The latest news and information from Aspect Software. http://www.aspect.com/News/PressReleases.html 2009-07-03T15:01:12+01:00 http://www.aspect.com http://www.aspect.com/favicon.ico text/html 2009-06-30T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Strengthens_Customer_Company_Interactions_with_New_UC_Capabilities Aspect Strengthens Customer-Company Interactions with New Unified Communications Capabilities Unified Communications Applications for the Contact Center Offer New Instant Messaging Features and Voice Portal Capabilities for Improved Business Processes 30 Jun 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 30 June 2009 – Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, today announced that new enhancements to its UC applications for the contact center are generally available today, 30 June 2009, and include new instant messaging capabilities, expanded presence functionality within the contact center, and increased integration with the Tellme® on-demand voice portal. The new features, available through the Aspect® Unified IP® 6.6.1 platform product, augment the unified communications capabilities available through the UC applications’ core queuing, routing, and reporting functionality.“The newly added capabilities within the UC applications are a testament to the company’s continuing commitment to delivering robust UC functionality to the contact center and the enterprise,” said Sheila McGee-Smith, McGee-Smith Analytics. “The increased instant messaging functionality will be a key differentiator for contact centers that want to leverage flexible and reliable channels to interact with customers and knowledge workers across the enterprise.”The new functionality in this latest release adds significant value to the company’s UC applications for the contact center, specifically Seamless Customer Service™, Streamlined Collections™, and Blended Interaction™.  UC applications use software to target operational objectives with specific capabilities from the Aspect Unified IP and PerformanceEdge® platform products. The new features include:Improved instant messaging (IM) routing for enhanced customer interactions. Customers will be able to interact with contact center agents through various methods like Microsoft Office Communicator and over the web with click-to-IM. Customers can incorporate the IM address for the companies that they do business with as part of their “buddy lists” and can interact with the contact center via IM.  With the power of Microsoft® Office Communications Server and Aspect UC capabilities, customers can view the presence of the customer service queues and their estimated wait time within the IM client. IM routing also offers an auto attendant capability, or interactive messaging response (IMR), enabling the contact center to fully automate and script a response to an incoming instant message and/or intelligently route the customer to an IM-based agent. These features are available for Seamless Customer Service and Blended Interaction.Extended presence and IM communications within the contact center. Agents can instant message with other agents and supervisors for escalations, coaching tips, and to receive assistance with customer inquiries. These features are available for Seamless Customer Service, Streamlined Collections, and Blended Interaction.Unique hybrid integration with Tellme’s on-demand voice portal platform. The Aspect On-Demand Voice Portal, powered by Tellme, helps companies leverage a number of network-based services, such as proactive customer contact, post-call surveys, automated appointment reminders, notifications, and business continuity with on-demand self service. These features are available for Seamless Customer Service, Streamlined Collections, and Blended Interaction.Improvements in email handling. This includes agent productivity improvements and auto responses. These improvements are available in Blended Interaction.“More companies are asking for robust IM and voice portal features to streamline communications and deliver a quality customer experience,” said Serge Hyppolite, director of interaction product management, Aspect.   “Thanks to our global strategic alliance with Microsoft and our partnership with Tellme, Aspect is best equipped to bring these capabilities to the market and demonstrate the value of unified communications in the contact center and the enterprise.”About Aspect Unified IPAspect Unified IP is an IT-ready Microsoft .Net Web services platform product that unites customer contact capabilities to help organizations execute on their unified communications strategies.About Unified Communications Applications for the Contact CenterUnified communications (UC) applications for the contact center use software to target operational objectives with specific capabilities from the Aspect Unified IP and PerformanceEdge platform products.  The applications deliver inbound routing, outbound dialing, voice portal and Internet contact, workforce management, performance management, campaign optimization, recording and eLearning capabilities to help organizations enhance customer service, collections and sales and telemarketing business processes.  Unified communications applications include Blended Interaction™, Seamless Customer Service™, Productive Workforce™, Streamlined Collections™, and Optimized Collections™.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.   #  #  # Aspect, Unified IP, PerformanceEdge, Blended Interaction, Seamless Customer Service, Productive Workforce, Streamlined Collections, Optimized Collections and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Tellme is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation.  text/html 2009-06-25T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_CFO_Wins_2009_CFO_of_the_Year_Award Aspect Chief Financial Officer Wins 2009 CFO of the Year Award Michael Provenzano Recognized by Boston Business Journal for Financial Leadership of Company's Unified Communications Initiatives and Community Involvement 25 Jun 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 25 June 2009— Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, today announced that Michael Provenzano, executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer at Aspect, has won the inaugural 2009 CFO of the Year Award for large privately-held companies from the Boston Business Journal. Provenzano was recognized for his instrumental role in crafting Aspect’s corporate strategy, particularly in managing Microsoft’s equity investment in Aspect to accelerate the development of UC solutions, and spearheading the company’s international expansion and merger and acquisition activities. “Mike has been invaluable in advancing Aspect’s strategic initiatives in the UC space while driving profitability in challenging economic times,” said Jim Foy, chief executive officer, Aspect. “Also, his activities outside the company set an example for what we need to see from business leaders in the community— a focus on charitable involvement and corporate responsibility. We’re pleased to have Mike recognized for his contributions to the company and to local nonprofit organizations.  And, we are fortunate to have his financial leadership in helping see us through today’s tough market conditions.”The Boston Business Journal 2009 CFO of the Year Awards will be presented during a July 16 luncheon event at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. Honorees will be recognized for their financial leadership and accomplishments, in addition to their community involvement in the Boston area.With more than 17 years of software and high-tech experience, Provenzano has principal responsibility for Aspect’s Finance, Human Resources, Corporate Programs Office, Operations and Facilities organizations. During his 10-year tenure at Aspect, Provenzano successfully executed and managed 10 mergers and acquisitions and multiple debt financings totaling more than $2 billion dollars.  Also, in March 2008, he helped manage and negotiate a global strategic alliance with Microsoft to help bring unified communications capabilities to enterprises and contact centers around the world, which resulted in Microsoft’s equity investment in Aspect.  In 2005, Provenzano was also named by the Boston Business Journal editors to its annual “40 Under 40” list of business leaders to watch in the Greater Boston region.Outside of Aspect, Provenzano is also highly involved in a number of activities that support his community. He is an active supporter of the Benjamin Foundation – a nonprofit association to raise funds and awareness of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the American Diabetes Association and he has also been a member of the Salem, New Hampshire Rotary Club and has supported   the organization’s fundraising efforts, including participating in the Boston Bruins Alumni Charity Ice Hockey Game. About AspectAspect provides softwareand consulting servicesthat turn the potential of unified communicationsinto real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. #  #  # Note:  Aspect and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2009-06-16T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Training_Program_Helps_SIRIUS_XM_Radio Aspect Training Program Pilot Helps SIRIUS XM Radio Improve Sales, Performance and Customer Satisfaction Company Will See Increased Cost Savings from Management Impact Program Focused on Maximizing Workforce Optimization Capabilities 16 Jun 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 16 June 2009—Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, today announced the company is helping SIRIUS XM Radio improve agent job satisfaction, performance, workforce optimization and customer interactions through the Management Impact Program, an innovative training program for contact center managers from Aspect and Touchpoint Associates. SIRIUS XM Radio participated in a pilot program and is using the results to help standardize management training for multiple contact center locations around the world. Now, the company has the capability to lower agent tardiness, to increase sales and to lower costs for participants in the pilot program.The Management Impact Program combines consulting, classroom training, and one-on-one coaching geared toward the specific workforce optimization capabilities provided by the Productive WorkforceTM unified communications application for the contact center. The program is designed to help frontline managers become more effective leaders and positively impact agent performance."Contact center managers have a huge impact on customer satisfaction- from motivating the agents, to ensuring consistency, to directly addressing customer concerns. The Management Impact Program goes way beyond the surface of what most human resource certifications or traditional training programs cover," said George Kirby, senior vendor manager, SIRIUS XM Radio. "I haven't seen any other vendor offering a specialized, packaged workforce optimization training program like this before. I've been in the business for more than 14 years, and even I have benefited from this pilot program, such as learning how to develop better workforce optimization strategies, influence employees through metrics, and inspire others to be better managers."The Management Impact Program is a joint offering from Aspect and Touchpoint Associates for Aspect customers using Productive Workforce capabilities. Consultants from Touchpoint and Aspect® Professional Services worked with SIRIUS XM Radio contact center managers over the course of a week for the pilot program and engaged participants in interactive classroom sessions and one-on-one mentoring, discussing leadership skills, coaching, feedback, metrics, and the importance of interpersonal relationships. SIRIUS XM Radio contact center managers participated in post-program analysis for Touchpoint and Aspect to track improvement within the contact center groups."Everyone can really benefit from what we have learned with this program at SIRIUS XM Radio. I think it should be given to the whole customer care program as it is such an engaging and interactive way to learn," said Darryl Peete, Management Impact Program participant. "I was so excited for the program to end just so I could get back on the floor and give back what I had learned."Touchpoint Associates and Aspect Professional Services worked directly with SIRIUS XM Radio executives to customize the pilot program for the contact center managers, based on specific metrics drawn from workforce optimization tools, contact center structure and corporate consistency with other sites. Pre-program consulting and analysis included agent and manager surveys, conference calls and onsite forums."The Management Impact Program is a unique offering that companies looking to optimize contact center performance can benefit from," said Bob Kelly, vice president of the PerformanceEdge Group, Aspect. "The program gives contact center managers a clear understanding of how to improve individual agent performance, as well as how to use organizational key performance indicators (KPIs) to drive bottom-line results. Through this program, SIRIUS XM Radio can ensure consistency across its global, multisite contact center operations, and enable supervisors to better utilize the workforce optimization capabilities at their disposal."About SIRIUS XM RadioSIRIUS XM Radio is America's satellite radio company delivering to subscribers commercial-free music channels, premier sports, news, talk, entertainment, and traffic and weather.SIRIUS XM Radio has content relationships with an array of personalities and artists, including Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Jimmy Buffett, Jamie Foxx, Barbara Walters, Opie & Anthony, Bubba the Love Sponge®, The Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Bob Edwards. SIRIUS XM Radio is the leader in sports programming as the Official Satellite Radio Partner of the NFL, Major League Baseball®, NASCAR®, NBA, NHL®, and PGA TOUR®, and broadcasts major college sports.SIRIUS XM Radio has arrangements with every major automaker. SIRIUS XM Radio products are available at shop.sirius.com and shop.xmradio.com, and at retail locations nationwide, including Best Buy, RadioShack, Target, Sam's Club, and Wal-Mart.SIRIUS XM Radio also offers SIRIUS Backseat TV, the first ever live in-vehicle rear seat entertainment featuring Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network; XM NavTraffic® service for GPS navigation systems delivers real-time traffic information, including accidents and road construction, for more than 80 North American markets.About Touchpoint AssociatesTouchpoint Associates, Inc. offers a wide array of consulting services to help companies improve the Customer Experience. The company was founded in 2003 by industry thought-leader Bob Furniss with a specific focus on improving the greatest resource in the company - the people. Touchpoint consultants have worked with some of the top companies in the word and offer real-life experience in the areas of leadership and people management. For more information, visit www.touchpointassociates.com.About Productive WorkforceProductive Workforce is a unified communications application for the contact center that delivers the tools and processes to help you optimize resource utilization and adopt a continuous improvement culture. By motivating agents throughout their workforce lifecycle, you can service more customers with fewer agents, reduce customer interaction costs, and improve customer service, sales and collections results.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center. Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.###Note: Aspect, PerformanceEdge, Productive Workforce, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.    text/html 2009-06-11T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Customer_Wins_1to1_Customer_Champion_Honors Aspect Customer Wins 1to1 Customer Champion Honors Fran Horner of Northshore University HealthSystem Successfully Leverages Capabilities of Blended Interaction™ to Improve Patient Services 11 Jun 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 11 June 2009 – Aspect, a unified communications(UC) solutions provider, today announced its customer, Fran Horner from NorthShore University HealthSystem, won the 1to1 Customer Champion Award from 1to1 Magazine. As the senior director of patient access, Horner is being recognized for successfully driving patient services initiatives and leveraging industry-leading UC application for the contact center capabilities from Aspect to ensure that NorthShore is delivering quality customer care and building loyalty among its patients.