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The Agence France-Presse Enhances Global Communications

Posted on: Thursday, 4 March 2004, 06:00 CST

Click to Meet(TM) enables the Agence France-Presse to optimize its

internal communications and reduce travel costs and concerns during

time of hostile conflict and war

¶ First Virtual Communications (Nasdaq: FVCX), a premier provider of infrastructure and solutions for real time rich media communications, today announced that their Click to Meet(TM) rich media communications solution has been deployed within the Agence France-Presse (AFP), a world leading news and photo agency. Installed by SILICOMP Reseaux, a French network integrator, Click to Meet enables the AFP to leverage internal communications between its dispersed offices, as well as help face new challenges and reduce potentially dangerous travel for information professionals throughout the world. ¶"With more than 100 sites connected on a private enterprise network, our news agency faced the need to combine all the telecommunication resources used through the development of new services that would allow us to optimize working conditions of sites with limited means and reduce existing communication costs," indicated Philippe Sensi, technical head of the special events department at the AFP. ¶ Mr. Sensi continued, "We decided to deploy a conferencing solution that could enhance communications between the 1,200 workers located in Paris, Washington and Hong-Kong, our main regional headquarter locations. After evaluating many different conferencing technologies available on the market, we selected Click to Meet, as it met all of our specific requirements, including deployment over the intranet for global use while fitting into our bandwidth restrictions. We found Click to Meet easy to use, robust and affordable."¶ With 110 offices spread throughout the world and more than 2,000 employees, of which 900 work outside of France, the AFP was concerned by the management of a globally dispersed organization and the need to provide work groups with the right communication tools. Click to Meet enables journalists and other employees to meet and collaborate remotely from their desktop, providing capabilities for distance learning, remote presentation and online white-board sessions, thus reducing travel and associated costs. Furthermore, Click to Meet offers an alternative to travel during unsettling, and yet critical, times of coverage. ¶"The AFP was looking for a collaboration solution that could be integrated into their traditional conferencing systems, as well as extend to the desktop," stated David Weinstein, vice president of marketing at First Virtual Communications. "We're seeing organizations like AFP looking to implement business continuity strategies to ensure effective operations no matter where their people are located. Increasingly, real-time rich media communications is becoming part of that continuity planning to help keep people learning, working and communicating even through unfortunate events."¶ The AFP was looking for a rich media communications solution with collaboration capabilities that could be integrated into their existing traditional conferencing system, as well as extend the number of endpoints to their desktops. The solution had to be an "all IP" conferencing solution, in line with the current technological migration within their enterprise. ¶ The AFP selected Click to Meet for its integration of audio, interactive video and data collaboration capabilities in one single application. With its auto-installing browser-based client that can be deployed on virtually any PC, Click to Meet enables any user to participate in fully interactive, multi-participant online meetings. As a web-based application, Click to Meet is easy to use, and does not require any specific training. This rich media communications solution is easy to install and is centrally managed, which simplifies the deployment in a distributed environment such as AFP's. Interoperability with existing conferencing systems enabled AFP to leverage their existing investments, while moving forward with a more advanced solution. ¶ Regarding the deployment of Click to Meet within the AFP, Mr. Sensi further added, "We first deployed the solution on specific desktops used for communications between the Paris headquarters and our Hong Kong and Washington regional headquarters. Due to the highly satisfying initial results, we are extending the solution to other desktops and offices. The next step will be to equip our Middle-East and South America regional headquarters."

¶ About the Agence France-Presse (AFP)

¶ AFP is the world's oldest established news agency, founded in 1835 by Charles-Louis Havas, the father of global journalism. In 1832, Charles-Louis Havas set up a foreign newspapers translation agency that became the Agence Havas, the first worldwide news agency, in 1835. Today, Agence France-Presse is one of the world's leading news and photo agencies and continues to expand its operations worldwide. The agency covers all the news worldwide (politics, diplomacy, finance, sports, entertainment, health, science and technology, crime and justice) in text, photos, news graphics and multimedia products. It produces each day 400,000 - 600,000 words in text, 700 photos and 50 news graphics. With journalists in 165 countries built around five regional headquarters, the AFP employs more than 2,000 people worldwide - 900 outside France - from more than 80 different nationalities. For more information on the AFP, visit: www.afp.com

¶ About SILICOMP Reseaux

¶ Founded in 1996, SILICOMP Reseaux is specialized in the integration, the consulting and the management of network infrastructure. Their expertise combines a technical knowledge of various technologies such as broadband networks, IP protocol and convergence with a market and product experience. Partnerships with the major providers in the market enable SILICOMP Reseaux to provide advanced, state-of-the-art solutions and services. Company experts benefit from the logistic, administrative and financial support of the SILICOMP Group, which has developed a unique global expertise in different areas including: infrastructures, platforms, security, IP-based services, multimedia and the Internet. SILICOMP Group has offices in France (Palaiseau, Rennes, Grenoble, Lyon, Bordeaux, Aix-en-provence, Toulouse, Sophia-Antipolis) and other countries including Canada, US, Singapore, Switzerland and Belgium. For more information on SILICOMP Reseaux, please visit www.silicomp.fr.

¶ First Virtual Communications

¶ First Virtual Communications is a premier provider of infrastructure and solutions for real time rich media communications. The Company's award-winning Click to Meet(TM) product line is enterprise-class software that enables corporate, education, healthcare and government customers worldwide to present, share, sell, train and collaborate. Click to Meet integrates the user's choice of data, audio and multipoint interactive video into existing work environments and into everyday communication tools such as instant messaging, web browsing and e-mail. Click to Meet software solutions are widely deployed in over 1,500 customer locations and excel in challenging environments such as military intelligence, emergency response, disaster recovery, corporate training and geographically dispersed tele-working locations, among others. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, First Virtual Communications has operations in France, United Kingdom, Japan and China. More information about First Virtual Communications can be found at www.fvc.com or by calling 1-800-728-6337 or +1-650-801-6500 outside North America.

¶ Cautionary Statement

¶ Except for the historical information contained herein, this news release contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words, "believes,'' "anticipates,'' "expects'' and words of similar import. Such forward-looking statements have known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of First Virtual Communications, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: the success of and timely release of the Company's Click to Meet(TM) products, the increase in sales of the Company's Click to Meet(TM) and Conference Server products, the Company's variability of operating results, market acceptance of web conferencing technology, potential inability to maintain business relationships with integrators, distributors and suppliers, rapid technological changes, competition and consolidation in the web conferencing industry, the importance of attracting and retaining personnel, and other risk factors referenced in First Virtual Communications' public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's report on Form 10-Q for the three month period ended September 30, 2003.

¶ All trademarks are recognized.

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