Privacy within the enterprise is vital to the successful management and utilization of your company's aggregate relationships. BranchIt's double-blind messaging system is one of our key features designed to ensure privacy in the work environment.

The system allows an employee requesting an introduction to a target individual to search for employees in the enterprise who know that target individual, say, Oprah Winfrey. However, the system will not divulge to the requester any contact information associated with Oprah Winfrey, nor will it reveal the identity of any employee holding the relationship, for example John Smith, who knows Oprah Winfrey. Instead, BranchIt reveals that it has identified a relationship-holder in the enterprise who knows the target individual, in this case Oprah Winfrey, and provides a platform for communicating with John Smith in hidden-identity mode.

The double-blind messaging system is the key to ensuring neither the relationship-holder's relationship with the requester nor that with the target individual is put at risk:

• By keeping the identity of the relationship-holder (John Smith) hidden to the requester, the requester is unable to bypass John Smith and call Oprah Winfrey directly. This is important, as it will prevent the undesirable weakening of John Smith's relationship with Oprah Winfrey that can otherwise result from a requester calling upon Oprah and referencing him without first receiving his permission.

• The relationship-holder (John Smith) can also feel comfortable using the system knowing that there will be no negative repercussions within the company for choosing to decline a specific request. Let's assume for example that the requester was John Smith's boss, Jane Doe. BranchIt's double-blind messaging system would enable John Smith to use his best judgment regarding the handling of his own relationships, and if he chooses to, decline Jane's request for an introduction to Oprah Winfrey, while in hidden-identity mode, without fearing consequences from his boss.