Ramsey County Emergency Services Unit Stays Connected with IM; Omnipod's POD provides quick and easy communication in deployment of volunteer personnel to disaster sites

Business Wire, Oct 11, 2005

NEW YORK -- Omnipod, a leader in On-Demand secure Enterprise Instant Messaging, announced today that the state of Minnesota's Ramsey County Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (EMHS) has implemented the Professional Online Desktop (POD) for secure instant messaging (IM), and to quickly locate personnel to respond to county emergencies.

EMHS provides on and behind-the-scenes assistance at major emergencies. The POD allows authorities to make quick and informed decisions via IM. Additionally, because of the IM's presence functionality, personnel are easily located and accounted for.

In addition to IM, EMHS relies on the POD's secure file sharing capabilities to distribute topographical maps that are often too large to be shared through email. As a result, the POD provides unique functionality in assisting EMHS in its security mission.

"As a government organization, EMHS required an affordable solution without placing a heavy burden on our IT department," said Judson Freed, Director of Ramsey County's Emergency Management and Homeland Security Department. "Hosted IM was the obvious solution - email is a single point of failure for communication, and in our line of work, we can't afford to take that risk."

"With Omnipod's advanced presence detection and multiple messaging gateways, EMHS is able to send a single message and know it will reach an emergency worker no matter where they are, whether by way of their computer, cell phone or wireless device," said Gideon Stein, CEO, Omnipod. "IM use in emergency response services gives 'instant' a whole new meaning when lives are at stake."

About Omnipod

Founded in 1999, Omnipod is a leading provider of On-Demand secure instant messaging. Omnipod's Professional Online Desktop (POD) is designed for enterprise use and seamlessly integrates collaboration features such as persistent chat, global SMS, WebEx online conferencing, Salesforce.com, file sharing and transfer capabilities, as well as numerous other communications functions into a secure presence-based messaging infrastructure. Hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, healthcare organizations, state and local governments and small-to-midsize firms across virtually every industry segment rely on Omnipod for secure IM. Omnipod's investors include Lexington Ventures, Mapleton Investments and private individuals. Omnipod offers a risk free 30-day trial of its services at, http://www.omnipod.com/html/test_drive.html.> Omnipod, Professional Online Desktop and POD are trademarks or registered trademarks of Omnipod, Inc.

All other trade names mentioned herein are believed to be the property of their respective owners.

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