“The patient experience begins the moment you call a healthcare provider, so the contact center plays a key role in making the process as pleasant as possible,” said Horner. “Aspect has been a significant piece of our patient care initiatives, and has helped us gain a strategic advantage in a competitive healthcare market. It’s gratifying to have our hard work at NorthShore University HealthSystem validated by 1to1 Magazine and to recognize our tremendous efforts and commitment to providing exceptional patient communications.”To create the best patient care experience, Horner and NorthShore University HealthSystem embarked on a people-focused, cross-departmental initiative supported by technology. NorthShore, a healthcare provider based in the northern Chicago suburbs, implemented the inbound, outbound, voice portal, recording and workforce management capabilities of Aspect’s UC application for the contact center, Blended Interaction. In addition to deploying extensive customer interaction capabilities, Horner established new recruiting and training initiatives to better equip the contact center to address patient inquiries.The new technology and training initiatives helped NorthShore improve its contact center satisfaction level from 60 percent to up to 98 percent. Horner has also helped the organization lower agent turnover by 58 percent, and calls answered within 30 seconds have increased by 82 percent.“NorthShore is a great example of how the right technology coupled with customer-focused initiatives can translate into a major competitive advantage,” said Serge Hyppolite, director of interaction product management, Aspect. “We’re so pleased to see a business leader like Fran succeed with her customer care initiatives using Aspect technology and innovative strategies. As more companies see the benefits of using unified contact center functionality, they’ll turn to Aspect and the capabilities of our UC applications to reduce complexity, streamline communications, and build customer satisfaction.”The 1to1 Customer Champions are business executives focused on customers and are chosen by 1to1 Magazine based on their ability to transform customer loyalty into profit. To read more on Fran Horner and NorthShore University HealthSystem, read the magazine (http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/1to1/2009summer/#/18) or the case study (http://www.aspect.com/09/Library/casestudies/Aspect-NorthShore-Univ-HealthSys_CS.pdf) About Blended InteractionBlended Interaction is a unified communications application for the contact center that provides inbound, outbound, self service and workforce optimization capabilities. By eliminating complex integration and providing common management, reporting and administration, Blended Interaction gives you greater visibility, control and staffing efficiency in your multichannel contact center to enhance customer satisfaction and improve business results. About AspectAspect provides softwareand consulting servicesthat turn the potential of unified communicationsinto real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.   #  #  # Aspect, Blended Interaction, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2009-06-10T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Appoints_New_VP_of_Corporate_Customer_Relationships Aspect Appoints New Vice President of Corporate Customer Relationships Industry Veteran to Build Upon Successful Customer Programs to Maximize Investment Returns 10 Jun 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 10 June 2009 – Aspect, a unified communications(UC) solutions provider, today announced Robert (Bob) Walker has been named vice president of corporate customer relationships reporting directly to chief executive officer, Jim Foy.   Walker will oversee the expansion of Aspect’s successful customer care programs and ensure that customers are gaining the greatest business benefits and return on investment (ROI) from their Aspect solutions.“Today, more than ever, companies need to be able to get the most value out of their   software and services investments, and it’s our responsibility to ensure that they are able to lower costs, increase productivity, and gain a competitive advantage through Aspect solutions,” said Walker. “Aspect is absolutely committed to helping our customers succeed despite today’s market challenges.”In his new role, Walker will oversee a team of relationship executives and managers that will expand on the company’s intense focus on customer satisfaction through strategic customer care initiatives. Initiatives will include more activities to incorporate customer feedback into the services and product roadmap and the evolution of technical support and education programs to best meet their needs and requirements.Walker brings more than 30 years of expertise in operations, engineering, and customer support on a global scale. He has been with Aspect since 1999 in various management and executive positions, including global support services, technical services, channel support, and engineering. Prior to Aspect, he worked at a number of leading organizations including AT&T, Electronic Data Systems (EDS), and System One/Eastern Airlines.“High customer satisfaction continues to be our top priority at Aspect,” said Jim Foy, chief executive officer, Aspect. “Bob has, over many years, demonstrated his deep understanding of our customers and their business process requirements both in the contact center and across the enterprise. Most importantly, he truly has a passion for ensuring customer satisfaction and will be an enthusiastic customer advocate across all Aspect functions and departments. Under his direction, we’re confident that more companies will be able to leverage our UC solutions to see significant tangible benefits now and into the future.”About AspectAspect provides softwareand consulting servicesthat turn the potential of unified communicationsinto real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.   #  #  # Aspect and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2009-05-28T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Leads_NA_Outbound_Market_in_Frost_&_Sullivan_Report Aspect Leads North American Outbound Market in Frost & Sullivan Report Company's Breadth of Products and Focus on Operational Objectives Wins Leading Market Share 28 May 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 28 May 2009 – Aspect, a unified communications(UC) solutions provider, today announced that the company is the leading outbound contact center vendor in market share, according to the Frost & Sullivan 2009 North American Outbound Dialing Systems report. Specifically, Frost highlighted Aspect’s wide range of predictive outbound modes and the company’s enterprise market across a wide range of industries in the report.“The outbound market grew about 3 percent in 2008 and Aspect’s leadership in the space speaks to the company’s wide range of solutions and services to address the needs of the contact center,” said Joe Outlaw, principal analyst, Frost & Sullivan. “The features work seamlessly with other Aspect product platforms and third-party solutions, making them a leading option for companies that require flexibility and scalability in the contact center. Companies that require advanced outbound solutions such as financial services, outsourcers, and telecommunications industries will continue to look to Aspect.”Aspect’s outbound capabilities are components of several UC applications for the contact center, including Blended Interaction™ and Streamlined Collections™.  Aspect’s UC applications help companies target operational objectives with specific capabilities.“Despite a volatile economic climate, Aspect has continued to thrive in the outbound contact center market because we understand our customers’ needs and deliver capabilities that improve agent productivity and enhance collections, sales, telemarketing, proactive contact, and notification processes,” said Serge Hyppolite, director of interaction product management, Aspect. “By taking a unified approach to implementing outbound functionality, combined with other key capabilities such as inbound routing, voice portal, and campaign management, companies can lower costs by up to 20 percent and improve sales by up to 10 percent. We’ve built these requirements into our UC applications to help companies see bold business benefits and a return on investment almost immediately.” About Blended Interaction™Blended Interaction   is a unified communications application for the contact center that provides inbound, outbound, self service and workforce optimization capabilities. By eliminating complex integration and providing common management, reporting and administration, Blended Interaction gives you greater visibility, control and staffing efficiency in your multichannel contact center to enhance customer satisfaction and improve business results.About Streamlined Collections™Streamlined Collections   is a unified communications application for the contact center that automates early stage collections and enables expert agent engagement for a more effective delinquent account targeting strategy so you can get more promises to pay faster, reduce servicing costs and write-offs, and improve collections results.   About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.   #  #  #Aspect, Blended Interaction, Streamlined Collections, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2009-05-19T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Continues_UC_Deployment_at_HQ_in_Europe Aspect Continues Global Unified Communications Deployment with Successful Implementation in European Headquarters Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 Deployed at Stockley Park, UK; First Aspect International Office to be "Phone-Free" 19 May 2009 STOCKLEY PARK, UK—   19 May 2009 – Aspect, a unified communications(UC) solutions provider, today announced the company’s European headquarters in Stockley Park, United Kingdom, has now completely migrated to Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2. The UK is Aspect’s first international location to roll out Office Communications Server for all voice and voicemail services, audio and Web conferencing, instant messaging (IM) and presence.The office has eliminated its desk phones and retired its PBX for all employee peer-to-peer and corporate calling services. More than 105 employees work in the Stockley Park office and are using OCS. Stockley Park is the hub for Office Communications Server network activity for Aspect’s other European locations, including Germany and Italy.“Aspect is making a statement with our deployment in Stockley Park—that UC can successfully be deployed across the enterprise and across multinational organizations, leading to more productive employees and decreased operating costs,” said Mark King, senior vice president of sales in Europe and Africa, Aspect. “Since we’ve implemented Office Communications Server, conferencing and telephony costs have come down dramatically, especially since our employees interact daily with so many different regions.  More companies in Europe and around the world are seeing the value in implementing Microsoft UC technology on a global scale, and can look to Aspect as a leader and a deployment expert in this space.”When Aspect’s global OCS rollout is complete, a total of 20 offices will be running Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Since first implementing the software in the company’s global headquarters in Chelmsford, Mass. in February, Aspect has seen a number of positive actions and results, including:More than 222,862 calls have been placed using Office Communications Server.These calls have totaled more than 1,638,725 minutes.More than 2,774 federated IM sessions have taken place with contacts outside of Aspect.More than 15,051 conference calls have taken place with 814 minutes of application sharing across the enterprise.Aspect will continue its global rollout of Office Communications Server   to more than 1,800 employees.  The company’s deployment across North America and Europe will be completed by June, with the Asia Pacific region following in the second half of 2009. About AspectAspect provides softwareand consulting servicesthat turn the potential of unified communicationsinto real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.   #  #  #Aspect and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2009-05-06T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Customer_Wins_2009_SWPP_Award Aspect Customer Wins 2009 Workforce Management Professional of the Year Award Drexel Fitzwater of Vangent, Inc. Honored by SWPP as Workforce Management Professional of the Year 6 May 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 6 May 2009 –The PerformanceEdge Group of Aspect, a unified communications(UC) solutions provider, today announced its customer, Drexel Fitzwater of Vangent, Inc., a leading global provider of information management and strategic business process outsourcing services, has been named the 2009 Workforce Management Professional of the Year from the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP).Fitzwater was chosen by the SWPP Board of Advisors from a group of five finalists that were selected from nominations received on the SWPP website. The award, announced at the 2009 SWPP Annual Conference in Nashville was presented to Fitzwater for his outstanding leadership in the workforce management industry.Fitzwater helped Vangent use the workforce management capabilities of PerformanceEdge® to enable Vangent agents to manage their own schedules for improved job satisfaction and productivity. Fitzwater’s understanding of workforce optimization and technology helped Vangent greatly reduce agent absenteeism. He also managed the installation of Aspect’s real time adherence (RTA) module, and supervised a training program to help customer service representatives follow their schedules more effectively. As a result, schedule adherence across the Vangent contact centers improved from 45 percent to 85 percent in less than one quarter.“Aspect is extremely proud to be affiliated with Drexel and the rest of the Vangent organization and to have played a role in their success,” said Bob Kelly, vice president, PerformanceEdge Group at Aspect. “The combination of Drexel’s many years of experience with workforce optimization, and the extensive capabilities that Aspect provides, shows the positive impact these types of applications can have on an organization. We are excited to have our customers acknowledged for their performance, particularly when they are recognized by such a respected institution like the SWPP.”Four of the five finalists for the 2009 SWPP Workforce Management Professional of the Year are Aspect customers. The other finalists for the award included Richard Brooks of Bright House Networks, Ferenc Castatlos of Nationwide Insurance, Donna Edwards of Sears Holding Corporation, and Matt Langford of Experian Consumer Direct.PerformanceEdge is an IT-ready Microsoft .NET Web services platform product that synchronizes workforce optimization capabilities to help organizations execute on their unified communications strategies. About SWPPThe Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP) is an organization devoted to facilitating education and networking opportunities among workforce planners across all industries. Membership in SWPP is available to all workforce planning professionals and other interested parties from consulting and vendor organizations. Both individual memberships and corporate membership options are available, with full benefits and costs outlined on the organization’s website at www.swpp.org. About AspectAspect provides softwareand consulting servicesthat turn the potential of unified communicationsinto real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.   #  #  #Aspect, PerformanceEdge and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2009-05-05T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Honored_by_CRM_Magazine Aspect Honored by CRM Magazine as Industry Leader Aspect Recognized for Reputation for Customer Satisfaction, Functionality and Company Direction 5 May 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 5 May 2009 –Aspect, a unified communications(UC) solutions provider, today announced the company was ranked as a leader on the 2009 CRM Service Award lists for workforce optimization and contact center infrastructure. These awards, published annually by CRM Magazine, recognize vendors, consultants, and end-user companies focused on providing high-quality customer experiences through the sophisticated integration of people, processes, and technologies.Aspect is the only vendor that was mentioned on the leaders list for both workforce optimization and contact center infrastructure. In the contact center infrastructure category, Aspect was recognized for its loyal and supportive Aspect® Unified IP™ customer base. Aspect Unified IP is a platform product that unites customer contact capabilities to help organizations execute on their UC strategies. Aspect made a second straight appearance in the workforce optimization suite category, where Aspect was ranked for its strong continued investment in PerformanceEdge®, an IT-ready Microsoft .NET Web services platform product that synchronizes workforce optimization capabilities to help organizations execute on their UC strategies.“To make the leader’s lists in both the workforce optimization and contact center infrastructure categories speaks volumes about Aspect’s leadership in the market. They have demonstrated a commitment to providing customers with truly powerful capabilities, especially during a time when many companies are looking for solutions that can maximize their resources,” said Ian Jacobs, senior analyst, Datamonitor. “This recognition helps underscore that Aspect understands the contact center industry through both its product innovation and its dedication to quality customer care.”