Centra Expands Presence-Enablement Support Via Office System 2003
LEXINGTON, Mass. (October 28, 2003) – Centra Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRA), a leading provider of application software and services for real-time enterprise conferencing and collaboration today announced expanded support in Centra 7 for the newly launched Microsoft Office System 2003. Building on integration available in Centra 7 with Microsoft Office and Messenger, this expanded support will deliver integration with the on-premises, secure instant messaging and presence-enabling capabilities of Live Communications Server. As a result, Centra 7 will be the first real-time conferencing and collaboration application software with complete support for on-premises, behind-the-firewall, presence-enablement on the Microsoft platform, delivering the highest level of combined security and functionality to the enterprise. Integration support for Microsoft Office System 2003 and Live Communications Server is available immediately from Centra for both on-premises and ASP solutions.
With Microsoft integration and expanded support, Centra 7 real-time conferencing and collaboration users will be able to use instant messaging to detect and easily invite required meeting participants to an immediate, online session. Additionally, users who have engaged in an instant messaging chat can gracefully escalate from their electronic version of an “impromptu hallway gathering” to a full-fledged online meeting instantaneously, without the electronic equivalent of finding and scheduling a conference room. Centra 7’s full-function, group-oriented online meeting capability seamlessly layers in on top of the more limited interactivity of instant messaging. For Centra customers with security requirements who have deployed Centra 7 behind-the-firewall, the on-premises instant messaging available in Live Communications Server now enables a Microsoft platform option for secure, presence-enabled online collaboration and complements the support for “scheduled” Web conferencing and collaboration through Microsoft Outlook and “context-sensitive” Web conferencing through Microsoft applications like Word and Excel already available in Centra 7 today.
“Support for Microsoft Office System 2003 and Live Communications Server are part of our ongoing strategy to achieve complete integration of Centra’s enterprise-class, server-based real-time conferencing and collaboration solution with all enterprise platforms, applications, databases, directories, security systems, audio systems, and desktop tools, enabling seamless integration with our customers’ infrastructures, business processes and user desktops,” said John Walsh, vice president of product development at Centra. “The result is an online productivity solution that works for everyone – IT, business departments, and end-users.”
“Web conferencing and collaboration vendors need to take advantage of the advances in desktop and application connectivity being introduced by the major platform leaders like Microsoft, Lotus/IBM, and Oracle to help remove barriers to adoption and enable Web conferencing to become seamlessly integrated into major business processes and daily work life,” said Alan Greenberg, senior analyst at Wainhouse Research, an independent market research firm that focuses on critical issues in the rich media conferencing and communications fields. “More than just peer-to-peer instant messaging, ‘online presence-enablement’ will be a powerful assistant to finding fellow workers, solving problems, and getting work done faster. It is a natural adjunct to the way employees work and share information together in Web conferencing meetings, seminars and classes.”
About Centra
Leading with a proven track record of helping approximately 1,200 organizations increase revenue and improve business performance, Centra offers enterprise application software that enables organizations to deliver real-time communication, collaboration and learning across the extended enterprise. Centra offers solutions that deliver enhanced integration of real-time conferencing and collaboration capabilities with departmental business processes, such as sales and marketing, and virtual teamwork. Available in 14 languages, Centra applications can be deployed as on-site software or through our ASP service and are supported by an active ecosystem of value-added partners, including PeopleSoft, Oracle, Siebel, Deloitte Consulting, EDS and Cisco. Organizations across every major industry and market sector choose Centra, including Cadbury Schweppes, McKesson, Sysco, Viacom and Stanford University. Headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts, Centra serves a worldwide customer base throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information, visit www.centra.com.
Centra is a registered trademark, and Centra 7 is a trademark, of Centra Software, Inc. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.
Centra Software, Inc. 430 Bedford Street, Lexington, MA 02420
http://www.centra.com
