Aspect Communications Announces VoIP for Contact Centers

Business Wire, May 23, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 2001

Convergence of Voice and Data in Contact Centers Will Help

Companies Reduce Costs and Improve the Customer Experience

Aspect Communications Corporation (Nasdaq:ASPT), the contact center expert, today announced the Aspect(R) IP Contact Suite, a suite of pure Internet Protocol (IP)-based contact center products. The IP Contact Suite will enable businesses to receive, track and respond to all customer communications from voice and data networks over one merged voice and data network. Aspect's contact center platform is for businesses that are ready to benefit from what VoIP can provide for them: reduced infrastructure costs, reduced toll charges and improved customer service. Last year Aspect announced its first enterprise VoIP solution that enabled customers to integrate VoIP into their telephony-based call centers. With the addition of the IP Contact Suite, Aspect now allows companies to add IP capabilities with or without existing contact centers.

According to Sage Research, more than 50 percent of large enterprises have or will deploy VoIP in the next 12 months, and nearly 50 percent of small and medium organizations will do the same.

"Until today, the voice and data networks in companies were two separate worlds. Now that technology allows us to merge them into one network, businesses have tremendous opportunities to boost customer service and reduce costs. When we decided to add IP to our contact center, we chose Aspect because they are the experts at providing multichannel contact center solutions. Aspect focused on the complex problem of managing contacts from all channels and made it easier with the Aspect Contact Server -- and then they simply added IP. Also, they understand how to bring the voice and data worlds together in a way that also allows us to focus our strategy around our customers while remaining an aggressive and competitive business," said Lloyd Linnell, chief technical officer of Stream International.

"Convergence is here today, and smart businesses reap cost savings benefits in the contact center starting now," said Rod Butters, Aspect's executive vice president of products and chief strategy officer. "Aspect not only has contact center expertise but can also provide companies with a clear vision of how to translate convergence into dollars by building contact centers that will provide a superior customer experience while reducing operational costs. The customers who have previewed our IP Contact Suite have endorsed it as the VoIP product of choice for the contact center."

"There are two areas customers should consider when evaluating an IP solution for the contact center," said Elizabeth Ussher, vice president, convergence, GNS, META Group. "First, the experience of the customer and the agent should be at least equal to what they get with traditional voice today and can become better as companies choose to integrate other channels to enhance the experience. Second, the solution should fully leverage the benefits of convergence and prepare companies to continue doing so into the future."

VoIP from Aspect will also enable companies to:

-- Eliminate dedicated telephony lines for remote users and sites;

-- Rapidly deploy new contact centers without requiring additional telephony
ACDs;

-- Centrally administer all centers, thereby reducing the administration
infrastructure;

-- Rapidly deploy new call centers without waiting for new phone lines to be
set up;

-- Easily integrate other channels and be prepared for powerful,
next-generation applications such as streaming, personalized video.

About Aspect

Aspect has over 15 years of experience in the contact center industry -- first, with the ACD (automatic call distributor) and today with the contact server for managing all forms of communication. Aspect's contact server captures all customer contacts from phone, fax, e-mail and Web chat, analyzes them, synchronizes them and routes them to the most appropriate contact center agent through a single system. Ensuring that calls are not endlessly rerouted to incorrect agents and that customers do not have to repeat their contact information over and over again, Aspect's technology provides a pleasant contact center experience for customers. With over 7,600 customer installations and over 78 percent of the Fortune 50 as customers, Aspect is the logical choice to help companies add IP capabilities to their contact centers. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with offices in major cities around the world. For more information, call 1-877-621-3692 or refer to Aspect's Web site at www.aspect.com.

Aspect, the Aspect logo and the phrases and marks relating to other Aspect products and services discussed in this press release constitute one or both of the following: (1) registered trademarks and/or service marks of Aspect Communications Corporation in the United States and/or other countries or (2) intellectual property subject to protection under common law principles. All other names and marks mentioned in this document are properties of their respective owners.