July 28, 2003


NTT Communications and IBM Offer Unified Messaging Solutions
Tokyo, Japan, July 28, 2003 -- NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) and IBM Japan today announced an alliance -- to develop and market unified messaging*1 solutions to enterprises in Japan.

Linking NTT Com's .Phone IP Centrex*2 with IBM's Lotus Notes, the joint unified messaging offering will enable companies to build internal enterprise systems integrating voice and data.

The unified messaging solutions will integrate and centralize management of telephone and e-mail messaging, helping enterprises communicate more efficiently and productively. Traditionally, enterprises have found it expensive to build such systems, but the new offering will make it possible to build such systems quickly and inexpensively.

NTT Com and IBM will develop and market solutions connecting NTT Com's enterprise IP telephony service, .Phone IP Centrex, with unified messaging systems built by IBM. The two companies will also integrate voice and e-mail over IBM's Lotus Notes*3 groupware. These solutions will enable enterprise customers to quickly and inexpensively introduce unified messaging systems by managing PBX IP telephony services and voice messages in an integrated manner as IBM Lotus Notes e-mail messages (see Attachment).

The unified messaging services, to be introduced by NTT Com and IBM in Japan in October, will help companies realize the advantages of voice and data integration at the application level, while reducing installation costs because of a sizable reduction in the labor required to build the infrastructure. In addition, since customers will not have to operate and maintain their own IP telephony systems, system maintenance fees can be reduced, while telephone bills are minimized.

Enterprises also can increase customer satisfaction by utilizing voice messaging to communicate, as well as to improve their business and customer service operations. Enterprises also will be able to transform their business processes by incorporating voice messaging into their workflow.

In addition to its .Phone IP Centrex telephony service, NTT Com also will offer e-VLAN, Arcstar IP-VPN, and OCN data communications and IP network services. NTT Com will develop features that allow these services to connect to the unified messaging systems built on IBM Lotus Notes.

IBM Japan will design, build, and operate the unified messaging systems based on Lotus Notes It also will design, build and operate integrated voice and data networks that will form the foundation for IP telephony and unified messaging.


About NTT Communications
NTT Com, a Tokyo-based subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, provides long-distance and global services for voice, video and data communication reaching more than 200 countries. NTT Com also provides world-class IP services under the NTT/VERIO brand, as well as managed data, multimedia and additional services under the Arcstar brand. For more information, please visit www.ntt.com

About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com. For more information about IBM Global Telecommunications Industry visit http://www.ibm.com/industries/telecom


*1. Unified messaging: a system or feature set that manages, in an integrated fashion, information that traditionally was dispersed through separate means such as e-mail, voice messaging, or fax.
*2. .Phone IP Centrex: NTT Com's enterprise IP telephony service, which offers traditional PBX features as a network service (IP Centrex).
*3. Lotus Notes: IBM's groupware/collaboration software suite. With the top share of the global market for such products, it comes equipped with many features necessary for improving organizational productivity.