AVST Wins VARBusiness' Five Star Partner Program Award; Annual Listing Recognizes AVST's Commitment to Providing Leading Unified Communications Solutions to Government and Educational Sectors

Business Wire, May 16, 2006

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. -- Applied Voice & Speech Technologies Inc. (AVST), today announced it has been named a "Five Star Partner Program Winner" in the GovernmentVAR section of VARBusiness, a CMP publication. The award recognizes AVST's commitment to providing best-of-breed unified communications solutions to a variety of organizations within the government and educational sectors.

VARBusiness' fifth annual listing of Five Star Partner Program winners is geared to integrators, developers and solution providers who target the federal and education markets. It recognizes the best and the brightest vendors of the channel, those that "epitomize what channel excellence means." AVST was one of the 70 companies selected out of more than 250 responses to this year's call for entries.

The publication selected AVST for the award based on a program that provides what CMP states as "a five-star treatment by accommodating the individual needs of public-sector consumers though the channel." AVST, a leading provider of unified communications solutions, has developed a successful reseller program focused on innovative channel programs that increase sales of its CallXpress(R) product line.

"No vendor's growth strategy can be complete without a big investment in partner programs," said Cristina McEachern, CMP Media LLC. "Our Five-Star listing recognizes the best and brightest companies who value and invest heavily in the success of their channel partners. These vendors have higher channel revenue and are selling more through the channel then the rest of the VARBusiness Partner Programs Guide vendors."

AVST was awarded the Five Star distinction in part for its innovative Marketing in a Box (MIB) program, which enables resellers to brand their AVST business through effective communication with customers and prospects. Qualified resellers receive assistance from AVST when customizing their own marketing programs to generate new CallXpress Advanced Messaging, CallXpress Unified Messaging and CallXpress Speech Server sales.

"We are continually committed to providing our reseller channel with the best educational resources that arm them with the tools they need to achieve success," said AVST's Vice President of marketing, Denny Michael. "We have just wrapped up our CallXpress Success Seminar series and our annual reseller conference, two major events designed specifically for the purpose of reseller education and development. The feedback we're getting from our channel partners has been extremely positive."

For more information on AVST's solutions for the government and educational sectors, please visit http://www.avst.com/products/.> About AVST

Applied Voice & Speech Technologies Inc. (AVST) is a leading developer of unified communications solutions for businesses of all sizes. Through its world-class unified communications platform, CallXpress(R), and its innovative speech applications module, Seneca(R), AVST offers the industry's most powerful suite of switch-independent unified communications solutions. AVST's solutions enable direct access to an enterprise's communications infrastructure including voice mail, e-mail and fax messaging from any voice or data device via a touch-tone, GUI or speech interface. Established in September 2003, AVST was formed from the combined businesses of Sound Advantage (established in 1997) and the AVT division (established in 1982) of Captaris Inc.

With headquarters in Orange County, Calif., AVST maintains facilities in Seattle and the United Kingdom and has remote sales offices across the United States. With over 35,000 systems installed worldwide, AVST's unified communications solutions are sold and supported internationally by an extensive network of resellers and OEM partners. For more information contact Denny Michael, VP of marketing at 949-699-2300 or access the company's Web site at www.avst.com.