TOKYO AND SINGAPORE, October 02, 2002 - Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT), the leading global electronics company, has chosen MeetingPlace for real-time collaboration in Japan. MeetingPlace is provided by Latitude Communications (Nasdaq: LATD), a leading provider of secure, integrated voice and web conferencing solutions.
Hitachi, the $60 billion manufacturer of electronics, semiconductors, computers and industrial equipment, joins 30 Latitude customers in the Asia Pacific region, including Cisco, IBM and Accenture. The company has selected Marubeni Telecom Company Ltd., an authorised MeetingPlace reseller, to provide voice and web conferencing technology. Hitachi's workers in Japan, who comprise nearly half of its global staff of 320,000, will use MeetingPlace to collaborate on HITNET, its intranet.
"We needed a tool to work together while engaging in familiar face-to-face behaviors such as passing notes, stepping out for private talks and easily seeing who is speaking," said Takashi Maruyama, general manager, HITNET department, e-platform promotion office, Hitachi Limited, IT Division. "MeetingPlace offers those 'human' capabilities and voice and web conferencing in one solution. We are also impressed by the scalability of the MeetingPlace M3 server."
"MeetingPlace will yield an exponential return for Hitachi," said Daisuke Arita, general manager, IT Business Division, Marubeni Telecom. "Global companies - whether subsidiaries of U.S. enterprises or those based in Japan - can use it to increase productivity. After Japan's recession, enterprises are still restructuring. So, although they prefer to hold meetings in person, they increasingly use conferencing to reduce travel costs. MeetingPlace is particularly appealing with its multilingual interface and scalable server, which supports over 1,100 concurrent users."
MeetingPlace M3 backs enterprise IT initiatives with a single, integrated voice and web conferencing solution; Outlook and Notes integrations to ease scheduling and attendance; and advanced security options for protecting conferences. The platform assures availability through redundant disk drives and hot swappable power supplies and fans. It also provides scalable, high quality IP conferencing that integrates with enterprise IP telephony solutions.
"Through our Japanese interface, future development for Japanese users and a solid partnership with Marubeni, Latitude has demonstrated its commitment to the Japanese market," said Rick McConnell, chief executive officer at Latitude. "Many Japanese companies are Fortune 500 players that stand to dramatically improve efficiency using MeetingPlace. Hitachi, for instance, exhibits the leadership and foresight to evolve despite cultural expectations."
ends
About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 320,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2001 (ended March 31, 2002) consolidated sales totaled 7,994 billion yen ($60.1 billion*). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's web site at http://global.hitachi.com.
* At an exchange rate of 133 yen to the dollar.
About Marubeni Telecom Co., Ltd.
Marubeni Telecom Co., Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, is a subsidiary of Marubeni Corporation, one of the largest conglomerates in Japan. Marubeni Telecom is a leading provider of value added communication services, including messaging services, telecommunications, mobile solutions, and consultations. Founded in 1993, the company has over 900 employees in 9 offices countrywide. Marubeni Telecom, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange 2nd.Section, sales totaled 82,775 million yen in fiscal 2001 end. For more information, visit the company's web site at http://www.mtc.co.jp
About Latitude Communications
Latitude Communications (Nasdaq: LATD) provides MeetingPlace, the leading secure, integrated voice and web conferencing solution. Companies such as Aetna, Agilent, Cisco and Deloitte & Touche use the solution to work better and speed decision-making through real-time collaboration. Available as an outsourced service or on-premises platform, MeetingPlace integrates with traditional and IP communications infrastructures enabling people to share and edit live documents from any location. Latitude's technology integrates with standard groupware applications such as Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes to simplify scheduling. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Latitude has offices and distribution partners in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and India. For information, visit www.meetingplace.net or call 020 7470 7125.
# # #
MeetingPlace is a registered trademark of Latitude Communications Inc. All other product and company names are trademarks of their respective holders.
For further details or to arrange a visit to Latitude Communications please contact:
Gary Marshall or Sarah Bedwell
Companycare Communications
Tel. +44 (0)118 939 5900
Fax +44 (0) 118 959 9595
Email gary@companycare.com
Sarah@companycare.com
In the United States:
Meg North Taylor
Latitude Communications
Tel: 408-988-7251
Fax: 408-988-6520
Email: meg.taylor@latitude.com
THIS RELEASE HAS BEEN DISTRIBUTED BY WEBITPR (www.webitpr.com)