“With today’s hyper-focused emphasis on cost savings coupled with ensuring customer retention, contact center buyers are more and more looking for unified communications influenced suites of contact center products delivered with exemplary vendor support,” said Mike Sheridan, senior vice president of strategy and marketing, Aspect. “Aspect appreciates the recognition of what we have delivered to date and will absolutely continue to deliver innovative products and services to our customers that can help streamline their business processes and improve their customers’ results.”The CRM Service awards are determined through an extensive three-month process and proprietary rating formula that involves industry analysts, financial and corporate information, product and functionality assessments, and scores reflecting customer satisfaction.The 2009 CRM Service Awards will be presented at the CRM Evolution 2009 Conference at the Marriott Marquis in New York later this year. About CRM MagazineCRM magazine is the leading publication of the customer relationship management industry, covering sales, marketing, customer service, and strategy. The magazine also administers and hosts the annual CRM Evolution conference. Each of these properties is designed to serve customer-centric business initiatives, and leaders who recognize CRM as a key strategy for creating enhanced customer value in any industry. For more information about the magazine, its editorial calendar, or CRM in general, please visit us on the Web at http://www.destinationCRM.com, or on Twitter at @CRM (http://twitter.com/CRM) and @destinationCRM (http://twitter.com/destinationCRM). The destinationCRM Web site (which is updated daily) and the monthly magazine are properties of CRM Media, a division of Information Today, Inc.  About AspectAspect provides softwareand consulting servicesthat turn the potential of unified communicationsinto real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.   #  #  #Aspect, Aspect Unified IP, PerformanceEdge and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2009-03-30T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Marks_One_Year_Anniversary_with_Microsoft Aspect Marks One-Year Anniversary of Global Strategic Alliance and Equity Investment With Microsoft New Product Offering, UC Services Development, Microsoft Certifications, and Customer Wins Among Accomplishments; Company Builds Momentum for Year Two 30 Mar 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 30 March 2009 – Aspect, a unified communications(UC) solutions provider, today announced that it has marked the one-year anniversary of its global strategic alliance with Microsoft Corp. Since launching the strategic alliance in March 2008, Aspect has achieved many significant milestones, including delivering new product offerings, launching a UC Services practice, garnering extensive Microsoft certifications, managing a leading-edge rollout of Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 across Aspect, and winning new UC customers.  Together, the two companies have been focused on their shared vision of software-powered UC to help organizations address their communications needs across the enterprise and in the contact center.“The Microsoft-Aspect alliance, and Microsoft’s equity investment in Aspect, is a strong, joint commitment to UC, and to connecting the enterprise and the contact center,” said Melanie Turek, industry principal, Frost & Sullivan. “Such alliances are critical for customers and companies that want to quickly leverage a UC strategy to streamline their business processes with communications. With Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 and the Aspect® Unified IP™ Microsoft .NET-based platform product, companies can seamlessly bring UC to the enterprise and to the contact center.”Working closely with Microsoft, Aspect met a number of key milestones throughout the year, including:Aspect launched a UC Services practice and secured an early customer win with Quicken Loans Inc. Aspect’s UC Services practice helps organizations identify the right opportunities for UC across the enterprise to improve business and communications processes and navigate implementation obstacles. The UC Services practice completed its first deployment of a UC RapidStart voice pilot at Quicken Loans Inc. The Aspect UC Services team worked closely with the Quicken Loans IT teams to install and configure Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and integrate its voice capabilities into the PBX system in less than one week.Aspect introduced Aspect Unified IP 6.6 with the new Ask an Expert feature that utilizes the instant messaging and presence technology available in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. With this feature, agents can identify available experts in the enterprise based on specific skill sets to address customer inquiries, therefore streamlining business processes and improving first-call resolution.  This is the first of several Aspect product releases on the roadmap as part of the Aspect-Microsoft strategic alliance that will provide tight platform-level integration with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.Aspect initiates global company deploymentof Office Communications Server 2007 R2. To date, Aspect has completed deployment of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 at the company’s headquarters in Chelmsford, Mass. and an office site in San Jose, Calif. The sites have completely migrated to Office Communications Server 2007 R2 for all voice and voicemail services, audio and Web conferencing, instant messaging (IM) and presence. Aspect also retired its PBX in these locations for all employee peer-to-peer and corporate calling services. The company will see aggressive ROI numbers, including reduced conference calling costs of $75,000 per month and additional cost savings resulting from the company’s use of session initiation protocol (SIP) Trunking.Aspect is recognized as one of the first voice specialized partners for Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Microsoft has certified Aspect as a Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 Voice specialization partner for the Microsoft Unified Communications Solutions competency.  Aspect received this certification following the successful completion of the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program (TAP) internal pilot for Office Communication Server 2007 R2 Voice specialization. To date, approximately 100 Aspect employees have been certified.New companies choose Aspect contact center solution with Microsoft UC.  Global Crossing recently purchased Aspect Unified IP 6.6 and is deploying it across its contact center operations to help improve customer communication and satisfaction.  Global Crossing chose Aspect Unified IP largely based on Microsoft and Aspect’s shared vision of UC and how the contact center fits into Global Crossing’s enterprise-wide UC initiatives.  Global Crossing is using Aspect Unified IP for advanced call routing capabilities to intelligently transfer callers to the proper agents based on their skill sets and customer data gathered by back-end applications. The agents use the call blending capabilities to respond to incoming calls and customer questions on subscriptions while also using the outbound capabilities to increase sales.Three customer briefing centers showcase UC capabilities. Aspect opened three customer briefing centers in London, Boston and Singapore. These offices now have the capabilities to demonstrate all Aspect unified communication applications so customers and prospects can experience first-hand the benefits of Microsoft UC and the Aspect UC applications for the contact center. The customer briefing centers also offer remote demonstration capabilities for access through the Internet and around the globe.“The Aspect-Microsoft strategic alliance is an excellent way for companies to take the unified communications journey. Aspect has not just delivered on its promise of unified communications capabilities for the contact center and the enterprise, but has also proved its commitment to giving customers tangible solutions that deliver real results,” said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president, Unified Communications Group at Microsoft Corp. “Joint customer wins with industry leaders such as Quicken Loans, Inc. and Global Crossing are a testament to this. Through our alliance, Microsoft and Aspect are making a statement — that Aspect’s powerful software and services capabilities coupled with Microsoft unified communications technologies supply the tools a company needs to see real business results from deploying unified communications.”As the alliance moves into its second year, the companies will continue to build momentum in product development and customer implementations. Aspect and Microsoft will be focused on: Developing additional product offerings to power UC capabilities. Aspect will introduce two new Aspect Unified IP releases with additional UC functionality as well as two PerformanceEdge™ releases offering tighter integration to Office Communications Server 2007 R2.Expanding Microsoft UC expertise. Aspect will have 200 fully trained and Microsoft UC certified employees by June 2009, including individuals in Aspect® Professional Services, Aspect® Technical Services, Aspect® Education Services, sales and IT.Completing the global Aspect rollout of Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Aspect will complete its global rollout of Microsoft Office Communications Server to approximately 1,800 workers, including its contact center representatives, this year. This will enable Aspect agents to identify appropriate experts in the enterprise based on skill set, and hence properly and efficiently address customer inquiries. “Microsoft and Aspect have successfully achieved a remarkable number of accomplishments in the first year of the alliance, but we know this is just the beginning of achieving our shared UC vision,” said Jim Foy, chief executive officer, Aspect. “We’re seeing tremendous interest from both customers and prospects in our new UC applications powered by Aspect Unified IP and PerformanceEdge, as well as our comprehensive UC Services offerings. We’re confident that as more businesses look for ways to lower costs and streamline business processes, they’ll turn to Microsoft and Aspect to leverage UC and truly transform the way they communicate.”About Aspect Unified IPAspect Unified IP is an IT-ready Microsoft .NET Web services platform product that unites customer contact capabilities to help organizations execute on their unified communications strategies.About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge is an IT-ready Microsoft .NET Web services platform product that synchronizes workforce optimization capabilities to help organizations execute on their unified communications strategies.Aspect® Professional Services delivers unified communications (UC) capabilities in the contact center and throughout the enterprise. Aspect consultants help organizations identify the right opportunities, navigate implementation obstacles and get the right results from UC with services that span conception through completion. From improving individual productivity and heightening collaboration to communications-enabling business processes and transforming enterprise communications, Aspect provides experienced guidance at every step of an organization’s UC journey.About AspectAspect provides softwareand consulting servicesthat turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.   #  #  #Aspect, Unified IP, PerformanceEdge, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2009-03-12T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Contact_Center_Satisfaction_Index_CALA Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index Caribbean and Latin America: Customer Satisfaction Directly Linked to Future Business Consumers Give Contact Centers an Overall Score of 72 Percent,Exposing Significant Opportunity for Improvement 12 Mar 2009 MEXICO CITY, 12 March   2009 – A regional study released today by Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, and Leo J. Shapiro and Associates shows that consumers across the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) view their typical contact center experiences as barely acceptable, with an overall satisfaction rating of 72 percent. The Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index™ Caribbean and Latin America, which also reveals that consumers who feel they receive good customer service are 13 times more likely to conduct future business with a company, finds that most companies are missing important opportunities to meet customer demands and positively impact their top lines. “In this unprecedented global economic environment when budgets are extremely tight, it is clear that conducting business as usual could cost companies significantly more than improving customer interactions,” said Mike Sheridan, senior vice president of Strategy for Aspect. “The Aspect Index CALA identifies the basic consumer principles on which exceptional experiences are based, and provides the insight that companies need to put the right people, processes and technology in place and differentiate themselves from their competitors.”Some of the key findings of the Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index Caribbean and Latin America include:Consumers view personal qualities more important than efficiency and automation and assign the highest scores in this area.20 percent of consumers who have typical experiences feel that contact center interactions fall short of their expectations.Contact center managers overestimate consumer satisfaction with their performance with 76 percent believing they exceed consumer expectations, while only 38 percent of consumers agree.Consumers who say they have exceptional contact center experiences score their overall interactions 19 percent higher than consumers who have typical experiences.Half of consumers who are satisfied will conduct more business with a company; 22 percent of those will do much more business.“More often than not, the interactions consumers have with a contact center are their only communications with the company,” said Paul Bullett, vice president of Caribbean and Latin America at Aspect.   “This means that every contact they make can help to cement a positive relationship with the brand. The companies that have a firm understanding of this can set themselves apart from the competition and build a very loyal customer base.”A comprehensive executive summary for the Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index Caribbean and Latin America is available at www.aspectindex.com.About the Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index Caribbean and Latin AmericaThe 2009 Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index Caribbean and Latin America is a regional survey of approximately 1,272 consumers in five countries – Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, and Puerto Rico; and 84 contact center managers across Brazil, Columbia and Mexico.   It measures the quality of consumers’ telephone and Internet interactions with companies and their representatives across 25 qualities, broken out into three categories:Empathy and Advocacy – the human aspect of customer interactions, such as patience, knowledge, professionalism, and friendliness.Efficiency – the overall quality and speed of the experience including being able to quickly speak with an agent, authority to resolve an issue, and clear connection.Automation – explores ease-of-use of technologies like automated menus, multiple contact choices, and access of contact information from Web site.About Leo J. Shapiro and AssociatesLeo J. Shapiro and Associates is a premier market research company with more than 50 years of experience across a wide range of industries.  Leo J. Shapiro and Associates has been behind a variety of indexes that measure consumer behaviors and attitudes including retail customer service satisfaction, significant consumer trends, grocery store shopping and others. Learn more about Leo J. Shapiro and Associates at www.ljs.com.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.### Aspect, Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2009-03-03T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Successfully_Deploys_OCS_at_HQ Aspect Successfully Deploys Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 at Corporate Headquarters Aspect Announces First Phone-Free Site; Continues to Deploy Technology Across Company's Global Sites 3 March 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 3 March 2009 – Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, today announced the successful rollout of Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2 at the company headquarters in Chelmsford, Mass. Aspect® Professional Services worked closely with the company’s IT organization to   complete the deployment on 18 February 2009 and the company is continuing its global deployment throughout offices in the Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacific (APAC) regions over the coming months. The implementation was accelerated through UC RapidStart, a packaged UC Services offering from Aspect that helps companies gain hands on experience with a pilot deployment of Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS).The company’s headquarters, with more than 300 employees, is the first Aspect site to have completely migrated to Office Communications Server 2007 R2 for all voice and voicemail services, audio and Web conferencing, instant messaging (IM) and presence, making the Chelmsford office the company’s first phone-free location. Aspect has also retired its Chelmsford PBX for all employee peer-to-peer and corporate calling services.