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

SOURCE County Durham Development Company and CommuniGate Systems UK

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