Saltmine Creative and MPL2.com , the two largest Internet development firms in the Puget Sound area, announced last week their plans to join forces and form the Pacific Northwest's largest online solutions firm. The company will be called Saltmine and will have 475 employees and a projected $65 million in revenue for the coming year.

"We believe that the WebGroups service will have an immediate positive impact on our ability to keep our employees and our customers up-to-date with the tremendous number of changing files," said Barry Horn, CEO of Saltmine. "Punch WebGroups' technology will give us the benefits of a virtual private network without the hardware, software and maintenance requirements, and at a fraction of the cost."

Punch Networks is the leading provider of online file collaboration services. Its flagship service, Punch WebGroups, enables users and companies to improve communication and increase efficiency and productivity through better file collaboration. Going beyond simple Web file storage, Punch WebGroups offers a secure Web location for collaboration, with basic document management features including version tracking, audit trails, access controls and change notification. The service, which is currently accessed through a browser, gives users anytime, anywhere access to their personal and shared files. Importantly, WebGroups' patented technology, which only sends the changes between file versions, rather than the whole file, ensure the fastest possible uploads and downloads. The company will release a Windows version of the service in the coming weeks.

"Saltmine is a forward-thinking and successful company that is embracing Web technology to improve employee communication, increase its customer service as well as leverage its competitive strengths," said Punch's president and CEO. "As Seattle's largest Web consulting company, Punch Networks is thrilled to provide this mission-critical application to help better conduct their core business."

Keeping Employees Up-to-Date
One of the first steps of implementing the service is to create a company-wide WebGroup that will include important corporate information, like Human Resources forms and files. Each Saltmine employee will have access to these files, and can download them to their machines (either their desktop or their laptop). If Saltmine changes or updates any of the files, the system will automatically notify each Saltmine employee via email; employees can log into their accounts, and download only the changes to the file directly to their local copy to update it. Saltmine company officials can use WebGroups' audit trail capability to track downloads to ensure that each employee has in fact updated their machine.

Enabling Employee-Client Collaboration
While WebGroups is well suited for registered and secure document delivery, it is even more valuable as a two-way collaborative tool. Saltmine employees will also use WebGroups to collaborate on files and documents with customers. A typical scenario is documentation. The Saltmine contractor will create documentation text and upload it to a WebGroup, created specifically for his client, and accessed via the Saltmine site. The client will download the file, make his edits, then upload a new version. The Saltmine employee will receive an email alerting him the file has been updated; he can then log in to his account, and download only the changes to update his local file. He can in turn make additional edits, or finalize the document and prepare it for publication.

About Punch Networks Corporation
Founded by David Campbell in 1995, Punch Networks develops software products, services and technologies that help people effectively manage changing digital information. The company's first service, Punch WebGroups, lets anyone store, share and automatically update their files using just their Web browser. The Company offers WebGroups as a hosted service to business partners and to companies as an outsourced service.

For more information, visit the Punch Networks website at www.punchnetworks.com, email info@punchnetworks.com, or call (206) 343-7661.

About Saltmine
Saltmine is an integrated services firm specializing in the creation of online solutions.