OneTouch Signs Three New International Customers and Expands Reach into Educational Market; Distance Learning Leader Sees Sharp Rise in Global Demand for Distance Education

Business Wire, Dec 2, 2002

Business Editors/Technology Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 2, 2002

OneTouch(TM) Systems, whose interactive distance learning (IDL) solutions increase the capacity for organizations to train and communicate, today announced it has been selected by three educational organizations for programs designed to reach students in geographically dispersed areas. These organizations include a joint network between the New South Wales Department of Education and Training and the Northern Territory Department of Education, Employment and Training (Australia), the Ministry of Education (Egypt), and Knowledge Technology Systems (Dubai).

The new client wins come on the heels of OneTouch's recent profitability announcement--the third quarter ending September 30, 2002 continued the profitability trend that OneTouch set in 2001 when the company was profitable every quarter. OneTouch has also made several recent product announcements, including the newest version of its On Demand product suite. The company attributes its recent successes in the market to its continued dominance in the U.S. IDL market, especially in retail, government and automotive industries, and now its expansion into the educational market.

"Demand for technological alternatives in the K-12 educational market is growing rapidly, as is demand in the adult education sector," said Dennis Bertken, OneTouch president and CEO. "This most recent round of new customer relationships reflects our ongoing strategy of expanding our existing domestic relationships into international markets."

The Australian project, known as the Northern Territory and New South Wales Interactive eLearning Initiative, will extend education outreach services, and will give both children and adults living in remote communities access to greater educational opportunities. Initially, the education network will include five IDL broadcast studios capable of reaching 1,130 OneTouch-powered desktop clients for both live and on demand classes. This will be the first time that students will be able to see their teachers during their curriculum.

The Ministry of Education in Egypt chose the OneTouch 5 solution as part of their project intended to "Teach the Teachers" and increase the number of qualified teachers all over Egypt. This project will initially utilize the OneTouch classroom solution to connect 1,150 remote participants at 23 sites as part of the Ministry of Education's videoconferencing network.

About the OneTouch 5 Solution

With OneTouch 5, a teacher, or "remote expert," can reach any number of participants--delivering visually rich, consistent content in a timely and cost-effective manner over any broadband network. Combining full-motion video, full-duplex audio, and two-way data interaction, OneTouch 5 allows an organization to simultaneously reach students either in a networked classroom using the interactive touchpad, or at a desktop PC, all from a single location and server, with the ability to capture both sessions for on demand replay.

About OneTouch Systems

OneTouch helps organizations achieve real business results by increasing the capacity to communicate with large, dispersed numbers of people. The company's award-winning solutions are easy to use and can be delivered to both individual PCs and networked classrooms via any broadband delivery system. Customers rely on the OneTouch solution, with more than 350,000 seats around the world, to reach and interact with an estimated 3.5 million employees annually. OneTouch is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit http://www.onetouch.com.

OneTouch Systems, Inc. and the OneTouch Systems logo are trademarks of OneTouch Systems, Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.