Press Release

FaceTime Expands Instant Messaging Solution To Address Security and Compliance Needs For Financial Services Market

New "IMAuditor" Targets Financial Services Organizations Using IM for Time-Sensitive Business Communications

FOSTER CITY, Calif. October 1, 2001 -- FaceTime Communications, the premier provider of instant messaging (IM) applications for business, today announced the availability of its new IMAuditor solution. As part of the FaceTime Instant Message Director family of products, IMAuditor enables financial services organizations the ability to leverage the power of public instant messaging networks from AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo! for time-sensitive communications, while ensuring administrative controls are in place to comply with government regulations.

The tremendous popularity of the public instant messaging networks in the corporate workplace is causing serious compliance and technology management challenges for many organizations, especially large financial institutions. Until now, sensitive information exchanged on the AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo! IM networks could not be tracked, logged, saved, or audited. Firms in the financial services industry such as securities traders, broker-dealers, merchant banks and commodity futures dealers are all subject to detailed SEC regulations that require the recording and storage of data to ensure that electronic communication is recorded and archived for compliance purposes.

"Instant Messaging has become an important means of business communication, said Brad Adrian, Analyst with Gartner Financial Services. Financial enterprises using instant messaging to conduct business transactions must consider the critical need to log and audit those conversations."

The FaceTime IMAuditor enables IT departments to install a back-end software server behind their Internet firewall in order to manage and monitor instant messaging communication across all major public IM networks. FaceTime's latest offering helps senior IT management take advantage of the real-time communication benefits that instant messaging has to offer without having to impose access and usage restrictions on their employees.

IMAuditor provides the following capabilities:

Archiving of data to an auditable database

Content scanning and Web-based query and retrieval of stored data

Keyword watch lists for monitoring content of messages to ensure propriety of business communications

Automatic display of disclaimer notices on all instant messaging communication, management control of IM communication

Valuable insight on the usage of instant messaging

The FaceTime IMAuditor includes an easy installation and configuration process, no change in behavior for users of instant messaging clients, Web-based reports, and support for existing corporate proxy servers.

"With the proliferation of employees using instant messaging and engaging in critical, real-time business communication, IT and compliance officers are focusing on the use of IM within the enterprise," said Glen Vondrick, President and CEO of FaceTime. "Corporate communication has traditionally been governed by information technology policies, but historically these same policies have been difficult (or impossible) to apply to the public instant messaging networks. Our product, IMAuditor, answers a great need in the financial services industry by tracking, storing and archiving sensitive IM communications and information."

FaceTime's partnership and unique licensing agreement with AOL Time Warner has enabled FaceTime to be the first company to deliver authorized value-add solutions on the AOL AIM network. This provides IT professionals the confidence and security they need to allow access to the AIM network via IMAuditor for regulatory compliance. The licensing agreement allows financial services employees, such as brokers and traders, to continue to use IM as an effective communications channel with their customers.

"America Online popularized instant messaging, one of the fastest growing communication channels among consumers. Through our partnership with FaceTime and their licensed integration with the AOL Instant Messenger service, instant messaging for business will provide a valuable communication and productivity tool for enterprises," said Raul Mujica, Vice President and General Manager - AOL Instant Messenger.

About FaceTime Communications
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of instant messaging, Web usage and Unified Communications platforms. Ranked number one by IDC for four consecutive years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by more than 900 customers – including nine of the 10 largest U.S. banks – for security, management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime supports or has strategic partnerships with all leading public and enterprise IM network providers, including AOL, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Skype, IBM and Jabber.

FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, California. For more information visit http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-FACE. The FaceForward blog, at http://blog.facetime.com, offers thoughts and opinions about the changing nature of Internet communications.

PR Contact:

Emily Chamberlin
650-762-2945
echamberlin@ar-edelman.com