Press Release Headlines

Microsoft Features Family-Friendly Online Organizer AboutOne as BizSpark Startup of the Day

AboutOne leveraged its Microsoft BizSpark partnership to develop the new Windows Azure-based version of its online family management system

MALVERN, Pa., April 24, 2012 — AboutOne (http://www.AboutOne.com), the online organizer that makes it fast, fun, and easy to preserve family memories and manage household paperwork, announced that the company has been selected from among thousands of startups to be featured by Microsoft as a BizSpark startup of the day (http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark). The announcement comes as AboutOne launches the BETA release of its new Windows Azure-based family management system.

This new BETA version of AboutOne's online organizer is the product of the company's partnership with Microsoft and incorporates a year's worth of customer feedback. According to Joanne Lang, AboutOne founder and CEO, "Becoming a Microsoft BizSpark partner gave us access to top-of-the-line Microsoft software plus marketing support and visibility. We were able to leverage the Windows Azure Platform as a Service so we could focus on developing a compelling product rather than managing the environment."

AboutOne's latest release enhances a customer's existing calendar and contact tools with online filing and reporting. As life events happen, AboutOne automatically organizes, stores, and shares the information needed to take care of home and family – at home or on-the-go. The solution helps customers eliminate clutter with an easy-to-use and safe alternative for storing paper-based family journals, photos, videos, and artwork, as well as health, education, and possessions details and paperwork. AboutOne links these items to family members, other contacts, and calendar events, providing powerful search functions for instant access to details about people, places, paperwork, and events.

"AboutOne creates a simple and secure way to help more people organize their online life, everything from managing financial information and health records to social media and scheduling," said Brian Hoskins, Director, Strategic and Emerging Business Team, Microsoft. "Microsoft is working to help startups like AboutOne provide great new services to their customers through technologies like Windows Azure and Windows Phone."

AboutOne will release its Windows Phone app this month, and credits its use of Azure for its ability to extend AboutOne across several platforms. "The ability to build mobile applications quickly opened up tremendous market opportunities for AboutOne, but targeting numerous mobile platforms can be difficult and costly to support. The Windows Azure toolkits for Windows, iOS, and Android platforms made it easier and less expensive for us to extend AboutOne across multiple platforms," said Lang. "This is important given our commitment to making our online organizer a better fit with our customers' lifestyles by giving them the ability to manage their lives across multiple devices."

AboutOne

AboutOne's (http://www.AboutOne.com) is the fast, easy way to manage your busy life – no matter where you are – guiding you along the path to organization and rewarding you for being organized. Its online organizer provides one place to quickly store and manage memories and household paperwork, then builds on calendar and address book tools you're already using, enhancing them with document filing and reporting tools to make the information you store there work for you in a way that other apps don't, and making it readily available for informed decisions and fast response in an emergency.

AboutOne:

Katrine Kubis
801.797.9333
Email

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