Collaboration Service Provider Used As Investigation Management Tool to Manage Critical Data

Boston, MA (August 26, 2003) - Intranets.com announced today that the release of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board's final report marks the completion of the company's role as the central data repository and collaboration technology provider for the investigation. Members of the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) completed the 248-page report after spending seven months probing the technical facts of the space tragedy and interviewing scores of engineers and other space workers related to the incident.

Intranets.com has a longstanding relationship with NASA under sub-contract through government contractor ARES Corporation (Burlingame, CA) and has been providing knowledge-management support services to NASA's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance for more than two years. As the CAIB was formed out of necessity just two hours after the February 1st accident, it needed a service that could be up and running very quickly to handle the rapid pace of information sharing between NASA and CAIB investigators. Intranets.com's service was chosen because of its ability to meet this rapid deployment demand as well as its ability to provide secure, managed access to stored information to team members in dispersed locations. In the course of 7-month investigation, NASA employed several highly specialized tools to aid the investigators, but the Intranets.com solution remained the underlying common thread for this newly formed group.

"The CAIB needed a way to collaborate fast and our suite of applications is particularly useful in cases in which a solution is needed quickly," noted Tim Peacock, president and COO of Intranets.com. "We provided a single, secure, web-based platform for the exchange of data and information that was deployed for the CAIB investigation in days, not months."

Hours after the Columbia accident that resulted in the loss of seven astronauts, Intranets.com was called in to assist both NASA's Columbia Task Force (CTF) and the CAIB in their efforts to carefully and systematically capture, store, and log the data collected in the course of the investigation. Working closely with both the CTF and the CAIB, the company collaborated on developing the process for information tracking, and then designed custom databases and forms within the Intranets.com product to support the investigation. This customized version of the company's service was approved for use by the CAIB in February and was deployed immediately to more than 120 members of the CAIB and CTF.

Within days of the tragedy, Intranets.com vice president Karen Leavitt was bound for Houston where she would spend the next two months assisting in the investigation process. "The experience was grueling, exhilarating, and very moving all at the same time. Working to support the CAIB's efforts was a privilege for the entire Intranets.com team. We are proud to have been able to help in this time of crisis."

During the course of the investigation, thousands of documents were collected and stored in the Intranets.com system by NASA's task force. The solution did more than just centrally store documents, however. It acted as an essential electronic log that maintained the status and disposition of the hundreds of requests made by the CAIB to NASA's task force. The system ensured the accurate and timely transfer of requested information between the two groups.

"Our service provided electronic 'checks and balances' to ensure that requests for information were not lost," Leavitt added. "Intranets.com allowed the far-flung task force to work together to manage the vast amount of information being shared."

With the completion of the investigation, the Intranets.com collaboration service is no longer required and will be decommissioned according to the processes set forth by the CAIB. The information contained within will be archived for future retrieval as necessary.

About Intranets.com
Intranets.com is the world's leading provider of on-demand collaboration services for small businesses or departments and groups inside large organizations. The company serves more than 350,000 users across 10,000 companies worldwide and offers a secure, web-based collaboration suite to share critical business information quickly and easily at any time from anywhere. Privately held and profitable, Intranets.com is led by an experienced team of software industry professionals who are committed to providing a secure, customizable, easy-to-deploy intranet solution supported by world-class customer service. Intranets.com is a PC Magazine "Editor's Choice" winner and is rated one of the world's "Top 25" leading service providers by ASPNews. The company has also been ranked by the Boston Business Journal as one of the fastest growing private companies in Massachusetts for two consecutive years. For more information or to take a FREE 30-day test drive, visit http://www.intranets.com/pr, e-mail corpsales@intranets.com or call 888-932-2600 or 781-565-6000.

Press Contact
Patrick Moran
Director of Marketing
781-939-2108
PMoran@intranets.com

Intranets.com is a trademark of Intranets.com, Inc. idealab! is a registered trademark of idealab!, Inc. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.