27th September 2002

Roche, the leading healthcare company, has signed a twelve month agreement with Virtue Broadcasting plc (Virtue) for webcasting services to improve its employee communications.

Using Virtue's Presentation Manager software, Roche will be able to webcast to any internet enabled PC using a standard phone line or video conference technology. Presentation Manager is part of Virtue's portfolio of automated, easy to use webcasting products and services for medium to large corporations

John Melville, managing director for Roche in the UK, said: " We are committed to keeping our people informed and I'm pleased that this technology has enabled us to provide a more personal method for distributing our monthly news updates over the company's intranet. For me, it's a straightforward process of picking up the telephone and delivering my message."

Roche's pharmaceutical business in the UK is also using webcasts to communicate with its employees, many of whom are field-based, in a way that is more practical than individual phone calls and more personal than email.

Commenting on the new service, Joanna Smith, Information Management and Technology Manager said: Virtue's Presentation Manager provides the cost-effective and flexible solution we were looking for. We have been able to integrate the process seamlessly into our existing system using Virtue's fully automated platform."
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About Presentation Manager
Presentation Manager was launched in March 2002. It is a complete streaming media communications management system that supports live and on-demand internet broadcasting through virtual conferencing. The system, which is a powerful and cost-effective business communications tool, can be used as an extension to existing telephony, video conferencing and intranet technologies. The system caters for one-to-many communications needs including staff communication, training, client communication (CRM), promotional events and knowledge management. Presentation Manager s available as a managed service, on an ASP-basis and as a full client installation.

About Roche
Roche is a world leading healthcare company with a broad range of high quality products and services to provide innovative and individual solutions for enhancing and maintaining quality of life. Roche employs more than 2,000 people in the UK, in prescription and over the counter medicines, vitamins and diagnostics. For more information visit: www.rocheuk.com