Near-Time Hosted Web 2.0 Service Enables Best of Class Cross-Organizational Collaboration

September 4, 2007; 05:55 AM

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today Near-Time announced multiple customer wins representing accelerated market momentum for its cross-organizational solution. Near-Time’s customers can easily create interactive communities with their prospects, customers, partners and suppliers to create best of class business relationships. Near-Time is a collaboration platform that integrates wikis and weblogs and other key collaborative technologies such as file sharing, scheduling, podcasting, and task management in a hosted and secure environment.

As a hosted SaaS based platform, Near-Time provides common ground for organizations to collaborate externally. Near-Time scales to any size organization, giving Near-Time customers the flexibility to collaborate and conduct their work in private, make content instantly public and significantly increase business interaction. Near-Time is particularly attractive to line of business professionals who need an intuitive, easy-to-use solution to help them quickly cultivate interactive customer relationships and strengthen market presence with minimal capital investment and IT resources.

Near-Time offers significant advantages over traditional collaboration methods. When compared with e-mail, Near-Time delivers a rich, centralized workspace and knowledge base. Near-Time enables organizations to have scaled conversations, from one to one, one to many and one to the Web. Near-Time can be easily implemented alongside of traditional, internal collaboration applications, including Microsoft Sharepoint, Lotus Notes and Novell Groupwise. As a standards based platform, Near-Time can be used with any Web browser and any operating system.

“Our customers know that external collaboration makes them more valuable and gives them an edge. Near-Time is becoming the platform of choice for businesses looking to transform how they engage their markets,” said Reid Conrad, CEO of Near-Time. “Better interaction enables our customers to win more business and more quickly create the products their customers need.”

BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, Nerac, Netscout, ForumOne Communications and BeneFacio all recently adopted Near-Time to cultivate collaborative communities designed to meet their unique business needs.

BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina: Near-Time Delivers Real-Time

http://www.bcbsnc.com

Historically, BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) had primarily communicated with client stakeholders via postal or e-mail delivery. However, about six months ago, the company decided to try Near-Time as a way of collaborating with clients and multiple stakeholders. The company is leveraging several private Near-Time spaces to expand external collaboration among multiple client stakeholders. The Near-Time solution allows BCBSNC clients, client stakeholders and teams to work together more quickly, easily and effectively.

“Near-Time facilitates improved collaboration with both existing customers and prospects throughout the client life cycle,” remarked Mike Smith, Director of National Accounts for BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina.

ForumOne Communications: Innovation and Community

http://www.forumone.com

Internet strategy and technology consulting company ForumOne Communications specializes in implementing online tools and services for public policy-focused organizations working in international development, education, health and the environment. The company began using Near-Time to provide its clients with a collaboration tool that would help them create online communities to connect people around the world working on important issues.

“Near-Time does an excellent job of blending online communications tools – such as Wikis and weblogs—with online workspace and extranet tools – such as task management, calendaring, and document and file management,” said Joe Pringle, Project Director for ForumOne Communications. “We see lots of potential for Near-Time to support dialogue and collaboration on public policy issues.”

Nerac: Collaboration Enabling Customer Intimacy

http://www.nerac.com

Nerac, a research and advisory firm for companies developing innovative products and technologies, recently adopted Near-Time to help launch their Collaborative Research Environment (CRE). CRE provides a platform for Nerac clients to engage with research analysts on custom briefing topics, share materials and better leverage the portfolio of Nerac’s services. Nerac’s Advisory Services site, also powered by Near-Time, is designed to enable teams to collaborate on report writing.

“We had been looking for the right Wiki product for several years when we found Near-Time. We selected the Near-Time platform because it works well in a variety of client environments, is quick and easy to get up and running for our clients—and is intuitive,” said Mike Mahoney, Director of Business Development for Nerac.

NetScout Systems: Creating Valuable Customer Communities

http://www.netscout.com

NetScout Systems, (NASDAQ: NTCT), the industry pacesetter for advanced network and assurance solutions, is now using Near-Time to communicate with its over 1600-member NetScout User Forum (NUF) with an eye towards innovation through community collaboration. NetScout has implemented Near-Time to launch a wiki as well as a user forum blog, at www.NUFBlog.com.

“NUFBlog is a collaborative space where users can talk to each other, as well as to key NetScout experts, to share best practices and product innovation ideas,” noted Dave Sciuto, NetScout Community Manager for NetScout Systems. “It is currently being leveraged to develop agenda ideas for our upcoming NUF Conference."

BeneFacio Inc: Building Out For the Future

http://benefacio.com

Retirement benefits administration company BeneFacio Inc has been using Near-Time as a tool to improve both internal efficiencies and client based communication. BeneFacio is so pleased with the platform that it plans to accelerate its external customer deployment and is also in the process of migrating its web site to Near-Time.

“Our company leverages a significant number of remote resources, and Near-Time’s hosted architecture dramatically simplifies the challenges of supplying those resources with the tools they need to be effective,” said Stacy Kenworthy, Chief Technology Officer for BeneFacio Inc. “Near-Time has also allowed us to store large amounts of historical data online and to be very selective about granting user access to the content. The rich feature set of the solution has freed up our resources and allowed us to focus on what matters most to us: delivering value to our clients.”

About Near-Time

Near-Time is a leading Web 2.0 based SaaS platform for cross-organization collaboration. Thousands of organizations in over 40 countries use Near-Time to develop best-in-class relationships with their customers, partners, and markets. Near-Time integrates wikis, weblogs, file-sharing and enterprise-class security to provide the fastest ROI for your collaboration investments. For more information, go to http://www.near-time.com/.