Lithium CEO Rob Tarkoff Kicks Off Industry's Leading Event for Social Marketing & Support Leaders

SAN FRANCISCO --(Business Wire)--

LITHIUM NETWORK CONFERENCE - Lithium Technologies, the leader in Social Customer Experience, today kicked off its Lithium Network Conference (LiNC) 2012 where it is unveiling key innovations and advances in social marketing and support, and new strategic offerings. The company also announced its recent expansion into the Asia-Pacific market with the establishment of a new regional headquarters in Singapore.

LiNC 2012 brings together hundreds of Lithium's clients -- pioneers who are leading change and creating multimillion dollar ROI in social business for their companies -- along with industry visionaries who help identify and solve critical issues facing brand marketers. The annual gathering is taking place at the InterContinental Hotel, San Francisco from May 2 to 4.

Lithium announced significant new offerings and strategies at LiNC 2012, including Lithium Response™ that enables brands to increase customer satisfaction while reducing costs and improving efficiency in the call center. The company also announced its next-generation Lithium Social Marketing Solution™ that adds new features to its platform, including rich media interactions, ad hoc groups, streaming conversations, and a powerful new ratings and review module. (See separate announcements)

With ongoing strong momentum in its international business, Lithium has continued its global growth as part of its strategy to double the company this year. Along with its new regional headquarters in Singapore, Lithium recently opened an office in Sydney as it continues to add to a strong roster of Asia-Pacific clients that include Optus, Telstra (News - Alert) and Vodafone Australia among others.

The APAC expansion comes on the heels of the launch of dedicated French operations in Paris where Lithium is already seeing strong traction among France's leading brands such as Orange (News - Alert) France's Sosh and Groupe Casino. Lithium's most recent geographic growth added to the company's existing presence in both Zurich and London.

"Clearly, Lithium has achieved groundbreaking success in the past year," said Rob Tarkoff (News - Alert), Lithium President and Chief Executive Officer. "But it's been an even more transformative year for our customers who are witnessing first-hand the power of social customer experience to grow brand advocacy, drive sales, reduce service costs and accelerate innovation."

"As much as LiNC is a time to reflect on what our customers and Lithium have accomplished over the past year, it's an even more exciting opportunity to look ahead to the next horizon," Tarkoff said.

Customer Highlights

Orange France's successful Sosh community, launched in 2011 and powered by Lithium, is delivering strong growth. "Orange always chooses the best technology and platforms available when building our offerings. Lithium was clearly the strongest provider in social customer experience and the clear choice of technology partner for us. The Sosh community is delivering fantastic triple-digit growth," said François Rondeau, Head of Customer Experience 2.0, Orange France.
In France, Lithium recently announced that retailer Groupe Casino has built its C'Vous community on Lithium's social customer experience platform, marking a key customer win in the EMEA market. The C'Vous community from Groupe Casino allows its consumers to deeply engage with its different stores and enables the public to actively participate. It enables input on the product and service mix at Groupe Casino's multiple high-profile chains that include Géant Casino, Casino Supermarchés, Casino Proximité, Franprix, Leader Price. "We want to offer customers a place to exchange and share information, and our strategy actively seeks direct feedback and advice from our social customers. While this will clearly lead to increased customer satisfaction, we strongly believe that engaging our customers on this level will lead them to become active customers, creating with us the products and stores of the future," said Adrien Moreira, one of the creators of C'Vous.

Key Recent Highights

Lithium continues to attract distinguished leaders from across the enterprise software industry. Rob Tarkoff joined Lithium as President and CEO from Adobe, where he served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Digital Enterprise Solutions business unit, which had annual revenue exceeding $1 billion.
The company tapped Parametric Technology and BMC Software veteran Jim Drill as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and named Adobe and Salesforce.com veteran Ed Van Siclen as SVP of Business Development & Global Alliances.
Lithium completed a $53.4 million round of financing, led by prominent new investor New Enterprise Associates and including new investor SAP Ventures as well as all existing Lithium investors and several key industry advisors.
Lithium appointed former Documentum Chairman & CEO Jeffrey Miller to its board of directors.
Lithium saw significant additional investment in its products and services by existing customers.
Lithium enjoyed continued new customer penetration of strategic vertical markets, including retail, consumer products, travel and leisure, technology, telecommunications and financial services from industry leaders such as BSkyB, McDonalds, Nestle, SuccessFactors and Telstra.
Launched the company's monthly, seamless SaaS upgrade model - Lithium.now - and Lithium's LevelUp application suite for the Facebook (News - Alert) Platform.
Lithium was ranked in Gartner's 2012 report "Gartner's 2012 report "Critical Capabilities for Peer-to-Peer Customer Community Software," and named in the "Leaders' Quadrant" of the "Magic Quadrant" for both Social CRM and Externally Facing Social Software.
Published clear evidence of Industry leading ROI models for its platform with the Lithium Customer Success Book.
Published the "Science of Social" book by Dr. Michael Wu, Lithium Principal Scientist, Analytics.

Helpful Links

Lithium Heroes Infographic
Lithium Customer Success Book
Lithium Brand Nation Video
Overview of Lithium's Board of Directors and Management Team
Lithium News & Events

About Lithium Technologies (News - Alert)

Lithium helps companies unlock the passion of their customers. Lithium software powers amazing Social Customer Experiences for more than 300 iconic brands including AT&T, BT, Best Buy, Sephora, Skype and Telstra. Lithium helps companies grow brand advocacy, drive sales, reduce costs and accelerate innovation to create a brand nation that redefines the customer experience. For more information, visit http://www.lithium.com, or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and our own brand nation - the Lithosphere. Lithium is privately held with corporate headquarters in Emeryville, Calif. and offices in Europe and Asia.

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