Ignite Technologies Adds to Canon U.S.A.'s Sales Force Arsenal; Ignite's Digital Delivery Service™ Provides Direct Sales Force and Resellers with Rich Media Demos to 'Close the Sale'

Business Wire, May 1, 2006

DALLAS -- Ignite Technologies is proud to announce its support of the Canon U.S.A. off-site field representatives through the fast, secure distribution of sales collateral and training materials. Canon U.S.A., Inc., voted one of the top 100 brands in the U.S., had a major challenge: how to get product updates and sales training materials on thousands of digital imaging products to its sales force and resellers quickly and uniformly.

"The timely distribution of updated training materials has a direct correlation with success in sales. Keeping our people posted on new product developments and materials only serves to strengthen the Canon brand," says Mitch Bardwell, director and assistant general manager, Imaging Systems Group, Canon U.S.A., Inc. "Until Ignite Technologies, our training division was using CDs to distribute product launch kits and training materials. The CD distribution was an expensive budget item and did not give us the ability to track usage in the field, or effectiveness."

The Lake Success, N.Y.-based firm chose Ignite, a Dallas-based provider of hosted digital content delivery services which can send all forms of rich electronic media through its online enterprise. Ignite is now quickly and securely delivering Canon product launches, material updates, leadership messages, video presentations and more. Its version control feature also ensures that all recipients have the latest, correct version of all materials.

"A huge benefit for us is Ignite's ability to deliver rich media files to any desktop regardless of bandwidth. Now our salespeople have immediate online access to high-impact video demos they can access on the road when seeing a customer," says Bardwell. "It's pretty tough to drag a copier through an airport. Now it's all in their laptops."

"Canon's sales force now easily accesses and plays the Flash and video-based demonstrations they use to show off product features, without worrying about file sizes and download times," says Ignite Technologies President & CEO, Jim Janicki. "Ignite's Field Notification feature also gives Canon representatives a heads-up on new content by sending pop-up alerts that appear on-screen," says Janicki. "The ability to quickly retrieve and use the latest materials for sales conferences also allows for timely preparation."

Ignite's auditability feature, which tracks when and who opens the files sent to each desktop, gives Canon a better sense of material usage in the field. "The cost savings of replacing CD production with Ignite's Digital Delivery Service has been significant, and view rates and compliance have increased dramatically," Bardwell notes.

Canon has integrated Ignite into its own Intellinex Learning Management System (LMS). All content can now be delivered within the context of the Intellinex platform, and all interactions, even offline, are delivered back to the Intellinex reporting engine.

IGNITE DIGITAL DELIVERY

Unlike content delivery networks or software companies that demand capital investments to deliver large files, Ignite is a highly-secure, outsourced service. Since Ignite hosts the service, it does not burden a customer's existing computing or networking infrastructure.

"Ignite can deliver large data-intensive files to any network, anywhere," says Janicki. "Our technology doesn't care whether you're on a slow dial-up or the fastest broadband connection. It is designed to get that file to your 'desktop' whether you're using a customer's network or an airport Hot Spot," says Janicki.

Additional benefits are:

--Polite background delivery that ensures PC and network performance are not affected by digital media deliveries.

--High security. Some of the nation's largest financial organizations -- which said they would never implement a hosted solution based on their security concerns -- now use Ignite's service.

--Comprehensive tracking and reporting. Because of compliance regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, companies need to be assured that their business communications are seen by their targets. Ignite's service not only delivers the material, but can monitor and report if the material has been reviewed to the degree that matches the company's requirements.

ABOUT CANON U.S.A., INC.

Canon U.S.A., Inc. delivers consumer, business-to-business, and industrial imaging solutions. The Company is listed as one of Fortune's Most Admired Companies in America and is rated #35 on the BusinessWeek list of "Top 100 Brands." Its parent company Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ) is a top patent holder of technology, ranking second overall in the U.S. in 2005, with global revenues of $31.8 billion. For more information, visit www.usa.canon.com.

ABOUT IGNITE TECHNOLOGIES

Ignite fills the void in digital communications, providing a single, integrated solution that securely delivers any digital content -- from TV-quality video to software updates -- to any PC with no bandwidth restrictions. Ignite's Digital Delivery Service overcomes network and connectivity constraints that have limited the ability of corporations to reach an entire online audience regardless of location, connectivity and mobility. The company's technology has been deployed across hundreds of thousands of PCs for leading corporations around the globe.