SAN FRANCISCO and GENEVA (October 13, 2003) – Critical Path, Inc. (Nasdaq: CPTH), a leader in digital communications software and services, today announced new versions of the company’s core messaging solutions for wireless and wireline carriers. These enhanced solutions – which are being shown at the ITU Telecom World conference at the HP Partners’ Solutions Fair – differentiate and expand the range of services that carriers can offer consumers, mobile professionals and businesses. Available both as licensed software and as hosted services, these solutions enable carriers to reduce time-to-market, capital expenses and ongoing operational costs for a greater range of revenue-generating services.
“Critical Path’s Mobile Messaging and PIM (personal information management), Universal Address Book, and Multimedia Messaging solutions leverage the advanced mobility capabilities that are now part of the Critical Path Communications Platform 7.0,” said Michael Serbinis, chief technology officer at Critical Path. “As a result, carriers can offer mobile access to more messaging services, stimulate SMS and MMS data services, synchronize personal information across subscribers’ messaging services, mobile devices and desktop, as well as deliver server-based anti-virus and anti-spam services.”
Mobile Messaging and PIM
Critical Path now offers carriers the ability to mobilize and integrate subscribers’ existing ISP and enterprise mailboxes and to provide access to new messaging and collaboration services – such as shared contacts, calendars and files – from Microsoft Outlook®, popular PDAs, smartphones and other mobile devices. The extensive connectivity and proven scalability of Critical Path’s platform is now complemented by powerful anti-virus and anti-spam protection, broad integration with SMS, mobile alerts, advanced PIM, over-the-air synchronization, network-based file sharing and support for Pocket PC, Palm® and SyncML-compliant devices.
Universal Address Book
Critical Path is now making it possible for carriers to dramatically simplify how subscribers use, manage and share their crucial contact information. Its flexible and highly extensible Universal Address Book stores subscribers’ contact information on the carrier’s network and then synchronizes that data across all of the messaging services and devices used by subscribers. This approach enables carriers to consolidate their back-end infrastructure and eliminate redundant address books that complicate support and create frustration for subscribers. In addition, it makes new “mobile backup” services easy to deliver, improves the user experience across messaging services, and increases subscriber loyalty.
Multimedia Messaging
Critical Path is now making it possible for carriers to leverage the Web to jump-start MMS adoption and drive more value from their existing MMSC infrastructure. With Critical Path’s multimedia solutions, carriers can deploy MMS Albums into which subscribers can easily save photos, videos, audio and other multimedia messages. There, the messages can be viewed via wireless devices, Web browsers and desktop computers and shared with anybody – even with subscribers who don’t yet have an MMS-capable phone. Furthermore, integrated support for preloading of premium multimedia files helps stimulate usage of MMS services and content.
Licensed Software or Hosted Services
Critical Path’s solutions are available both as licensed software and hosted services. Carriers can choose whether to deploy on-site for the deepest tailoring and integration with third-party applications or let Critical Path customize and manage the software remotely in state-of-the-art, highly secure HP data centers. Critical Path is one of the pioneers of hosted messaging and provides messaging services for millions of users around the world. Critical Path Hosted Messaging enables carriers to provide consumers, mobile professionals and businesses with an interoperable suite of mobility and collaboration services, including email, calendars, shared address books and shared files with dynamic alerts and device synchronization. With this approach, carriers can accelerate their time-to-market, provide industry-leading uptime and make costs predictable – without tying up capital resources or adding operational costs.
About the Critical Path Communications Platform
The Critical Path Communications Platform is used by over 200 wireless and wireline carriers around the world. The modular, integrated platform offers proven scalability, performance and low cost of ownership. It enables carriers to deploy Critical Path’s solutions incrementally and integrate with existing services and infrastructure, reducing cost, risk and time-to-market. The Critical Path Communications Platform is offered both as licensed software and as a hosted service. More information on Critical Path’s messaging solutions for carriers and service providers is available at www.criticalpath.net/solutions/wirelessSP/.
About Critical Path, Inc.
Critical Path, Inc. (Nasdaq: CPTH) is a global leader in digital communications software and services. The company provides messaging solutions -- from wireless, secure and unified messaging to basic email and personal information management -- as well as identity management solutions that simplify user profile management and strengthen information security. The standards-based Critical Path Communications Platform, built to perform reliably at the scale of public networks, delivers the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership for messaging solutions and lays a solid foundation for next-generation communications services. Solutions are available on a hosted or licensed basis. Critical Path's customers include more than 700 enterprises, 200 carriers and service providers, eight national postal authorities and 35 government agencies. Critical Path is headquartered in San Francisco. More information can be found at www.criticalpath.net.
Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements by the Company and its executives regarding the performance, security, scalability and interoperability of our product and service offerings, the ability of our customers to achieve cost savings in the provision of services, industry trends, market and customer requirements, the ability of our products and services to meet the business needs of our customers, the market for products and services like ours and the performance of our senior management in achieving strategic goals. The words and expressions "look forward to," "will," "expect," "plan," "believe," "seek," "strive for," "anticipate,” hope,” "estimate" and similar expressions are intended to identify the Company's forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to, our evolving business strategy and the emerging and changing nature of the market for our products and services, our ability to deliver on our sales objectives, the ability of our technology and our competitors' technologies to address customer demands, changes in economic and market conditions, unplanned system interruptions and capacity constraints, software and service design defects. These and other risks and uncertainties are described in more detail in the Company's filings with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov) made from time to time, including Critical Path's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2002,and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fisca quarters ended March 31 and June 30, 2003, as may be amended from time to time, and all subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov). The company makes no commitment to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances after the date any such statement is made.
Ernst van der Ploeg
Regional Sales Director
for Critical Path BENELUX
+31 (0) 6 512 77060 phone
+31 (0) 6 105 48013 fax
A Global Leader in Digital Communications Software and Services