Investment Bankers Use Smartphones to Boost Efficiency, Stay Connected and Better Respond to Customers

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Russell Investment Group Chooses Palm Treo Smartphone with Good Mobile Messaging for Simplicity, Productivity

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov 01, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Russell Investment Group, a subsidiary of Fortune 500 company Northwestern Mutual, chose Palm(R) Treo(TM) smartphones to increase productivity and ROI, better reach and respond to customers, and meet the demands of its email-based communication culture and widely distributed workforce. With the help of Treo smartphones equipped with Good(TM) Mobile Messaging, more than 500 Russell associates are staying better connected and helping customers in a fast-paced business that manages more than $171 billion in assets for clients in 44 countries.

As a global leader in multimanager investment services for more than 70 years, Russell delivers individual and institutional funds worldwide and performs continual research on the independent professionals managing these funds. Russell's numerous awards include being named one of the 100 best companies in America to work for by Fortune. The Nelson 2006 Pension Fund Consultant Survey hails Russell as "a top-ranked consulting firm," and the 2005 Cerulli Report ranked Russell as "the largest global manager of managers."

"The nature of our business requires us to be where the client is, and that requires a much more distributed workforce," said Greg Nelson, senior technology consultant at Russell. "We need to build out our infrastructure to meet that reality, and the Treo smartphone is an important element of our strategy."

According to Russell, the ergonomics, small size, and friendly interface of the Palm Treo smartphone helped make it an easy choice over its competitors. With the help of Good Mobile Messaging from Good Technology -- which allows data to be encrypted, password-protected and wiped clean if lost or stolen -- Treo smartphones give Russell employees a more effective tool for providing financial security to clients.

In addition to their security features, Treo smartphones eliminate hours of manual installation for Russell's IT managers. Employees can uninstall old software, save personal preferences and install new software on their own in 20 minutes, rather than bringing in contingency IT staffing and requiring employees to sacrifice their Treo smartphones for three hours. Working with Good Technology, IT managers can provision and deliver software updates to Treo smartphone users on an SD card. The Good Mobile Messaging application for email(1) and the DataViz(R) Documents To Go(R) application for PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint give Russell employees a way to stay in touch while away from their desks and carry almost all their work in their pockets.

One Russell employee, for example, said his Treo smartphone allowed him to avoid a potentially volatile situation by immediately handling a customer's time-sensitive request via email, just moments before he boarded an airplane. Other Russell employees use their long commute time on trains to read and respond to emails. Their Treo smartphones turn hallways, waiting rooms and other marginal spaces into extensions of the office, helping them work effectively almost anywhere.

"Palm raises the bar on efficient business processes and quality customer service," said Tara Griffin, vice president of enterprise markets for Palm. "In the investment industry, where it is essential to receive vital information rapidly, Palm Treo smartphones help an increasingly mobile workforce dramatically improve its productivity and customer satisfaction."

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc., a leader in mobile computing, strives to put the power of computing in people's hands so they can access and share their most important information. The company's products for consumers, mobile professionals and businesses include Palm(R) Treo(TM) smartphones, Palm handheld computers, and Palm LifeDrive(TM) mobile managers, as well as software, services and accessories.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels throughout the world, and at Palm Retail Stores and Palm online stores (http://www.palm.com/store).

More information about Palm, Inc. is available at http://www.palm.com.

(1) Within wireless service coverage area only. Availability and coverage depends upon carrier and the geographic scope of international roaming agreements. Email, messaging and web access requires data services from a mobile service provider at an additional cost.

Palm, Treo and LifeDrive are among the trademarks or registered trademarks owned by or licensed to Palm, Inc. All other brand and product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.

GOOD(TM), the GOOD and Design logo(TM), GOODLINK(TM) and GOOD TECHNOLOGY(TM) are trademarks of Good Technology.

SOURCE: Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc.
Jim Christensen, 408-617-7455
jim.christensen@palm.com
or
A&R Edelman for Palm, Inc.
Christina Valencia, 650-762-2920
cvalencia@ar-edelman.com

Copyright Business Wire 2006

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