Big Sky Announces IBM Lotus Instant Messaging Support
for the Remark!Product Line

Presence and Chat Integration provided for Unified Messaging
and Custom Applications

Orlando, Fla, January 26, 2004 -- Big Sky Technologies announced new versions of its popular Remark! Unified MessagingAssistant™ and Remark! Voice Server products today at Lotusphere. The key new features in Remark! V4.0 take advantage of the presence management and text chat support in IBM Lotus Instant Messaging (formally called Sametime).

Remark! Unified MessagingAssistant, a complete Unified Messaging solution for Lotus Notes and Domino, includes several new features based on Lotus Instant Messaging integration. The "IM Call Screening" feature checks the user's current IM status before transferring outside calls to them. If the user is on-line, Remark! sends a chat message to the user to notify them of the incoming call. The chat message includes the caller ID and/or name of the caller and a menu of actions, including accept the call, take a voice message, or transfer the call to another user.

The new "IM Find Me" feature allows users to define a set of "locations" which specify the method of contact and call screening options. For example, a user may have a "Mobile" location that specifies a mobile phone telephone number for incoming calls. An "Office" location could define the office extension number and enable IM Call Screening for incoming calls. Similarly, "Home" and "Sales Office" could be additional locations.

A new "Remark! Bot" (automated instant messaging agent) is available to help users manage the various unified messaging options available to them. By clicking on the always available Remark! Bot name in their contact list, users are presented with a menu of options to control the new IM Call Screening and IM Find Me features, as well as other unified messaging options available, such as paging and fax management.

"Many of our existing unified messaging customers also use Lotus Instant Messaging, so integrating IM-based features into Remark! Unified MessagingAssistant was a natural fit." stated Bill Doll, CEO of Big Sky Technologies. "This latest version of Remark! Unified MessagingAssistant will further differentiate our solutions by providing additional value and tighter integration with Lotus Notes and Domino than any other unified messaging solution available today."

Lotus Instant Messaging support has been built into the Remark! Developers Toolkit allowing customers and business partners to build their own IM-aware voice applications. Big Sky has also released Remark! HelpDesk (RHD), which accepts help requests over the telephone as well as from chat clients. Help desk personnel interact with Remark! HelpDesk using the "RHD Bot" to sign-in and sign-out and change settings such as the phone extension where they can be reached. Help desk agents are notified of new calls with a chat window generated by RHD, providing options such as accept the call, take a message from the caller, change status, or sign out. The Remark! HelpDesk source code is included free of charge with the Remark! Developers Toolkit to illustrate how Remark! voice integration and IM features can be added to new or existing CRM or Help Desk applications.

"The ability to add new call center capabilities and Instant Messaging features to existing Domino CRM applications allows companies to significantly enhance customer satisfaction without implementing a completely new solution." said Rudy McVicker, Directory of Engineering Services for Big Sky. "The Remark! Developers Toolkit allows us to provide self service features to callers for many routine tasks, such as checking request status, and quickly connect callers to the right person for urgent requests. The addition of these capabilities can significantly reduce operating costs and increase customer satisfaction."

To find our more about Remark! products, access Big Sky's website at http://www.bigskytech.com/remark.

About Big Sky Technologies
San Diego-based Big Sky Technologies was founded in 1994 and is a privately held California corporation. Big Sky provides a broad range of unified messaging and workgroup IVR solutions to enhance communications and collaboration within the workgroup and enterprise. The company is a leading supplier of solutions that integrate the telephone and voice with Lotus Notes and Domino for both enterprise customers and service providers. For more information, please visit http://www.bigskytech.com.

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Remark! is a registered trademark and Unified MessagingAssistant and MessagingAssistant are trademarks of Big Sky Technologies, Inc.

IBM, Lotus, Domino and Lotusphere are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. All other trademarks are owned by their respective companies. Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.