Marratech Delivers E-Meetings Together With Broadband Operator Utfors

"Breakthrough" order for Swedish software supplier: Marratech Delivers E-Meetings Together With Broadband Operator Utfors [Stockholm, Sweden, October 24, 2001.] Swedish software company Marratech has entered a partnership with broadband operator Utfors in order to deliver e-meetings to the Scandinavian B2B-market. The deal is worth more than 5 mSEK and is Marratech's largest to date. Marratech develops and markets software for e-meetings, i.e. meetings and communication over the Internet. According to the newly signed agreement, Marratech will supply its new software, Marratech E-Meeting Portal and Marratech Pro, to Utfors' broadband customers. Utfors is one of the largest broadband operators in the Nordic region. The order is valued at 5.5 million SEK which makes it Marratech's largest order sofar in the company's three-year history. The partnership between Marratech and Utfors aims at establishing a market for e-meetings, i.e. multimedial communicative solutions which enable working with joint documents, texts and illustrations, various presentation material etc with real time audio and video communication via PC. Utfors' increasing broadband capacity enables interactive e-meetings with high quality video and audio for many participants - without the risk of the sessions being overloaded or slow. The business model is built on a client software that is installed free of charge at the end user's PC, with the actual meetings being held in virtual 'e-meeting rooms' that is provided by Utfors. An e-meeting instead of an physical journey to a conference room can save considerable amounts of time and costs for many companies. "This is a genuine breakthrough both for the concept of e-meetings in general and its potential users, and for Marratech as a company. With this new communicative solution, the broadband increases in value for many business customers. Internet-based e-meetings can lead to enormous savings in travel costs and work time, in addition to the hassle and time spent with traveling. And with the high quality and interactivity that Marratech and Utfors now can offer, this is definately a big step forward towards more efficient group communications", said Petri Markkanen, CEO, Marratech. About Marratech: Marratech AB is a Swedish-based software company that develops and markets solutions for e-meetings, i.e. software that enables distance meetings and projects over the internet. The company's business idea is "to help people meet and work together regardless of geographical location", and to thereby save its customers valuable travel time and costs as well as work time. Marratech launched its first products for e- meetings in 1998. Its flagship product Marratech Pro can be installed on the computers of every meeting participant (including a headset and a small web camera) and subsequently be used to let all participants join the meeting or project either actively or passively from ther respective work station. Texts and images can be visualized via the computer in an interactive manner. Marratech is based on research which started in 1995 at the Luleå University of Technology in northern Sweden. The company has its headquarters in "Mobile Valley" in Kista outside Stockholm and carries out research and development in Luleå. Marratech has several major international corporations in its customer base, e.g. Ericsson, SEB and FMV, and also broadband operator Utfors. Marratech is owned by venture capital firms Slottsbacken and Emano, the founders and the employees. Marratech holds the "2001 European IST Prize" for Marratech Pro, awarded by the European Union. About Utfors: Utfors is the first choice of Nordic partners for high-quality fixed and mobile broadband, Internet and telephony services. Utfors is launching a network at the cutting edge of global technology. Utfors offers companies, authorities and private individuals revolutionary services that create new possibilities for progress and creativity. Utfors will be linking together the 75 largest cities in the Nordic region through a 7,100 km long broadband network. Utfors employs around 360 people in Sweden, Norway and Finland and is owned mainly by Norsk Vekst and Litorina Kapital as well as a number of institutional investors. See www.utfors.se. For further information please contact: Petri Markkanen, CEO Marratech AB Ph: +46 70 - 657 00 25 E-mail: petri.markkanen@marratech.com or Markus Boberg, PR and Information Manager Utfors AB Ph: +46 08 - 5270 3016 oro +46 708 - 48 3016 Email: markus.boberg@utfors.se Also visit our web site: www.marratech.com ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net