“This journey to ‘go-live’ is really a significant milestone in Aspect’s company-wide unified communications strategy,” said Jamie Ryan, senior vice president, Information Technology and chief information officer, Aspect. “This effort was successful because of the joint efforts of Aspect Professional Services and IT throughout the deployment.  Aspect Professional Services can now bring the same skills and experience to our customers around the globe to help customers develop a UC strategy and deploy it effectively.“The best part is the cost benefits we’ll be able to see as a result of the implementation, including saving $75,000 per month on conference calling in the first year alone,” Ryan added. “Furthermore, both local and long distance costs will drop significantly as a result of our use of session initiation protocol (SIP) Trunking and will result in additional savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars as we complete our deployment. With these types of savings, our ROI will be extremely aggressive.” Aspect continues its global rollout of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to more than 1,800 employees.   The company’s deployment across North America and Europe will be completed by June, with APAC following in the second half of 2009.“Through this implementation, Aspect has applied our understanding of global mission critical voice deployments, in addition to our expertise as one of the first Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Voice specialization partners,” said Kevin Schwartz, executive vice president of Global Professional Services, Aspect. “To the company’s knowledge, the Aspect implementation will be one of the largest Microsoft Office Communications 2007 R2 rollouts globally, and this implementation further validates our expertise as an enterprise-class UC services provider.”About UC RapidStartUC RapidStart from Aspect helps organizations jumpstart their UC journey with a pilot deployment of Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS) and Microsoft® Office Communicator 2007 to a small number of users, combined with introductory workshops on business and IT strategy to help organizations move forward into subsequent detailed planning, architecture, and design activities.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.   #  #  #Aspect and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2009-02-26T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Ranked_in_Top_125_from_Training_Magazine Aspect Ranked on Training Magazine's 2009 Training Top 125 List Aspect Recognized for Comprehensive Unified Communications Education Programs 26 Feb 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 26 February 2009 – Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, today announced its placement in the 2009 Training Top 125, a ranking of organizations that excel at human capital development, as determined by Training Magazine. Aspect was recognized for delivering comprehensive training and employee development programs through Aspect® Education Services that support the company’s  UC strategy.“Our placement on the Training Top 125 list validates our efforts to educate our employees and the market on the value of unified communications, and the technology and process requirements for deploying a successful UC strategy,” said Jill Mallinder, senior director, Aspect Education Services, Aspect. “Aspect employees went through extensive training workshops and testing, making us one of the first companies to complete the Voice Certification Program for Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2. By taking advantage of the best practices we have developed in providing training for product and services implementations, we have gained a tremendous understanding of the appropriate tools and techniques needed to make our team successful with this latest set of skills training.”Aspect Education Services provides both internal and external training solutions including instructor-led curricula, online self-paced programs, and online instructor-led offerings. Courses for this UC training curriculum were developed using the ARDDIE (Analyze, Research, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate) model to determine the most appropriate and relevant content per course and delivery method based on job task analysis. Hands-on activities, per job task, were designed against a simulated contact center to enable users to experience real-life applications. In addition, assessment testing and a comprehensive practical case study gave students the necessary practice to build confidence to perform on the job. As a result, there were 2,781 student days of customer training and 1,371 student days of employee training.Training Magazine sponsors an annual competition that evaluates a variety of data on elite organizational learning programs. Training Magazine's annual awards program recognizes employer-sponsored training and development. The judging is based on elements such as corporate universities, evaluation procedures, and internal best practices. Companies are then ranked accordingly. Read the full list of companies honored by Training Magazine. About Aspect Education ServicesAspect Education Services offers a variety of courses designed to provide contact center supervisors and administrators with the skills and knowledge needed to enhance productivity and improve customer satisfaction. Courses are offered online, in worldwide Aspect training facilities, and on a customer’s site.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.   #  #  #Aspect, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2009-02-17T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/Aspect-Successfully-Completes-Microsoft-UC-Program Aspect Successfully Completes Microsoft UC Program 17 Feb 2009 Aspect Successfully Completes Microsoft UC ProgramAspect Recognized as One of the First Companies to Complete Voice Certification Program for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2CHELMSFORD, Mass., 17 February 2009 – Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, today announced Microsoft Corp. has certified Aspect as Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 Voice specialization partner for the Microsoft Unified Communications Solutions competency. Aspect received this certification following the successful completion of the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program internal pilot for Office Communication Server 2007 R2 Voice specialization.“Aspect has shown great dedication to sharing the value of unified communications and Microsoft Office Communications Server with business users,” said Roger Murff, director of unified communications partner marketing, Microsoft Corp. “This certification is testament to Aspect and its commitment to streamlining communications processes for itself and all customers and prospects using Microsoft unified communications.”In addition to the successful R2 Technology Adoption Program completion, Aspect completed a four-week intensive training program. This program includes three boot camps and a Voice Ignite workshop. Participants completing this track passed the Microsoft Active Directory exam, Microsoft Exchange Server exam, and a Microsoft Office Communications Server exam. In the last half of 2008, more than 40 Aspect employees had been certified and by the end of 2009, there will be approximately 200 Aspect employees with this certification.“Aspect’s certification as one of the industry’s first Voice specialized partners for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 demonstrates our dedication to building on our mission-critical voice experience, continuously enhancing our UC expertise and delivering the benefits of our knowledge to our customers for their UC implementations,” said Kevin Schwartz, executive vice president of Global Professional Services, Aspect. “This certification underscores the caliber of our UC Services practice, which, combined with the experience gained during one of the largest Office Communications Server 2007 R2 deployments internally at Aspect, is evidence of Aspect’s expertise as a Microsoft UC services provider.”Office Communications Server 2007 R2 is an update to the award-winning Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 that delivers a variety of new capabilities within the contact center. These capabilities offer next-generation collaboration functionality including persistent group chat and full-featured audio conferencing to reduce service provider bridge costs, new voice features to enhance Office Communications Server voice for teams and mobile/remote workers, and new tools to streamline business processes by integrating communications within applications.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center. Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.# # #Aspect and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2009-02-12T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Unified_Communications_Solutions_Delivered_by_Aspect Aspect Delivers Unified Communications Solutions with Comprehensive Applications and Services Portfolio Aspect Introduces Six Unified Communications Applications for the Contact Center to Help Companies Reduce Maintenance Costs 20 Percent and Improve Productivity 10 Percent 12 Feb 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 12 February 2009 — Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, today announced the company is introducing six new UC applications for the contact center that use software to target operational objectives with a specific set of capabilities. The UC applications utilize the capabilities from its Aspect® Unified IP™ and PerformanceEdge™ Microsoft .Net Web services–based platform products to help companies enhance their customer service, collections, and sales and telemarketing business process.UC applications from Aspect include:Seamless Customer Service™ delivers the tools needed for comprehensive call response, including coordinated self-service/live service and integrated assistance to improve first call resolution and enhance the overall customer experience.Blended Interaction™ provides inbound, outbound, self service and workforce optimization capabilities. By eliminating complex integration and providing common management, reporting and administration, Blended Interaction gives contact centers greater visibility, control and staffing efficiency in your multichannel contact center to enhance customer satisfaction and improve business results.Streamlined Collections™ automates early stage collections and enables expert agent engagement for a more effective delinquent account targeting strategy so contact centers can get more promises to pay faster, reduce servicing costs and write-offs, and improve collections results.Optimized Collections™ utilizes performance, workforce and campaign management to enhance contact and calling strategies by applying the right resources at the right times to increase right party contacts, lower staffing costs, improve collector effectiveness and collections results.Productive Workforce™ delivers the tools and processes to help you optimize resource utilization and adopt a continuous improvement culture. By motivating agents throughout their workforce lifecycle, contact centers can service more customers with fewer agents, reduce customer interaction costs, and improve customer service, sales and collections results.Productive Workforce™ for Aspect® eWorkforce Management™ delivers the tools and processes to help Aspect eWorkforce Management users optimize resource utilization and adopt a continuous improvement culture. By motivating agents throughout their workforce lifecycle, contact centers can service more customers with fewer agents, reduce customer interaction costs, and improve customer service, sales and collections results.UC applications leverage a software-based UC architecture to help companies reduce communications silos while leveraging presence for specific customer-facing business processes. For example, Seamless Customer Service offers contact center managers comprehensive control and visibility over the customer experience as they traverse from self-service to live agent assistance, and extends the interaction to the enterprise, as necessary, with the  Ask an Expert capability powered by Microsoft Unified Communications. Ultimately, Aspect customers can improve customer satisfaction by 8 percent, increase first call resolution by 5 percent, improve productivity by 10 percent, and reduce overall maintenance costs by 20 percent.The new UC applications, coupled with Aspect’s UC Services practice, enable Aspect to deliver a full range of UC solutions across the enterprise and in the contact center.“These new UC applications are a powerful statement from Aspect to the market— the company is clearly committed to bringing specific capabilities for different business processes that will help companies as they adopt a unified communications strategy and bring the contact center into these initiatives. By introducing the UC applications, Aspect is demonstrating its understanding of the importance of integrating UC with business processes and the ability to deliver software and services tailored to a company’s requirements," said Blair Pleasant, President & Principal Analyst, COMMfusion.“Customer care and the contact center are very important to our strategic objectives. We’ve been using the capabilities of Productive Workforce in our two contact centers and have seen a number of benefits, including increased productivity and reduced costs. Implementing all these capabilities from Aspect has helped us centralize our reporting for greater flexibility and control, and has opened the door for us to leverage unified communications in the future," said Mark Good, Vice President of Information Systems, LCA Vision, Inc.“After deploying the Productive Workforce capabilities from Aspect, we have seen a number of improvements in our contact center. Having these capabilities packaged together from one vendor has helped in deployment and maintenance costs, in addition to increasing agent productivity and improving customer care. Clearly, implementing a UC application from Aspect could help any company hit the ground running with a UC strategy," said Larry Kasten, Assistant Vice President, CNA Surety.“The UC applications were designed with a specific purpose in mind to help organizations improve particular business processes– such as customer service, sales and collections -- while at the same time reducing ongoing expenses. Because the UC applications use targeted software capabilities, they empower business users to manage and change the system dynamically and help free up IT for other projects. These offerings, coupled with Aspect’s UC Services practice, deliver a true unified communications solutions portfolio of software and services," said Mike Sheridan, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Marketing, Aspect.Added Sheridan, “Aspect and Microsoft share a vision of software-powered UC solutions that address companies’ requirements throughout the enterprise and in the contact center. The new UC applications and Aspect’s unified communications solutions portfolio further demonstrates the company’s commitment to streamlining communications processes for all its business customers using Microsoft UC.”PodcastQ&A on UC Applications: Empowering the Business with UCBlog PostContact Center: Unplugged blog postVideoUnified Communications Architecture for the Contact CenterTo learn more about UC applications from Aspect, please visit www.aspect.com.About Aspect Unified IPAspect Unified IP is an IT-ready Microsoft .Net Web services platform product that unites customer contact capabilities to help organizations execute on their unified communications strategies.About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge is an IT-ready Microsoft .Net Web services platform product that synchronizes workforce optimization capabilities to help organizations execute on their unified communications strategies.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Aspect, Unified IP, PerformanceEdge, Seamless Customer Service, Blended Interaction, Streamlined Collections, Optimized Collections, Productive Workforce, eWorkforce Management, PerformanceEdge Performance Management, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2009-01-30T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Supports_Virtual_Launch_of_Microsoft_Office_Communications_Server_2007_Release_2_with_Platinum_Sponsorship Aspect Supports Virtual Launch of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 with Platinum Sponsorship Virtual Tradeshow Booth to Showcase Unified Communications Offerings from Aspect 30 Jan 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 29 January 2009 –Aspect, a unified communications (UC) and contact center software and services provider, announced its support of the virtual launch of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 as a platinum sponsor.  