Press Releases

Innovation Initiative (SRII) Turns to Lithium to Power New Online Community. – New consortium to use online community to help drive innovation in technology services

EMERYVILLE, Calif. - June 19, 2007 – Lithium Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of on-demand community solutions, today announced that the Service Research & Innovation Initiative (SRII) has selected Lithium's on-demand technology to build a new online community. The SRIINet community, located at http://forums.thesrii.org, is the focal point of theorganizations initiative, and brings together technology service-based "seekers" and "solvers" to drive innovation initiatives for technology services. The SRII was founded in March 2007 by the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) and the Technology Professional Services Association (TPSA), IBM and Oracle in order to increase the amount of targeted and funded service research, development and innovation in the technology industry.

SRII used Lithium community-building technology to incorporate a number of interactive solutions that will help to extend the traditional online customer community. Lithium is able to capture both organization- and customer-generated information using member pages, forums, chat, blogs, search, polls and private messaging. Members are able to support the community by contributing content to blogs, participating in forum discussions, polls and chat sessions, and helping to answer their peers' questions or resolve challenges. Initially the SRII will focus on coordinating the service research and innovation community so that members can quickly navigate to their area of interest - Find People, Research Projects & Publications, Funding Opportunities & Rewards, Government Programs, Conferences & Upcoming Events, University Programs & Innovation Forums. As the community's dynamic content grows, it will become the "Go To" knowledge base for the technology services industry.

"Lithium's technology and support made it easy to create a virtual online community that our members and guests want to visit and contribute to," said Tom Pridham, executive director of SRII. "When we established the SRII, we wanted to create a community focused on developing new solutions for current and future industry challenges. Lithium has given us the foundation to do so. Through our new online community, we will be able to share insights, learn of other organizations' successes, better understand the needs of the technology services industry and spark innovation."

"It is a true compliment to Lithium that the SRII, which is focused on service and innovation, selected our community solution to power what will be the center of activity for the organization," said Lyle Fong, chief executive officer and co-founder of Lithium Technologies, Inc. "Like our other enterprise support community clients, the SRII should quickly see the results of a successfully developed community and how it can greatly contribute to their business objectives."

About the Service Research & Innovation Initiative

Jointly founded by IBM, Oracle, the Technology Professional Services Association (TPSA) and the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the Service Research & Innovation Initiative is a consortium of technology companies, government agencies and universities dedicated to fostering advancements in service research. The organization will accomplish this by raising awareness of this issue through conferences, symposia and the Service Research & Innovation Initiative Web site (SRIINet) - the informational hub for the effort. Advisory Board Members include the Association for Services Management International (AFSMI), Cisco, EMC, HP, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Unisys and Xerox. Academic participants include top researchers from UCLA, Cranfield School of Management, Council of Graduate Schools, Wharton School of Business, Arizona State University, University of Maryland, University of California Silicon Valley Center at Santa Cruz and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India. Research institutions include the the Fraunhoffer Institute in Germany.

About Lithium Technologies

Lithium Technologies provides market-leading solutions for building successful online communities. Lithium's on-demand platform, backed by community management expertise, enables clients to increase brand loyalty, sales, and customer satisfaction while decreasing customer care costs. Lithium's solutions have been implemented by many of the world's largest organizations, including Dell, Cingular, Sprint, Nintendo, Symantec, and others. Founded in 2001, Lithium is privately held with headquarters in Emeryville, Calif. For more information, visit www.lithium.com.

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Lithium Media Contacts:

Michael Paige, Corporate Headquarters & Global, michael.paige@lithium.com , +1 (510) 318 7014
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Prelini Chiechi, UK & Northern Europe, prelini.chiechi@lithium.com, +44 (7826) 912788
Imogen Riley, APAC & Australia, imogen.riley@lithium.com, +61 413 274 210