SAN FRANCISCO, USA and OXFORD, UK (March 8, 2004) – Critical Path, Inc. (Nasdaq: CPTH), a global provider of digital communications software and services, and RM, the leading provider of information and communications technology (ICT) and other services to UK education, today announced that RM has selected the Critical Path Communications Platform to power the next generation of RM’s EasyMail Plus email solution. The Critical Path software will enable RM to expand its service to handle increasing growth as well as to provide a foundation for delivering new value-added services such as calendaring.
RM’s EasyMail Plus service provides email services to over 5000 educational organizations in the UK. The service, originally focused on primary schools, was recently upgraded to respond to demand from the secondary school sector. Now, with the scalability, reliability and advanced functionality of Critical Path’s messaging software, RM will be able to extend the service even further into secondary schools and higher education markets. In addition, Critical Path’s support for consistent access across multiple devices – especially Web, desktop computer and mobile devices – is enabling RM to address the needs of different types of users from a single platform.
“By moving EasyMail Plus to the Critical Path Communications Platform, we will be able to meet increasing demands for a reliable, easy-to-use email system that can handle our growing base of users without compromising performance for existing customers,” said Tim Pearson, chief executive of RM. “Furthermore, Critical Path offers us a robust platform from which to deliver additional value-added services, in line with RM’s strategic direction for EasyMail Plus and the demand we are seeing from our customers.”
The modular architecture of the Critical Path Communications Platform has enabled it to be integrated easily with RM’s existing infrastructure. In particular, Critical Path and RM are working together to tie Critical Path’s software into education-focused portal solutions. These will provide a seamless and comprehensive authentication, authorization and accounting architecture for the service.
“The flexibility of the Critical Path Communications Platform enables service providers such as RM to add value incrementally to their existing infrastructure,” said Michael Serbinis, chief technical officer at Critical Path. “For example, RM can start with email and then evolve its service into a full personal information management (PIM) solution.”
The Critical Path Communications Platform, which is available both as licensed software and as hosted services, offers a broad set of integrated components – including email, address books, calendars, dynamic alerts, shared files, centralized profile management, multi-modal access, and end-to-end synchronization – that can be customized and tailored to the needs of multiple market segments from a single platform. As a result, carriers and service providers can cut costs and time-to-market for delivering new, differentiated revenue-generating services to consumers, mobile professionals and small businesses.
About Critical Path, Inc.
Critical Path, Inc. (Nasdaq: CPTH) is a global provider of identity management and messaging software and services, headquartered in San Francisco. More information can be found at www.criticalpath.net/solutions/wirelessSP/.
About RM plc
The RM Group is the UK's leading supplier of education services. Focusing on the application of information and communications technology (ICT) to all aspects of the teaching and learning process, RM's aim is to work with schools, colleges and universities to improve education.
The Group is already the ICT supplier of choice for approximately one-third of UK schools, and is increasingly engaged in providing broader educational services to central and local government and associated agencies.
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 Reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarters ended March 31, June 30 and September 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 Critic l Path BENELUX
+31 (0) 6 512 77060 phone
+31 (0) 6 105 48013 fax
A Global Leader in Digital Communications Software and Services