At the event, Aspect will highlight its UC services offerings, which provide strategic planning and implementation capabilities for companies deploying unified communications strategies and Aspect® Unified IP™ 6.6 with its Ask an Expert function leveraging the capabilities of Office Communications Server 2007.“We’re looking forward to the launch of  Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and to being able to deliver the expanded UC capabilities for the enterprise and the contact center to our customers,” said Mike Sheridan, senior vice president of strategy at Aspect. “The strategic alliance between Microsoft and Aspect is helping companies improve productivity and the customer experience they deliver. This release of Office Communications Server will help companies make significant inroads on their UC journey.”  The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 launch is one-of-a-kind because it is an online virtual event that includes a keynote address, fifteen breakout sessions, online areas for attendees to view product demonstrations, explore customer experiences, and learn about offerings from Microsoft and its partners.  At the Aspect booth, attendees will be able to view videos, listen to a UC podcast, and read white papers and other key documents.“Microsoft is excited by the tremendous opportunity Office Communications Server 2007 R2 brings to a leading UC services and software company like Aspect to deliver strong business value through innovative unified communications technologies, including the integration between Office Communications Server and Aspect Unified IP,” said Betsy Frost Webb, general manager of Microsoft Unified Communications Group at Microsoft Corp. “ Both Microsoft and Aspect remain focused on our global strategic alliance and our joint, on-going commitment to develop solutions and services that streamline communications, resulting in enhanced business processes and increased business productivity for customers across the entire enterprise.”Throughout the duration of the event, Aspect will be showcasing:Aspect Unified IP 6.6, which seamlessly integrates with Office Communications Server 2007 to empower contact center agents with presence and preference information on experts in the enterprise.  Combined with routing and prioritization capabilities, this Ask an Expert functionality enables contact center agents to engage any appropriate, available expert to assist with a customer inquiry. The UC services offerings from Aspect help organizations plan, implement and support UC products across their enterprises and into their contact centers.  This practice, within Aspect® Professional Services, supports the Aspect strategy to provide services and software that turn the potential of UC into real business results.For more information, call Aspect at 1-888-412-7728 or register for the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 launch today at www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver.Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 is an update to the award-winning Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, to deliver a variety of new capabilities within the contact center. These capabilities are next generation collaboration including persistent group chat and dial-in audio conferencing to reduce service provider bridge costs, new voice features to enhance Office Communications Server voice for teams and mobile/remote workers and new tools to streamline business processes by integrating communications within applications.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center. Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. #  #  #Aspect, Aspect Unified IP and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2009-01-07T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Acquires_Assets_of_AIM_Technology Aspect Acquires Assets of Applied Information Management Limited Acquired Product to be Called PerformanceEdge Performance Management Automates and Streamlines Contact Center Processes to Help Organizations Motivate, Measure and Manage Employees 7 Jan 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass. – 7 January 2009  – Aspect, a unified communications and contact center software and services provider, today announced it has acquired substantially all of the assets of Applied Information Management Limited and its wholly owned subsidiary, AIM Technology, Inc. (collectively, “AIM Technology”), a provider of analytical performance management software solutions with global headquarters in the United Kingdom. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.AIM Technology provides performance management software solutions that help companies continuously motivate, measure and manage employees. The acquired product, which will now be known as PerformanceEdge™ Performance Management™, provides performance management, coaching, employee review and workflow functionality. Its capabilities help streamline the coaching process to reduce the amount of time contact centers spend manually conducting mundane tasks and raises performance visibility to the executive level. The employee review process can be automated and tracked, including performance metrics populated in individual review forms.“Aspect is aggressively pursuing ways to bring enterprises, including contact centers,  even more value – especially given today’s increased pressure for greater productivity,” said Jim Foy, president and CEO at Aspect. “With this acquisition, we are delivering on our commitment to help companies bring unified communications (UC) applications to their enterprises to address contact center and workforce optimization challenges in a brand new way.”Aspect now gains control of a technology that is central to contact center workforce optimization and will deliver performance management capabilities across PerformanceEdge applications. Building on the analysis and reporting services of Microsoft SQL Server, PerformanceEdge Performance Management centralizes data from disparate sources, manages workflow and provides one reliable version of metrics upon which managers can base performance tracking and decision making. This helps organizations automate the coaching process and ensures that contact centers are better able to meet customer-facing goals with fewer resources.“We are seeing a growing need for performance management as most contact centers lack the time to isolate poor performers and put corrective measures in place, which can lead to lost revenue and high customer attrition,” said Paul Stockford, president and chief analyst Saddletree Research. “With the acquisition of AIM Technology, Aspect truly rounds out its PerformanceEdge offering and is able to deliver all of the workforce optimization applications companies need to get the most from their staff.  And, it is exciting to see companies like Aspect leading the contact center industry during the current economic environment by maintaining a continued focused on their customers, their prospects and their technology portfolios and making the kind of confident moves that will ensure even greater value to their customers and prospects in the future.”“The AIM Technology performance management capabilities are an ideal addition to the leading workforce management, quality management, campaign management and eLearning capabilities found in PerformanceEdge,” said Tony Hayward, former CEO of AIM. “Our product has a track record of success in leading companies’ complex contact center and back office environments in the financial services, insurance, retail, travel and outsourcing industries and we are looking forward to bringing these leading capabilities to Aspect customers and prospects.”As part of the acquisition, Aspect welcomes a team of experienced R&D, support and professional services individuals, including Justin Smith, former head of research & development from AIM, who joins the PerformanceEdge Group, Russell Parsons, who joins Aspect® Professional Services, and Hayward, who brings his 30 years of expertise to the Aspect executive team.“Whether as a standalone capability or tightly integrated and synchronized in the PerformanceEdge suite, PerformanceEdge Performance Management will help organizations optimize their most costly resource – their staff – and deliver the tools and results companies need to stay competitive and profitable while delivering the best customer experience,” said Foy.About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge combines workforce management, quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to enable organizations to holistically respond to changing business conditions. The PerformanceEdge capabilities dynamically interoperate to help contact center managers consider everything and act immediately, ultimately making it easier for inbound, outbound and blended contact centers to control costs, enhance service levels and align performance with strategic goals. For more information, visit www.performanceedgesuite.com.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Aspect, PerformanceEdge and Performance Management are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2009-01-06T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_STC_Honors_Aspect_Twice Aspect Honored Twice by the Society for Technical Communication Aspect Education Services Technical Publications Department Recognized by STC, Boston Chapter 6 Jan 2009 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 6 January 2009 –Aspect, a unified communications and contact center software and services provider, today announced it has been honored by the Boston chapter of the Society for Technical Communications (STC) for its development of technical online communications and learning materials for call center customers. Aspect received an Excellence Award for the PerformanceEdge™- Aspect® eWorkforce Management™ Analyze II Developer Guide and a Merit Award for the PerformanceEdge- Aspect eWorkforce Management Analyze II User Guide. Excellence Awards are given to those who are rated as well-researched, interesting and focused on the tasks the audience needs to perform. Merit Awards, according to the STC, are well-stated, professional, clear and factual documents. “This recognition from STC recognizes our commitment to providing easy to use, clear, concise documentation to our contact center customers,” said Jill Mallinder, senior director, Aspect Education Services, Aspect. “One of the goals of Aspect Education Services is to ensure that we make it simpler for our customers to leverage and fully understand the capabilities that Aspect products provide to call centers. These awards help validate that the organization is successfully meeting that objective. ” Winners in the Technical Publications category are selected by a panel of judges based on audience and purpose, organization, content, writing and editing, illustrations and graphics, layout and design, and product and integration. Judges make an award determination based on the individual entry’s strengths and weaknesses and how well it fulfilled its objective. The Society of Technical Communications submissions are considered for the following four awards:• Award of Distinction- the highest award• Award of Excellence• Award of Merit• Best of Show- selected by special judging team About the Society of Technical CommunicationThe Society for Technical Communication (STC) is an individual membership organization dedicated to advancing the arts and sciences of technical communication - it is the largest organization of its type in the world. Its 18,000 members include technical writers, editors, graphic designers, videographers, multimedia artists, Web and Intranet page information designers, translators and others whose work involves making technical information available to those who need it. Through the efforts of a small, full-time staff and a large network of volunteers, STC promotes the public welfare by educating its members and industry about issues concerning technical communication. STC is governed on a Society level by an elected board of directors. Membership is divided into eight regions each containing approximately 20 local chapters. In addition to the Society leaders, each local chapter elects a set of chapter level officers. About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com.  #  #  #Aspect, PerformanceEdge, eWorkforce Management, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-12-18T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_PerformanceEdge_Announces_General_Availability PerformanceEdge Announces General Availability of Aspect eWorkforce Management 7.2 to Help Companies Lower Operating Costs Customers Leverage Innovative Performance Optimization Features and Use Flexible Seat Scheduling Capabilities for Front- and Back-Office Staff 18 Dec 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 18 December 2008 - The PerformanceEdge Group, a dedicated organization within Aspect comprised of contact center performance optimization professionals, today announced the general availability of enhanced PerformanceEdge™ workforce management capabilities through Aspect® eWorkforce Management™ 7.2. This release offers the new Reserve™ enhancement package, designed for scheduling physical positions for call center agents and back-office staff. Aspect eWorkforce Management 7.2 also includes more than 45 new features that will improve scheduling processes and therefore lower operating costs.The Reserve enhancement package enables users to maximize existing workstations, as well as training room facilities, through automating the seat planning process by matching up the right seats with the appropriate agents. This can reduce real estate and administrative costs by enabling flexible seating or “hot desking” in an automated fashion. Through Reserve, companies can easily assign seats across teams, floors, sites and facilities, enabling organizations to reduce their physical footprint, postpone adding unnecessary capacity, and reduce operating costs.Other customer-requested enhancements that are now available in Aspect eWorkforce Management 7.2 include:  extended scheduling and assignment features, enhanced synchronization with other PerformanceEdge capabilities, and additional eSchedule Planner improvements that provide agents with a new, graphical view of schedules and also offer administrators more flexibility.Performance Optimization Quotes on Aspect eWorkforce Management 7.2• “PerformanceEdge is a great tool for optimizing agent schedules and forecasting call volumes,” said Kathie Drayton, director of Workforce Planning, VIPdesk.  “We count on Aspect eWorkforce Management 7.2 to help us manage schedules for more than 800 work-at-home Brand Ambassadors.  The latest version has made it easier for our Brand Ambassadors to easily view their schedules and has helped us improve productivity and ultimately enhance the customer experience we provide to our clients.”•  “Aspect continues to push the performance optimization envelope with innovative applications that address a clearly defined and identifiable problem,” said Paul Stockford, president and chief analyst, SaddleTree Research, Inc. “Aspect eWorkforce Management offers benefits that will bring value to organizations through new capabilities that can create increased synchronization among other performance optimization solutions, as well as generate cost-savings  that will come from freeing staff of the time consuming manual tasks typically associated with seat assignment software.   Aspect has created a call center solution that is sure to get the attention of even the most recession-weary financial manager.”• “In today’s economic environment, companies are looking for ways to lower costs while still optimizing their contact center operations and delivering a positive customer experience,” said Bob Kelly, vice president of the PerformanceEdge Group, Aspect. “Hundreds of operations managers rely on PerformanceEdge for advanced workforce management capabilities and these customers will find that the enhancements in Aspect eWorkforce Management 7.2 can reduce operating expenses significantly. Businesses have learned that every dollar counts in a volatile economy, and the latest enhancements to our performance optimization portfolio are going to help these organizations maximize their resources and truly gain a competitive advantage.” Performance Optimization Podcasthttp://aspectpodcasts.12hna.com/assets/episodes/aspect_podcasts_episode_01.mp3Performance Optimization VideosReserve enhancement package demonstration- Aspect eWorkforce Managementhttp://www.performanceedgesuite.com/eprise/main/performance/demos/Reserve/1454_Aspect_eWFM_Reserve.htmOptimizing Your Contact Center Performance - PerformanceEdgehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itUdUpfe63QPerformance Optimization White Paperhttp://www.performanceedgesuite.com/performanceedge/whitepapers/PerformanceEdge_NineThingsYouShouldKnow_WP.pdfAspect eWorkforce Management is a complete automated solution that provides the capabilities for forecasting, scheduling and tracking, to ensure contact centers have the right staff, with the right skills, at the right time. The end result is increased productivity and revenue, improved customer service and agent performance, reduced staffing and operating costs, and increased profits and customer satisfaction.About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge combines workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to enable organizations to holistically respond to changing business conditions. The PerformanceEdge applications dynamically interoperate to help contact center managers consider everything and act immediately, ultimately making it easier for inbound, outbound and blended contact centers to control costs, enhance service levels and align performance with strategic goals. For more information, visit www.performanceedgesuite.com.