 additional countries to be operational by the end of 2008.
Safe Harbor Statement:
This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All statements contained herein which are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the continuance of reduced capital expenditures throughout the telecommunications market, variability of sales volume from quarter to quarter, product demand, market acceptance, litigation, dependence on significant customers, third party suppliers and intellectual property rights, risks in product and technology development and other risk factors detailed in the company's most recent Form 10-K and other subsequent Securities and Exchange Commission filings. ThinkEngine Networks does not undertake any duty to update forward-looking statements.
Contact:
Scott Mitchell
Director of Marketing
ThinkEngine Networks
smitchell@thinkengine.com
(508) 597-0479
Contact:
Andrew Pearce
Sales & Marketing Director
ThinkEngine Networks
andrew.pearce@powwownow.com
+44 (0) 207 990 0900