Leader Technologies Incorporated - www.leader.com Leader Technologies Incorporated - www.leader.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LeaderPhone™ introduces new, more secure "Hosted Meet Me" feature

Host PIN is required before those callers with Participant PINs
can hear the conference start. Allows for more Host control over when conferences start.

COLUMBUS, OH (Mar. 17, 2003) - LeaderPhone®, a web-enabled conference calling service that charges just 9.5¢ per minute per leg, has added a new feature: Hosted Meet Me.

With Hosted Meet Me, users can dial in using a Personal Identification Number (PIN), while the host dials in with another Host PIN that controls when the call starts, explained Mike McKibben, Chairman and CEO of Leader Technologies, the parent company of LeaderPhone®. In this way, only when the host dials in will the other callers be connected.

It's an ideal way for a manager or other supervisor to maintain better control over their conference calls. It allows customers the opportunity to issue credit card size conference calling cards (see Figure 1 below) containing a permanent Host PIN and Participant PIN to each person who wishes to make conference calls, without ever even having to use the LeaderPhone® browser interface. The LeaderPhone® interface is used when more console control is desired over the call, like seeing who is participating in the call and how long they have been on. Hosted Meet Me also helps prevent potential overuse and misuse of single conferencing PINs. It also prevents the conference call from remaining "open" after the host hangs up. Hosted Meet Me is ideal for large companies that distribute thousands of conferencing PINs to managers. Hosted Meet Me is ideal for university virtual classrooms where the call cannot start until the professor dials in.

A Single PIN Meet Me feature is also available from LeaderPhone®. This feature issues an active PIN number that can be distributed to anyone you wish to conference. No Host PIN is created, so whenever any one of these people calls in, a conference call can begin with any of the other people who received that PIN. This single PIN Meet Me is desireable in many situations where a group of people need equal ability for any of them to start a conference call, like among an engineering team.

The Hosted Meet Me service was added at the request of customers, McKibben noted. "The price for this added feature remains the same - just 9.5¢ per minute per user. Our customers have been enthusiastic about the new Hosted Meet Me service as a welcome addition to the single PIN Meet Me service."

Among the benefits of LeaderPhone®:

  • All controls accessed via the Internet at www.leaderphone.com, allowing any authorized employee to set up conferences on the fly;
  • Contact regular workgroup members with just three clicks;
  • New "Hosted Meet Me" service lets users join host at scheduled times by using shared PIN;
  • Can add or drop people at any time, and lets them change phones in mid-call;
  • System can call out to participants simultaneously, eliminating the need to wait for everyone to get online, or can let them call in, adding them at any time;
  • Can send email reminders with the agenda automatically prior to calls and written summaries of conference call sessions afterwards;
  • Allows for up to 55 participants at once on a conference call;
  • System has a full set of phone dialpad features that allow you to setup and manage conference calls from your phone alone;
  • Controls also accessible from any wireless Palm™ PDA;
  • Lets coordinator add a personal introductory message before calls - all without operator assistance.

LeaderPhone® employs true 1-second billing rather than the common current practice of rounding up to the nearest next minute, McKibben noted. Businesses, organizations, groups or individuals can try LeaderPhone® for free for the first 30 minutes. For details, visit, www.leaderphone.com.

LeaderPhone® was developed as part of an overall software suite of business communications and collaboration services to increase productivity. This software, called Leader2Leader™, allows people to work the way they want to work, rather than forcing them to conform to the latest technology.

LeaderPhone Hosted Meet Me Calling Card (Credit Card Size)
Figure 1: LeaderPhone® Hosted Meet Me Calling Card

About LeaderPhone®

LeaderPhone® Teleconferencing Service is a service of Leader Technologies, a Columbus, OH communications software company. LeaderPhone® enables work teams from both large and small businesses to set up conference calls themselves at much less cost using its patent-pending web-based conference-calling platform. The service overcomes the limitations of legacy conferencing systems while combining many of the features desired by businesses that rely on conference calling. For more information about LeaderPhone®, visit www.leaderphone.com.

Leader Technologies has developed an overall enterprise-class communications platform called Leader2Leader™. The powerful collaboration software will dramatically improve productivity and reduce costs by giving businesses more control over their communications, leadership, strategy, knowledge management and intellectual capital. To learn more, visit www.leader.com.

For more information, contact John Frees, 614-939-1674, or Michael McKibben, 614-890-1986. For background information on Leader Technologies, go to www.leader.com. For more information about LeaderPhone, visit www.leaderphone.com.

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