LONDON, May 18 /PRNewswire/ --     County Durham Development Company has created a 'virtual'
science park in the form of NETPark Net http://www.uknetpark/net - this
follows the success of the actual NETPark science, engineering and technology
park in the North-East. Underpinning this virtual extension is the
communications solution, CommuniGate Pro and Pronto! from CommuniGate Systems
UK http://www.communigate.co.uk. Pronto! provides NETPark Net with a range of
unified communications including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Instant
Messaging and video conferencing to enable organisations which are located
outside NETPark to benefit from the specialist services offered as if they
were NETPark tenants.

As managing agents for NETPark, CDDC wanted to create a
virtual extension to enable businesses throughout the region to benefit from
the specialist services offered to tenants of NETPark. Key to the concept is
the delivery of collaborative software tools that will enable organisations
to maximise the value of the knowledge economy. By embracing the benefits of
social networking, NETPark Net offers science based organisations of any size
access to a broad range of expertise and experience in specific fields
http://www.communigate.com .

Catherine Johns, director of innovation development at County
Durham Development Company comments: "Our vision for NETPark Net is to allow
businesses, scientists and technologists throughout the country to
collaborate in an open innovation model, sharing information or views on a
broad range of related issues in much the same way as many of us use, publish
and share information on for example, our holidays or social life on Facebook
or MySpace."

NETPark Net builds on the services provided by NETPark to
provide a raft of information sharing and collaborative tools to boost
business opportunities for tenants. Underpinning the solution is a unified
communications platform that provides VoIP services, Instant Messaging, video
conferencing, e-mail and calendar management, as well as a number of
directories, discussion areas and a wiki collaborative space.

Shah Amin, web developer for CDDC explains, "Implementing a
unified communications platform was essential to ensure that all tenants,
virtual or physical, could communicate quickly and effectively together,
sharing networks and information databases."

Having reviewed the market, CDDC opted to implement CommuniGate Pro 
http://www.communigate.com/carrier/architecture.html and Pronto! unified 
communications technology. "CommuniGate's technology offers far greater 
functionality than other products in the market," says Amin. "One
of the major benefits of using CommuniGate Pro and Pronto! is that it
integrates completely with the existing NETPark Net website, allowing CDDC to
customise the user interface with our own branding to make it look like a
NETPark Net product."

This is achieved through the use of application programming
interfaces which enabled CDDC to integrate Pronto! with the content
management system. "The process of integrating Pronto! was extremely simple
and straightforward," Amin confirms. In addition, CommuniGate Pro offers the
choice of accessing communications via Pronto! over Flash or via webmail over
html based web sites, providing the flexibility required to support on going
developments.

This integrated web site provides users with a one-stop-shop
access to all resources, from calendar management to e-mail and discussion
forums.

Via NETPark Net, users have access to the latest VoIP technology, 
enabling companies to connect to customers and suppliers more easily and 
ensuring the virtual office is not tied to a specific geographical
location. Users are also encouraged to use Instant Messaging (IM) to work
collaboratively by sharing documents and experiences with other users. "Good
communication is key to facilitating partnership with other private sector
ventures or collaboration with universities for research and development
projects," Catherine Johns confirms.

Additional collaboration will be facilitated by the provision
of a wiki, a collaborative space containing pages that can be freely written
or edited by users of the community. "Users will be able to share information
very freely without the restriction of opening documents in different formats
and can grab information from the wiki and share with other users," Amin
comments.

Users also have the chance to manage an online business diary
blog, providing an excellent shop window for business expertise, events and
success, as well as sharing good practice and experiences with the rest of
the community. Using the Group discussion facility, organisations can share
experiences and resources with other like-minded businesses in specific
sectors, such as instrumentation, medical devices, nanotechnology, energy,
defence and printable electronics.

Furthermore, a number of directories, including Business and
Opportunities & Tenders, give users the option to both promote services and
access new opportunities collated from a range of different regional,
national and international sources.

Given the current economic challenges, it is becoming increasingly 
important to maximise skills and improve knowledge sharing to drive greater
business success.

"NETPark Net has two primary goals: to provide organisations
with access to the communication tools required to improve business
efficiency, and to facilitate excellent collaboration and co-operation to
facilitate the knowledge economy," concludes Amin. "Leveraging CommuniGate's
unified communications platform has enabled CDDC to provide organisations of
any size with access to a wide network of corporate science businesses,
resources and expertise which will be key in maximising commercial
opportunity."

About CommuniGate Systems

Based in London, CommuniGate UK is a business unit of GAP Internet 
Communications - the sole distributor for CommuniGate Systems within
the UK. Founded in 1991 and based in Mill Valley, California, CommuniGate
Systems develops carrier-class Unified Communications and media delivery
software for broadband and mobile operators to deliver value-added services
and SaaS solutions. CommuniGate Systems delivers powerful mash-ups of Unified
Communications technology mixed with media and entertainment applications for
portals, social networks, enterprises and mobile communities. CommuniGate
Systems is revolutionising the Unified Communications industry with a unique
Flash-based client framework Pronto! bringing together all forms of
communication and breaking the leash to the desktop with Web 2.0 mobility.

CommuniGate Systems is the first choice in technology solutions for over
12,000 customers with over 130 million subscribers unifying e-mail, 
collaboration, IM, presence and VoIP with a single identity. The Unified 
Communications platform provides flexibility, performance, and
scalability with benchmark proven architecture remaining unchallenged in the
industry. Our technology powers OEM partner products ranging from embedded
real time systems to powerful unified messaging platforms at top tier global
network operators. The open development environment's simple APIs deliver
extensible flexibility with a unique clustering technology for 99.999% uptime
for the most demanding application environments

The company is a trusted and financially stable vendor, maintaining the 
highest customer satisfaction levels in the Unified Communications industry
with over 175 members in its partner network worldwide.

For further information, please contact:

    Lisa Williams
    itpr
    t. +44(0)1932-57-88-00
    http://www.itpr.co.uk