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com. #  #  #Aspect, PerformanceEdge, eWorkforce Management, Reserve, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-12-11T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Announces_General_Availability Aspect Announces General Availability of Aspect Unified IP 6.6 with Ask- an-Expert Capability and Advanced List Management Release Features Enhanced Unified Communications Functionality through Microsoft Office Communications Server 11 Dec 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 11 December 2008 — Aspect, a unified communications and contact center software and services provider, today announced the general availability of Aspect® Unified IP™ 6.6 with a new Ask-an-Expert feature that utilizes the instant messaging and presence technology available in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.  The latest release also offers enhanced outbound campaign features through Advanced List Management 3.0. These capabilities will help Aspect customers support their unified communications (UC) strategies and streamline customer service, collections, and telemarketing business processes.Aspect Unified IP 6.6 seamlessly integrates with Office Communications Server 2007 to empower contact center agents with presence and preference information on experts in the enterprise.  Combined with routing and prioritization capabilities, this Ask-an-Expert functionality enables contact center agents to engage any appropriate and available expert to assist with the customer inquiry. Aspect Unified IP customers, such as Datapoint, a systems integrator for enterprise and call center communications based in the United Kingdom, will be able to use this capability to improve first-call resolution and increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.Aspect Unified IP 6.6 also provides Advanced List Management 3.0, a powerful outbound campaign management application that bolsters proactive contact, collections and telemarketing strategies. Available in four package options: Core, Dynamic, Campaign Optimizer and Enterprise, the Advanced List Management application enables companies to develop, deploy and analyze contact strategies to significantly improve right party contacts.• Core - designed to manage outbound lists for dialing campaigns in single site environments.• Dynamic - for contact centers who wish to manage call records and redial strategies in an automated fashion throughout the day with dynamic list filters for real-time record workflow, and automatic scripting of dialer manager operations functions such as list imports and exports, pacing adjustments, and notifications.• Campaign Optimizer - for Best Time to Call strategies to contact customers at the time and place they are most likely to be reached.• Enterprise - for managing multi-site, multi-dialer operations and to support disaster recovery requirements. Additional capabilities available in Aspect Unified IP 6.6 include enhanced security and reliability, licensing control for hosted multi-tenancy environments, localization in Traditional Chinese, French, Thai, and support for Greek localized data, in addition to the already available support for Simplified Chinese, Korean, French, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German and English.Quotes on Aspect Unified IP 6.6• “Aspect Unified IP 6.6 will definitely play a key role in our unified communications strategy,” said David du Toit, chief technology officer, Datapoint. “The product has clearly made an impact on how we identify experts and route interactions to them in the enterprise. Plans are underway for a wider rollout to leverage the Ask-an-Expert capabilities. We’ve been searching for a way to easily find experts in the enterprise to improve customer interactions, and Aspect Unified IP has helped us accomplish these business objectives.”• “We recently upgraded to the latest version of Aspect Unified IP and are already witnessing positive results,” said the director of Call Center Operations at Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC. “Our contact center continues to handle a high volume of inbound and outbound calls, and we have leveraged the blending capabilities of this latest version to maintain our high standards of delivering ‘world class’ customer service, while boosting agent productivity at the same time.”• “Organizations are looking for opportunities to improve the overall service they are providing to their customers.  By developing upon Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Aspect is making it easier to take advantage of the core of knowledge that resides throughout the enterprise to get the right information to the customer at the right time,” said Roger Murff, director of unified communications partner marketing, Microsoft Corp.  “The new expert agent capability in Aspect Unified IP is an important first step in implementing a unified communications strategy within the contact center to improve business processes and enhance the customer experience.” • “More companies are looking for ways to make their communication channels more efficient, either through unified communications or through business process improvements such as campaign optimization tools,” said Serge Hyppolite, director of interaction product management, Aspect. “Aspect Unified IP 6.6 is going to help bring about an enterprise transformation that truly enhances the way companies interact internally and with their customers. The latest release is the culmination of 35 years of contact center expertise and our customers’ requests for advanced unified communications and list management capabilities.”PodcastsQ&A on Why Aspect for Unified CommunicationsVideoAsk-an-expert Demonstration- Aspect Unified IPUnifying Your Contact Center Applications - Aspect SoftwareWhite PaperKeeping the Customer In the Equation About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Aspect, Unified IP, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-12-10T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Customer_Briefing_Center Aspect Customer Briefing Centers Enable Customers and Prospects to Experience Unified Communications Locations Near Boston, London and in Singapore Offer Opportunities for Prospects and Customers to Observe Aspect® Unified IP™ and its Expert Agent Capability 10 Dec 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass. — 10 December 2008— Aspect, a unified communications and contact center software and services provider, today announced the opening of customer briefing centers in its U.S. and Asia Pacific headquarters locations. The customer briefing centers are facilities for hands-on software demonstrations that enable Aspect customers and prospects to experience unified communications first-hand through interaction with Aspect Unified IP and PerformanceEdge™.  The customer briefing centers are located in the Boston area and in Singapore. A third customer briefing center will be opening at the Aspect European regional headquarters near London at the end of December.“We visited the Chelmsford briefing center and the facility was impressive with state-of-the art equipment,” said Oleg Puzyreff, director of business development, One Communications. “Seeing demonstrations in a hands-on environment gave us a clear understanding of the software functionality and its value. The customer briefing center is a great way for companies to see the real-time capabilities of the Aspect product portfolio, including Aspect Unified IP, PerformanceEdge, and Microsoft Unified Communications.”At the customer briefing center in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Aspect will be demonstrating the following capabilities:• The Expert Agent capabilities available through the tight integration of Aspect Unified IP 6.6 and the instant messaging and presence technology in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.• The hybrid enterprise voice portal services available through Aspect Unified IP and Tellme.• PerformanceEdge capabilities, including workforce management, quality management, campaign management, performance management, and eLearning.• Unified communications leveraging Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 for unifying voice, instant messaging, email, calendaring, and multimedia conferencing using presence through Office Communicator.• Unified Command and Control™ - Reporting, which gathers and consolidates information from one or more call centers, providing companies with a consistent enterprise-level view of call center operations. “These demonstration centers serve as a powerful proof point that Aspect is delivering important unified communications capabilities to the enterprise by leveraging the technology available in Microsoft Office Communications Server,” said Mike Sheridan, senior vice president of strategy and marketing, Aspect. “Customers and prospects that visit the customer briefing centers will gain a better understanding of how Aspect can help streamline communications for improved business processes and a successful unified communications strategy.”Aspect Unified IP is a complete contact center solution that unites inbound, outbound and blended multichannel contact (voice, email, the web and fax), while also delivering voice portal, recording and quality management, and unified reporting and administration capabilities. PerformanceEdge combines workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to enable organizations to holistically respond to changing business conditions.If you are interested in visiting one of the Aspect customer briefing centers, contact your sales representative or email info@aspect.com.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Aspect, Unified IP, PerformanceEdge, Unified Command and Control, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-12-04T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/InTheNews12_04_08d Aspect Rated Most Trusted Workforce Optimization Technology Provider Based on Datamonitor Survey 4 Dec 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 4 December 2008 –The PerformanceEdge Group, a dedicated organization within Aspect comprised of contact center performance optimization professionals, today announced that Aspect had the largest number of respondents vote it number one among global vendors who they most trust to deliver a complete workforce optimization solution. This was based on an end-user survey conducted by Datamonitor, a global provider of online data and analytic forecasting platforms for key vertical sectors. This recognition demonstrates that Aspect is the highest regarded workforce optimization vendor among survey respondents in both North America and Western Europe.The study, Business Trends: Contact Center Investments in Developed Markets (Customer Focus), is part of Datamonitor’s Customer Interaction Technologies research. The survey asked 150 contact center managers and IT decision makers from North America and Western Europe questions regarding technology budgets, investment priorities and vendor selection for various contact center solutions.“Aspect continues to demonstrate leadership and strong mindshare in the contact center industry and the workforce optimization space, and it is evident in the results from our study,” said Daniel Hong, Lead Analyst, Customer Interaction Technologies at Datamonitor. “Aspect provides a well rounded workforce optimization solution stack and companies are beginning to recognize the benefits of a complete workforce optimization solution.”The respondents indicated that, when looking for advanced contact center application vendors, their top priority is an ‘all-in-one’ contact center solution. A strong combination of technology and services, best-of-breed technology and flexible pricing models were also key considerations. The report also found that companies were looking for one vendor to provide their contact center technology and services for easier software management and more economically viable solutions.“As Datamonitor has found in the survey, there is increased interest in workforce optimization applications like PerformanceEdge™. Much of this is being driven by economic factors, as well as regulatory and customer satisfaction issues,” said Bob Kelly, vice president of the PerformanceEdge Group at Aspect. “For example, workforce management clearly speaks to a need to improve workforce efficiency and more effectively manage the limited resources organizations have available. And, an analytics application is quickly becoming a ‘must have’ application to better understand customer and agent relationships, to increase customer retention and loyalty, as well as to ensure compliance. This survey underscores that Aspect understands its customers’ needs by delivering the critical solutions they require to achieve their strategic objectives. Perhaps most importantly, they view Aspect as a trusted partner.”Datamonitor's report Business Trends: Contact Center Investments in Developed Markets (Customer Focus), provides insight into an enterprises' plans for investment in a number of key contact center switch, workstation, self-service and emerging technologies. Respondents are from within the communications, financial services, retail and travel & transport industries.About DatamonitorDatamonitor is the world’s leading provider of online data, analytic and forecasting platforms for key vertical sectors. We help our clients, 5,000 of the world’s leading companies profit from better, more timely decisions. Through our proprietary databases and wealth of expertise, we provide clients with unbiased expert analysis and in-depth forecasts for seven industry sectors: Automotive & Logistics, Consumer Markets, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail and Technology. Datamonitor maintains its headquarters in London and has regional offices in Frankfurt, New York, San Francisco and Sydney. See www.datamonitor.com.About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge combines workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to enable organizations to holistically respond to changing business conditions. The PerformanceEdge applications dynamically interoperate to help contact center managers consider everything and act immediately, ultimately making it easier for inbound, outbound and blended contact centers to control costs, enhance service levels and align performance with strategic goals. For more information, visit www.performanceedgesuite.com.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com. #  #  #Aspect, PerformanceEdge and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2008-12-02T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Gartner_Magic_Quadrant_Contact_Center_Infrastructure Aspect Placed in Leaders Quadrant for 2008 Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, Worldwide Evaluation Based on Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute 2 Dec 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass. – 2 December 2008 – Aspect, a unified communications and contact center software and services provider, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the leaders quadrant in the 2008 Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, Worldwide report.According to Gartner, “leaders are high-viability vendors with broad portfolios, significant market share, broad geographic coverage, a clear vision for how contact center needs will evolve and a proven track record for delivering contact center products.  They are well-positioned with their current product portfolio and are likely to continue to deliver leading products. Leaders do not necessarily offer the best-of-breed solution for every customer requirement. However, overall, their products are strong and often include some exceptional capabilities. Additionally, they provide solutions that offer relatively low risk.” “We believe being placed in the leaders quadrant by Gartner helps underscore that the industry views Aspect as a trusted partner with a solid vision for the future and a proven products and services portfolio to help organizations achieve their strategic objectives,“ said Jim Foy, chief executive officer, Aspect.  “With an evolving focus on bringing unified communications to the enterprise and the contact center, Aspect sees a lot of opportunities for organizations to maximize agent and information worker productivity, improve customer-company interactions, and fine-tune their business processes to be more efficient than ever before, which is so important, especially in our volatile economy.”The Gartner Magic Quadrant analyzes the vendors in an industry and categorizes them in the “leaders,” “challengers,” “visionaries” or “niche players” quadrants.Source:1Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, Worldwide” by D. Kraus, S. Blood, G. Johnson, et al. November 18, 2008.  