Instant Collaboration Offers British Industry Savings of £7.45 Billion a Year

(5th October, 2006, Ledbury, UK) The adoption of secure, instant communications networks (so-called Presence Networking), in the UK could save British businesses £7.45 billion a year, according to research carried out by technology and telecoms consultancy BWCS.

"The rapid adoption of instant collaboration networks can dramatically increase productivity among office workers," argues BWCS CEO, Graham Wilde, "the arrival of business-class systems that integrate secure Instant Messaging and VoIP by showing users immediately if colleagues are available, blows away the frustrations of trying to contact co-workers by conventional means."

According to BWCS's figures, 25% of office-based companies in Britain are expected to start using Presence Networking as their primary means of communications within three years. This will lead to an overall saving, purely in terms of staff-time, of around £7.45 billion a year in the UK. This figure does not include possible savings in fuel/travel costs or lower phone/fax costs.

Symon Blomfield, CEO of UK secure Instant Messaging company Presence Networks, explains "The beauty of these networks is that they allow you to see immediately which of your colleagues is available and enable you to contact them instantly, no matter where they are. The time savings are impressive and users are placed at the centre of their own live network. They can then use this to contact others, directly and immediately, on the network, securely and for free, via messaging, IP phone links or by sending text from their pcs to mobiles."

Companies in the UK are already using insecure instant contact systems such as public access Instant Messaging systems. However, BWCS warns that despite the increased speed of communications these offer, they also carry grave threats to businesses by leaving a gaping hole in network security.

In recent surveys it has been shown that 81% of corporations believe that their employees work more productively with Instant Messaging. However, BWCS warns companies against simply allowing the take-up of public IM at the work place. As recent attacks have shown, such programmes can be very dangerous, providing a wide-open entry-point for IM Viruses, Trojans and Worms. It comes as no surprise that For example, anti-virus firm Symantec reported a 400% increase in IM and peer-to-peer (P2P) networking viruses, worms and Trojans over the last twelve months

Blomfield again, "The problem is that public IM is not really a service, it carries little security and offers no service level agreements. Presence Networks has been different form the outset, we offer a fully secure, independently hosted solution that gives customers the ability to contact colleagues immediately across a secure network."

Presence Networks' system for example, which uses 128bit SSL encryption on all traffic, records, dates and time-stamps all messages enabling an audit trail to be established and making it compliant with FSA, SEC, Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II, HIPAA rules. BWCS believes that this level of security is vital in order that the market can take these services seriously and to drive the take-up of systems such as that developed by Presence Networks. 

For a free trial of Presence Networks' system, please contact Symon Blomfield on +44 (0) 870 345 7900 or e-mail Symon symon.blomfield@pnglobal.net

ENDS

Contact:  Ross Parsons, BWCS 07855 155 393 or e-mail Ross.Parsons@BWCS.com

About Presence Networks

Presence Networks is a UK based company which offers SMEs and enterprise 

customers a hosted, secure Instant Messaging service. Combined with the secure 

IM services the company provides integrated network based call handling and IP PBX 

services and offers secure Presence Systems to other Service Provider.

For more information on Presence Networks' system please visit www.presence-networks.net  and to register for free trial, please contact Symon Blomfield +44(0) 870 345 7900 on  or e-mail symon.blomfield@pnglobal.net 

About BWCS

BWCS is a consultancy that advises on how to turn technologies into business. For users of technology we offer clear insight into how to get the best from new and existing IT and telecoms systems. For vendors of IT and telecoms hardware, software and services we advise on how to turn technologies into business and consumer benefits for your customers.

BWCS also publishes a range of "How-to" guides. These books have been sold to senior executives at major companies in over 100 countries throughout the world. For more information please go to www.BWCS.com or contact Ross Parsons at BWCS Ltd on +44 (0) 7855 155 393 or e-mail Ross.Parsons@BWCS.com