BlueTie Brings Collaboration to the Masses with Release of DirectConnect for Microsoft Outlook

300 Million Outlook Users Can Now Collaborate in Real-Time over the Internet without a Microsoft Exchange Server

HostReview.com
Tuesday, February 3, 2004; 12:00 AM

Rochester, New York - February 3, 2004 - BlueTie, Inc., a leading provider of Web-based messaging and collaboration, announces today the release of DirectConnect for Microsoft Outlook, the world's first desktop application designed to connect Outlook with a collaboration server directly over the Internet. The revolutionary design of DirectConnect enables users to connect their Outlook desktop software with the award-winning BlueTie Server, without any hardware or server software.

"Small businesses want functionality above and beyond what they are getting with their existing POP3 mail, but they do not want to spend the thousands of dollars associated with setting up an Exchange Server," said David Koretz, BlueTie President and CEO. "BlueTie DirectConnect is the first software application that provides business class solutions without investments in hardware or software."

With DirectConnect, BlueTie users have a real-time connection between their BlueTie account and Outlook on the desktop. This connection ensures, whether a user is accessing their email, contacts, calendar and tasks via Outlook, remotely with BlueTie's Web client, or on a mobile device, that their information is always accessible. BlueTie provides users with virus and SPAM-free email, shared calendars, contacts and files, tasks, instant messaging, and more.

Innovation in Concept and Design
BlueTie Server, a highly scalable and reliable messaging and collaboration platform, facilitates the operation of BlueTie's suite of business applications and allows users to collaborate by sharing calendars, contacts and files with other users. BlueTie Server also allows for real-time connections to be maintained between BlueTie's Web client, Outlook, and with the recent release of BlueTie Mobile, a wide variety of wireless devices.

The first time DirectConnect communicates with BlueTie Server, all of the data is replicated, providing an instant disaster recovery solution in less than five minutes. Should the data in Outlook become corrupt, or if the computer ever fails, the user can continue working from any computer with Internet access.

Once the initial replication is complete, the system connects on a regular basis to keep data identical in both locations. The user can control the frequency the application runs, and exactly which data is replicated.

Instant Availability and Seamless Updates
As with most BlueTie product and feature releases, DirectConnect is available free of charge to all BlueTie users and is immediately available for download at www.BlueTie.com/directconnect.

The system utilizes a unique auto-updating mechanism that eliminates the need to ever download new versions or upgrades. Software updates are seamlessly pushed to users in the background, without any user action required.