e-Architect.com visitors use the site to find new business opportunities, recruit employees, enhance personal skills, and network with peers. The addition of ProjectGroups will give the site yet another tool to help architects and designers do their jobs.

ProjectGroups is a customized, co-branded version of Punch Networks' flagship service, Punch WebGroups. The service lets users create a secure place on the Web to store their files. File management tools within ProjectGroups allow users to give others access to their files, automatically store and archive versions, track if and when others have downloaded files, and automatically notify them when a file is new or updated.

Currently architects and engineers use file transfer protocol (FTP) sites or email to deliver and share documents. These methods lack the security and management features of ProjectGroups, which are designed to improve the collaborative process.

Key ProjectGroups features will help shorten the cycle time for complex design projects. These include:

• Security: Files and user information (password, ID) are encrypted with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) during transmission, ensuring that private information stays private.
• Version Tracking: ProjectGroups automatically stores and tracks file versions on the server, letting users archive as many versions of a file as they wish while also letting them download any version of a file. Users can attach a description to the version they upload; the descriptions are saved along with the versions. Importantly, Punch's patented technology sends only the differences between versions to and from the server, making transfer times significantly faster than FTP.
• Member Tracking: Users can monitor the activity of others in their ProjectGroup, such as: last time updated, users currently logged in and last version downloaded.
• Locking: Users can lock a file on the server, preventing others in the group from publishing a new version. Locked files can still be downloaded and/or viewed.
• Authorities: Users can regulate access to files among members of the ProjectGroup at the file level, folder level or group level, ensuring that the right people have access to the right files
• Authentication: Digital signatures and certificates (from VeriSign) are used to ensure that files are not corrupted during uploads or downloads, and that communication with the Punch server is authentic.

"We've combined our respective company strengths to deliver a service that will be extremely useful to architects and engineers," said Tracy Curry, vice president of marketing at TeleBuild, the developer of the e-architect.com site. "Punch Networks' Web-file collaboration technologies offer key benefits to existing members and visitors to our site, and are a great complement to the existing content and services we provide to architects."

Our file storage and collaboration services are ideally suited for the design and architecture industry. But ProjectGroups is even more valuable because it is offered in conjunction with the impressive suite of content and services that e-Architect.com already offers. The combination of Punch and TeleBuild will further enhance the benefits to the users of the e-Architect.com site.

About Punch Networks Corporation
Founded by David Campbell in 1995, Punch Networks is an application service provider of tools that help people effectively manage changing digital information. The company's file collaboration service, Punch WebGroups, lets anyone store, share and automatically update their files with just a Web browser. Punch Networks offers the Punch WebGroups service from its own site as well as co-branded versions of the service from more than a dozen vertical portal sites, including architecture (e-Architect.com), mechanical engineering (alibre.com), education (powerstudents.com, pureadvice.com), legal, (casecentral.com, e-attorney, justicelink.com, serengetiUS.com), business research (intellifact.com), small business services (workz.com, smartage.com), and science (cos.com). It also offers corporate versions of the service to companies like Saltmine for intranet and extranet use.

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

About TeleBuild & e-Architect
TeleBuild is a Houston-based, privately-held company that specializes in the development and marketing of online systems for the building and construction industry. The company maintains partnerships with industry leaders such as the American Institute of Architects, National Society of Professional Engineers, Sierra Computer Systems, BPI Communications Design Group, and others. e-Architect.com logs more than 2.5 million page views monthly from more than 60,000 practicing architects. Visitors use the site to find new business opportunities, recruit employees, enhance personal skills, and network with peers. As the anchor site for the AIA Online Network, e-Architect.com helps architects and design professionals perform critical daily tasks. Enhanced communications tools such as free Web mail, file collaboration, distance education programs, and interactive discussion forums continue to spur monthly usage.