Artisoft Announces Televantage 2.1; New Version Extends ACD Capabilities and adds International Support

Business Wire, Nov 30, 1998

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 30, 1998--Artisoft(R), Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFT) today announced a new version of TeleVantage(R), its intelligent PC-based phone system for small- to medium-size businesses. Extending the success of award-winning TeleVantage, version 2.1 includes many new features: automatic call distribution (ACD), international support, enhanced pager support, and integration with Artisoft's Visual Voice Pro telephony Software Development Kit (SDK). In addition, Artisoft has certified TeleVantage as Year 2000 compliant.

Complete with ACD capabilities, TeleVantage 2.1 enables businesses to customize their call handling by creating small call centers. Calls can be routed to agents with multiple calling patterns including "top down" "round robin," or "simultaneous phone ring". Call log data has also been enhanced to effectively track call center performance. Unlike other ACD systems on the market, Artisoft's TeleVantage rolls automatic call distribution into the product without additional charge.

"Today's small businesses can not afford the high cost of add-on call center applications. As a result small businesses are forced to suffer with manual processes or no solution at all, " said Steve Manson, vice president and general manager of Artisoft's computer telephony group. "TeleVantage 2.1 is an ideal solution for small businesses -- it is not only superior to proprietary PBXs but now also offers professional quality ACD features free of charge."

TeleVantage 2.1 addresses the needs of the global business community by further integrating the system with international hardware and interconnect standards. Version 2.1 offers international users the ability to program country codes for easier and more productive dialing as well as an option to employ a British male or American female auto attendant.

TeleVantage 2.1 also includes a TAPI service provider to allow users to place calls from TAPI-compliant personal information managers (PIM) such as ACT!(R), Outlook(R) and GoldMine(R). Using TAPI development tools such as Artisoft's Visual Voice for TAPI, users can now customize TeleVantage to create "screen pops" and business-specific dialing applications for increased productivity and enhanced customer service.

Also new in TeleVantage 2.1 is direct inward dial (DID) over both analog and T-1 lines so companies can assign individual phone numbers for each user. In addition, users can automate call handling to take advantage of Centrex system capabilities including seamless inter-office call transfers to any Centrex number. TeleVantage 2.1 also supports numeric pager notification for voice messages by passing caller ID information to the pager.

TeleVantage 2.1 has been extensively tested and determined to be Year 2000 compliant. According to TeleVantage Product Manager, Lee Schlenger, "The combination of our open architecture and industry standard hardware enabled us to easily create a Y2K compliant system. This further demonstrates the advantage to employing PC-PBXs versus proprietary phone systems, several of which will face critical issues at the turn of the millenium. "

Pricing and Availability

TeleVantage 2.1 is available immediately. TeleVantage 2.1 supports T-1 trunks and scales up to 48 analog trunk lines and 144 extensions. Suggested end-user pricing remains at $750 for the server software and $115 for each trunk, station or client. TeleVantage 2.1 is available exclusively through Artisoft's network of value-added-resellers (VARs).

Artisoft will be previewing TeleVantage 2.1 and a new version of its award-winning Visual Voice Pro at CTI Expo Booth 1222, December 2-3 in San Jose California.

About Artisoft

Artisoft leads the industry in providing easy-to-use, affordable computer telephony and software communications products. Artisoft's award winning computer telephony solutions, TeleVantage, Visual Voice(R), and InfoFast(tm) have been recognized as "Product of the Year," "Best of Show," and "Editor's Choice" by PC Magazine, Computer Telephony Magazine, and CTI Magazine among others. The company distributes its products in more than 100 countries around the world. For more information, please call Artisoft at 800-914-9985. World Wide Web home page http://www.artisoft.com.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

This release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are the impact of competitive products and pricing, product demand and market acceptance risks, the presence of competitors with greater financial resources, product development and commercialization risks, costs associated with integration and administration of acquired operations, capacity and supply constraints or difficulties, the results of financing efforts and other factors detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q.