Microsoft and Red Oxygen partner to deliver corporate SMS solutions for Office XP via E-Services

Sydney, January 29, 2003 – From today, office XP users will be able to use SMS texting direct from their desktop, to keep in touch with work colleagues and friends, receive reminders of crucial appointments even when out of the office, and receive SMS messages in their email inbox, using a new tool developed specifically for the Office XP platform, xpSMS.

Developed by Australian-based Red Oxygen, xpSMS is now available on Microsoft's e-services website for the United Kingdom at www.business-sms.com/index.shtml.

xpSMS is fully integrated into Office XP and sits on the user's Outlook toolbar. It allows them to send an SMS to anyone in their personal address book or global address list, or enter a new mobile number directly into the to: To: field. Recipients can send a reply to the originator's email inbox. xpSMS also sends an SMS reminder of any event logged into the Outlook XP calendar, as well as taking advantage of smart tag functionality; - smart tags attached to a mobile number in a Word, Excel or Outlook Document, include the option to send an SMS.

"Red Oxygen adds an innovative SMS solution to the growing set of Office eServices in the UK," said Robert Lindsey, International Business Development Manager for Microsoft Office. "Office XP users will be among the first to benefit from convenient SMS integration with their desktop."

"The Microsoft Eservices program allows us to distribute xpSMS to a very wide audience and ensure that it reaches those who will find it most useful," said Tom Sheahan, CEO, Red Oxygen. "We believe it will make a real difference to technology-savvy users, integrating two key technologies for 2003."


About Red Oxygen

Red Oxygen is an innovative wireless Australian start-up that builds tools and services that enable the corporate user to reduce telecommunications costs, improve productivity and take advantage of new SMS wireless messaging technology.

Red Oxygen's unique Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes products enable users to:
•    send SMS (text messages) to any mobile phone using their current address book
•    receive SMS replies from recipients direct to their email Inbox (US Patent pending)
•    Receive SMS reminders on their mobile phone of events scheduled in Calendar.

In addition to OutlookSMS and NotesSMS, the company has released Red Alert and TextMe. Red Alert is a service that provides a range of automatic SMS alerts. Focused in the needs of the corporate IT department, the system monitoring software will send SMS messages to specified support people with instant alerts of technical issues, such as server problems.

TextMe allows customers or employees to communicate with internal staff via SMS. The user can initiate a SMS and it will be converted into an Email. The recipient can reply back into the originator's mobile phone with an SMS via its email client. Corporations use the service, so their customers can SMS travel itinerary changes or job requests.

Red Oxygen software is currently being used by companies such as BMW, ACNielsen, Universal Music, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, 3M, Siemens and Panasonic.

Some examples of how Red Oxygen's solution is delivering value to its clients are: sales managers and support staff can send broadcast messages to sales representatives on the road; personal assistants can communicate with managers who are in meetings or travelling; call centre staff can send jobs to technicians on the road. Demonstrations of these solutions can be viewed at www.redoxygen.com

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device.

For further information please contact:
Annaliesse Teasdel
Marketing and Public Relations
+61-2-9004-7054
Annaliesse.Teasdel@redoxygen.com

To speak to a Microsoft UK representative, please contact:

          Microsoft Press Centre
Tel: 0870 20 77377 or 0870 20 PRESS
Fax: 0870 20 77329 or 0870 20 PRFAX
ukprteam@microsoft.com
http://press.microsoft.co.uk/





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