About the Magic QuadrantThe Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2008 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Note:  Aspect and Aspect Software are trademarks and registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks or tradenames are the property of their respective owners. text/html 2008-11-25T08:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Wins_Gold_Massachusetts_Economic_Impact_Award Aspect Takes the Gold at the Fifth Annual Team Massachusetts Economic Impact Award Ceremony Company Recognized for Contributions to Local Economy 25 Nov 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 25 November 2008 –Aspect, a unified communications and contact center software and services provider, today announced it has been selected as a Gold winner of the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development’s Fifth Annual Team Massachusetts Economic Impact Award. This is the only award of its kind in Massachusetts, honoring a select group of companies from across the Commonwealth who are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the Massachusetts economy. Aspect was recognized for the jobs created during the company’s recent move to its new corporate headquarters in Chelmsford, Mass. “The judges did not arrive at their decision lightly; there are so many good stories from a variety of industries,” said Susan Houston, executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development.  “All the companies nominated enhance the Massachusetts economy, and we’re proud to be able to recognize them.”Jim Foy, president and chief executive officer at Aspect, was on hand to receive the award. The award was presented to Aspect at a November 25th awards luncheon at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel with more than 450 attendees, including the governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick. The winning companies were selected based on their attributes in the categories of job growth, facility expansion, investment and community involvement since January 1, 2007.“To stand out among such successful organizations in all of Massachusetts is gratifying for all of us at Aspect.  It not only reflects the company’s hard work and dedication, but it also helps recognize the positive impact we’re having in the communities where we live and operate our business,” said Jim Foy, chief executive officer, Aspect. “It also demonstrates how important local industries are in supporting our efforts to provide unified communications software and services to the global market.  Without the solid foundation of local businesses and suppliers, we wouldn’t be able to be successful.”The Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development is a private, non-profit partnership of business, industry leaders, and government dedicated to fostering economic growth in the Commonwealth.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com. #  #  #Aspect and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-10-30T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_New_Dalian_Call_Center Aspect Opens Customer Support Centre in Dalian, China New Support Centre Provides Technical Support Services for Aspect Solutions; Addresses Increased Demand in Growing Region 30 Oct 2008 Singapore, 30 October 2008 – Aspect, a unified communications and contact center software and services provider, today announced the opening of its new technical support center in Dalian, China. The 4,055 sq. ft. contact center will provide support services to customers and partners in China, Korea, and Japan.“It is critical that organizations are able to manage their customer inquiries seamlessly, with no downtime, so this new center in Dalian is designed to ensure that our customers are able to solve any potential contact center issues without delay and that their calls are handled by knowledgeable Aspect experts,” said Lui Simhua, senior vice president, Asia Pacific and the Middle East, Aspect. “Expanding our presence in China supports our efforts to deliver quality customer service, helping our partners and companies in the region optimize their contact center operations to better offer enhanced customer interactions.”The new contact center reflects the company’s growth in the Asia Pacific region and allows Aspect to provide high-quality service to its rapidly expanding customer base by offering extended technical support for China, Korea and Japan. The technical support engineers at the Aspect Dalian contact center have received extensive training and are well-equipped to respond to customer inquiries related to Aspect® Unified IP™, the company’s all-in-one, unified contact center solution, and two PerformanceEdge™ products, Aspect® Quality Management™, a robust voice and screen recording application, and Aspect® eWorkforce Management™, which provides essential forecasting, scheduling and tracking functionality.The Dalian contact center provides:Rapid issue resolution through reliable support availability, remote support abilities and distributed field services personnel.Support for system performance with ongoing application updates that refine system capabilities.Ability for Aspect users to deliver an exceptional customer experience by ensuring Aspect solutions are always up and available to service customers.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Aspect, Unified IP, PerformanceEdge, Quality Management, eWorkforce Management, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-10-29T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_eWorkforce_Management_release PerformanceEdge Offers Enhanced Workforce Management Capabilities for Front- and Back-Office Personnel Aspect eWorkforce Management 7.2 Reduces Physical Footprint and Facility Costs through Automated, Flexible Seat Scheduling 29 Oct 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 29 October 2008 - The PerformanceEdge Group, a dedicated Aspect organization comprised of contact center performance optimization professionals, today announced that new PerformanceEdge™ workforce management capabilities will be generally available in Aspect eWorkforce Management 7.2 on 17 December 2008. This release will include more than 45 new features designed to significantly streamline the scheduling process and therefore lower operating costs. Furthermore, Aspect eWorkforce Management 7.2 will offer a new enhancement package for scheduling physical positions for front- and back-office staff, as well as provide extended scheduling and assignment capabilities and enhanced synchronizations with other PerformanceEdge applications.The new Aspect eWorkforce Management - Reserve enhancement package enables users to maximize how they utilize existing workstations as well as training room facilities to automate the seat planning process by matching up the right seats with the appropriate agents. It can reduce real estate and administrative costs by enabling flexible seating or “hot desking” in an automated fashion. Companies using Aspect eWorkforce Management - Reserve can assign seats across teams, floors, sites and facilities automatically, enabling organizations to reduce their physical footprint, postpone capacity-adding decisions, and reduce operating costs.“Workforce management vendors have traditionally focused on optimizing agent schedules because staffing represents the most expensive component of a contact center or back-office budget.  What is too often forgotten, however, is the difficulty of managing physical seats and the associated facility costs,” said Robert Kelly, vice president, PerformanceEdge Group. “Now, PerformanceEdge gives customers a way to reduce facility costs, while optimizing agent and supervisor performance and decreasing administration costs, which can help give these companies a clear-cut competitive advantage in today’s volatile economic climate.” Many customer-requested capabilities are also now available in the new release of Aspect eWorkforce Management 7.2 which include:Extended Scheduling and Assignment Capabilities with the ability to create team-based schedules or to schedule for one month at a time.Enhanced Synchronization across all the PerformanceEdge products with the ability to utilize quality scores and other key performance indicators (KPIs) to schedule coaching and classroom training sessions, or to prioritize schedule assignments.  Additional eSchedule Planner Enhancements to provide agents with a new, graphical view of schedules that offers administrators more flexibility.“The new features of Aspect eWorkforce Management demonstrate that Aspect continues to listen to our customers’ requests to add value to PerformanceEdge by helping them gain visibility into capacity planning and employee scheduling,” Kelly added. “And, by leveraging Aspect eWorkforce Management with other performance optimization applications, companies will have a more holistic view of its performance, providing them with the insight and tools they’ll need to make changes to more easily drive improved service, sales and collections.” Aspect eWorkforce Management is a complete automated solution that provides the capabilities for forecasting, scheduling and tracking, to ensure contact centers have the right staff, with the right skills, at the right time. The end result is increased productivity and revenue, improved customer service and agent performance, reduced staffing and operating costs, and increased profits and customer satisfaction.About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge combines workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to enable organizations to holistically respond to changing business conditions. The PerformanceEdge applications dynamically interoperate to help contact center managers consider everything and act immediately, ultimately making it easier for inbound, outbound and blended contact centers to control costs, enhance service levels and align performance with strategic goals. For more information, visit www.performanceedgesuite.com.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com. #  #  #Aspect, PerformanceEdge, eWorkforce Management, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-10-28T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Intech_Partnership_on_Unified_Communications Aspect Announces Strategic Partnership with Intech Partnership Enables Aspect to Provide Unified Communications Solutions in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and Central America 28 Oct 2008 San Juan, Puerto Rico, 28 October 2008— Aspect, a unified communications and contact center software and services provider, today announced it has formed a strategic partnership with Intech (Integration Technologies Corp.), an information technology consulting and integration firm.  Under the terms of the agreement, Intech will distribute and implement Aspect solutions to enable enterprises and contact centers throughout Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, and Central America to achieve strategic business objectives by leveraging unified communications (UC) technologies. Intech is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and will be working closely with Aspect to deploy Microsoft Office Communicator and the Aspect all-in-one, contact center solution, Aspect® Unified IP™, in enterprises across the CALA region.“The impressive line of products that Aspect provides is enabling us to meet the technology and business process requirements of our customers,” said Henry Gordillo, president, Intech.  “Companies in our region are really looking at the value that a unified approach can bring to the contact center, and when coupled with a strong unified communications strategy, our customers will be able to streamline communications processes and see significant benefits in productivity and customer satisfaction. Together with Aspect, we are seeing significant opportunities to deliver advanced unified communications and contact center technologies to help our customers grow and improve their businesses.”Later this year, Aspect is releasing a new version of its .NET-based Aspect Unified IP product, which delivers interoperability with Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007, which includes a powerful ask-an-expert capability using the instant messaging and presence technology in Office Communications Server 2007. Aspect has designed this feature to enable contact center agents to find and consult with experts anywhere in a company to resolve customer inquiries in a single interaction.“With its expertise in the contact center and Microsoft OCS, Intech will be a key player in support of the Aspect strategy to help enterprises fully realize the benefits of their unified communications strategies to enhance knowledge worker and agent productivity,” said Paul Bullett, vice president of Caribbean and Latin America at Aspect Software. “Intech is a very important partner for Aspect as we begin to deploy more unified communications software and services in the region. Intech brings an understanding of UC strategies, OCS implementations and enterprise solutions that will enable businesses to really maximize the results they see as they roll out their unified communications initiatives. By establishing strategic relationships with companies like Intech, Aspect continues to educate the market in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and Central America on ways to optimize productivity and improve their business processes.”About IntechIntegration Technologies, Corp. (Intech), an information technology consulting and integration firm, was founded in San Juan in 1992.  Intech has operations in Puerto Rico with a client base throughout the island, in the Caribbean, and in Central and South America. With a total of over 80 employees, Intech has over 50 consultants and specialized IT professionals in different areas.Intech’s mission is to offer added value to its clients by providing prompt and cost-effective Network, Telephony, Unified Communications and Security solutions based on their individual needs. This, and a personalized and excellent service, has positioned Intech among the top companies in its field. About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Note:  Aspect, Unified IP, and Aspect Software are registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks or trade names are the property of their respective owners. text/html 2008-10-22T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Unified_IP_UC_Capability Aspect Announces Aspect Unified IP 6.6 with Expert Agent Capability to GA in December Datapoint Leverages the Enhanced Unified Communications Product Functionality for Real Business Results 22 Oct 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 22 October 2008 — Aspect, a unified communications and contact center software and services provider, today announced that the upcoming release of Aspect® Unified IP™ 6.6, scheduled for general availability on 12 December 2008, will include a number of significant new features, including an ask-an-expert capability using the instant messaging and presence technology available in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. This ask-an-expert feature enables Aspect Unified IP to seamlessly integrate to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 to specifically request real-time presence information on experts located across the enterprise to assist with customer interactions and improve first-call resolution. Aspect Unified IP 6.6 unites inbound, outbound and blended multichannel contact (including voice, email, Web, workflow and fax) in a single, scalable session initiation protocol (SIP)-based voice over IP (VoIP) software platform.Aspect customer and partner, Datapoint, a systems integrator for enterprise and call center communications based in the United Kingdom, is currently using Aspect Unified IP 6.6 to successfully identify the availability of knowledge workers, route calls to them, and record and monitor the interactions."This version of Aspect Unified IP is really changing the way that we can communicate, internally and externally,” said David du Toit, chief technology officer, Datapoint. “Through streamlined communications processes, we now have the ability to find the expert with the right knowledge in the enterprise quickly, and that is an indispensible tool in getting our customers’ inquiries resolved efficiently. We’ve had a great experience with Aspect Unified IP 6.6 thus far and have seen positive results almost immediately. These new capabilities help us engage knowledge workers in the customer care process, and training agents on using these tools has been a breeze. We really feel that Aspect Unified IP will help give us a competitive advantage and we expect to benefit from lower operating costs and increased customer satisfaction in the future.”In support of the ask-an-expert feature, Aspect Unified IP 6.6 has added a new user classification, Knowledge Worker (expert), so that companies can add data on experts, such as names and phone numbers, to the Aspect Unified IP database, and assign a skill or set of skills, to define their profile as an expert. This enables agents to search for experts with unique skills who can assist with specific types of customer inquiries and then engage them via instant message (IM) or phone.These new unified communications (UC) capabilities within Aspect Unified IP support the company’s strategy to provide solutions and services that enable organizations to take advantage of all of the potential benefits that UC can provide, including improved enterprise productivity through enhanced customer-facing business processes.  “Unified communications offers a very exciting opportunity to significantly change the way companies interact with both their customers and, now within the organization too,” said Serge Hyppolite, director of interaction product management, Aspect Software. “With this version of Aspect Unified IP, you won’t find a tighter integration to Microsoft Office Communications Server available anywhere else, which is making it possible for contact centers to seamlessly leverage experts throughout the enterprise to provide the best customer experience and the most productive business results.”“Leading companies, such as Datapoint, recognize that Aspect Unified IP can provide all of the capabilities necessary to streamline communications business processes, increase productivity, and improve customer satisfaction,” added Hyppolite. “Ultimately, these companies are able to reap all of the benefits that a logical unified communications strategy, combined with a leading unified solution, can deliver.”Other new capabilities that will be available in the upcoming release of Aspect Unified IP 6.6 include:Expanded Localization with support for Traditional Chinese, French, Thai, and Greek (data only) in addition to the already available localizations in English, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese. Inbound Queue Optimization to provide customers in queue the flexibility to schedule a callback based on their position in queue, or at an alternative time and phone number. Reactive Blending with Nortel and Siemens ACDs to protect existing investments in these platforms and enable blending of inbound and outbound interactions to agents (reactive blending currently exists with Aspect Signature ACDs and Avaya ACDs).High Availability enhancements with virtualization and telephony redundancy.Increased Security and Compliance with support for multiple active directory and domain environments; security of customer sensitive information in system logs; and the ability to force users to log off for fraud protection or emergency handling. Licensing Flexibility for Hosted Environments to enable Application Service Providers (ASPs) to manage and allocate licenses to each of their customers or tenants. Improved Supportability with streamlined installation and upgrade tools, as well as a site survey application. Migration for Aspect EnsemblePro 5.2 Customers offers a straightforward upgrade from Aspect® EnsemblePro™ 5.2 with data transfer in English.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Aspect, Unified IP, EnsemblePro  and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-10-14T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/Aspect_Launches_Unified_Communications_Services_Practice Aspect Launches Unified Communications Services Practice New Services Help Enterprises Turn the Potential of Unified Communications into Real Business Results 14 Oct 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 14 October 2008 — Aspect, a unified communications and contact center software and services provider, today announced it is launching a new professional services and systems integration practice to assist organizations with planning, implementing and supporting unified communications (UC) products across their enterprises and into their contact centers.  This new practice within Aspect® Professional Services supports the Aspect strategy to provide services and software that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results.In support of the Aspect/Microsoft strategic alliance announced earlier this year, the new UC services practice at Aspect assists organizations in deploying Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) and other Microsoft UC applications from planning through implementation.“With UC continuously evolving, Aspect keenly understands that both IT and business leaders have questions around how and when to deploy it across the enterprise to reap the greatest results,” said Kevin Schwartz, executive vice president of Aspect Global Professional Services.  “Our new services practice is designed to help companies create and execute a logical UC rollout strategy, from basic infrastructure through business process enablement, which will improve enterprise productivity and enhance customer-facing business processes.”UC services capabilities will be delivered by a team of Aspect Professional Services experts who have been trained and certified by Microsoft, and include:UC Strategy, Planning and Architecture services to help organizations identify the right UC opportunities, address potential pitfalls and get the right results.  This includes roadmap development that outlines where and when specific functionality is deployed, and enterprise technical architecture specifications that cover software, security, management and availability requirements.Implementation and Integration services that will help ensure successful implementation of UC technologies and applications by providing services for the design, installation, configurations and testing of Aspect and Microsoft UC products, with expert guidance for navigating obstacles.  Services also include custom application development and integration services to deliver a complete enterprise solution.“Customers globally are embracing software-powered communications as a means to extend the life of existing infrastructure, improve productivity and reduce costs,” said Roger Murff, director of unified communications partner marketing at Microsoft.  “Today’s announcement from Aspect validates the strong customer interest we are seeing and will enable more customers to take advantage of the benefits of unified communications.”Aspect will be taking advantage of many of the capabilities available with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Microsoft’s newest release, including the voice features that support remote and mobile workers, full-featured audio conferencing capabilities and comprehensive developer tools to improve implementation and integration with other applications.  The developer tools are an important part of creating tight integrations between Microsoft Office Communications Server and Aspect® Unified IP™ with the first integration release scheduled for December.“Our alliance with Microsoft, coupled with our 35 years of successfully deploying mission-critical voice applications, makes Aspect unique in its ability to provide OCS implementation and integration services across the enterprise,” added Schwartz.  “We are anxious to show our customers and prospects how UC can improve their operations and how, in doing so, can allow IT to become an even more strategic asset to the business.”Beginning in November, Aspect and Microsoft will be hosting a series of executive forum events for joint customers across the United States and the United Kingdom to discuss the value that unified communications can bring to the enterprise.About Aspect® Global ServicesAspect® Global Services provides comprehensive consulting, technical and educational services to help customers realize the full potential of their unified communications solutions across the enterprise and in the contact center.  The Aspect Global Services team is comprised of highly-trained experts whose sole focus is to drive the greatest returns for customers by enhancing contact center and knowledge worker productivity and streamlining business processes. Aspect Global Services offerings include Aspect® Professional Services, Aspect® Technical Services, Aspect® Education Services.About AspectAspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Aspect, Unified IP, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-10-09T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Asia_Pacific_ACE_Conference_2008 Aspect Software Supports Industry Education and Collaboration at Asia-Pacific Aspect Customer Experience 2008 Microsoft, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Communications China will Present and Share Contact Centre Insight 9 Oct 2008 SINGAPORE, 9 October 2008 – Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact centre, today announced the company is hosting the 2008 Asia Pacific Aspect Customer Experience (ACE) in Beijing, China, October 21 through 24, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Beijing. Aspect will host hundreds of customers, prospects, and partner attendees at the conference, entitled “Live Solutions, Real Experiences.”ACE is a leading international forum to discuss strategies for bringing positive change to the contact centre and addresses topics that affect an organization’s collections, customer service, and sales and telemarketing operations on a daily basis, in particular the increasing importance of the role of unified communications in customer-facing strategies. The annual event attracts executives from small, medium and large enterprises alike seeking ways to balance customers’ demands with the realities of the bottom line, reduce complexity, and maximize their contact centre investments.The focus of APAC- ACE 2008 will be on the value of Unified Communications for the Contact Centre and will include presentations from several Aspect customers and partners. Microsoft Corp., which announced a global strategic alliance with Aspect in March this year, will be sharing insights around the future of unified communications and what it means for the contact centre. Highlights at ACE 2008 include vertical breakout sessions from the financial services and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industries with speakers from The Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Communications China, St. George Bank, and Quatrro BPO Solutions Pvt. Ltd, among others. There will also be a special session in Mandarin that will specifically address business issues in China.“ACE is a forum for contact centre professionals to learn from their colleagues’ challenges and successes, exchange innovative ideas with their peers, and collaborate with industry experts,” said Lui Simhua, senior vice president of Asia Pacific and the Middle East, Aspect Software. “We’re honored to have representatives from a number of leading companies in the Asia Pacific and around the world present at the conference and share their insight with others. Our attendees will be able to walk away with a better understanding of unified communications strategies and customer-facing business processes, and will be able to apply that knowledge in their contact centres for optimized performance and an enhanced customer experience.”ACE 2008 is being sponsored by the following leading companies and industry associations:BT Group China Call-Centre and CRM AssociationContact Centre Association of SingaporeMicrosoft Corp.Strategic Path AsiaTo learn more about the ACE 2008 conference, or to register to attend, please visit http://aspectace2008.com/en/index.htmlAbout Aspect Software  Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Aspect and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2008-10-02T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease_Aspect_Wins_Miercom_Rated_Best_Award Aspect Unified IP Wins Miercom Rated Best Award Aspect Solution Earns Rated Best Award for Best Supervisor and Real-time Monitoring/Reporting Capabilities 2 Oct 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 2 October 2008— Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center, today announced that Aspect® Unified IP™ was recognized with the Best Supervisor and Real-time Monitoring/Reporting Capabilities in the Miercom IP Contact Center Industry Study and Product Test Review. Miercom, a leading, independent product test center, recognized Aspect for advanced administration, recording and monitoring capabilities, and tight integrations to Unified Command and Control™ and PerformanceEdge™.“Aspect Software is delivering the best supervisor, reporting and monitoring capabilities in the contact center market,” said Rob Smithers, chief executive officer, Miercom. “Aspect has demonstrated its deep understanding of call center needs, especially for flexible, cost-effective IP solutions that can help supervisors and managers better monitor productivity and optimize performance. And, through Aspect Unified IP, and complementary technologies within Unified Command and Control and PerformanceEdge, Aspect has delivered these capabilities for both small- to mid-sized businesses and large contact center environments.”Miercom highlighted a number of key differentiators for Aspect Software in its product review:Aspect Unified IP offers unified management and supervisor capabilities through inherent Recording and Quality Management and Unified Command and Control enterprise multi-platform/multi-vendor real-time data aggregator. Aspect does not partner with any other vendors to offer these advanced recording and reporting capabilities.Unified Command and Control is a unique solution that makes it possible for contact centers to centralize reporting, routing, administration, and workflow management in a single console and can operate alone or with disparate systems.PerformanceEdge is a leading performance optimization suite that offers tight integrations to Aspect Unified IP, as well as to other 3rd party ACDs and dialers, to allow contact centers to leverage advanced recording and speech analytics, quality management, performance management, and coaching capabilities.“This recognition from Miercom validates that Aspect Unified IP, along with PerformanceEdge, offers exceptional real-time and historical tools that can help organizations better manage and monitor agents and applications in the call center, and ultimately save money and improve productivity,” said Mike Sheridan, senior vice president of strategy and marketing, Aspect Software. “Really, this award belongs to all of our customers. It is their feedback that has allowed us to build innovative capabilities that differentiate Aspect in the market and give call centers the tools they need for success.”For further information about Miercom's 2008 Contact Center Industry Study please contact reviews@miercom.comAbout MiercomMiercom is a leading, independent product test center with hundreds of its product-comparison analyses published over the years in leading network trade periodicals. Our reports regularly appear in Business Communications Review – NoJitter, Communications News, Internet Telephony, Network World, xchange and other publications.The company, founded in 1988, has pioneered the assessment of networking hardware and software. We employ our own proprietary methodologies for testing products from enterprise class VoIP gateways and IP PBX’s to carrier grade switching equipment. Miercom’s private test services include competitive product analyses as well as individual product evaluations.Miercom features comprehensive certification and test programs including Reliability Assured, Certified Secure™ and Certified Green™. Products may also be evaluated under the NetWORKS As Advertised™ program, in which networking-related products must pass a comprehensive, independent assessment of their usability and performance as compared to advertised specifications.Unified IP product lineArchitected to help organizations execute on their unified communications strategies, the Aspect Software Unified IP™ products are all-in-one, IT-ready solutions that bring extreme flexibility to dynamic organizations. Aspect® Unified IP™ is a session initiation protocol (SIP)–based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) product that unites automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, voice portal, Internet contact, workflow management, multichannel recording and quality management applications in a single software platform. Unified Command and Control™ is a highly scalable product that consolidates administration, reporting and routing across multiple contact center applications and locations. Aspect voice portal applications, deployable as either standalone software or within Aspect Unified IP, empower customers with speech self service while seamlessly extending to live assistance as required.About Aspect Software Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.Note:  Aspect, Unified IP, Unified Command and Control, PerformanceEdge and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.#  #  # text/html 2008-09-19T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/Reibel_Named_General_Counsel Aspect Software Names Senior Vice President and General Counsel David Reibel to Lead the Aspect Software Worldwide Legal Function and Advise on Company Strategy 19 Sept 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 18 September 2008— Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center, today announced the appointment of David Reibel as senior vice president and general counsel. In this role, Reibel will be responsible for Aspect Software worldwide legal activities, including advising senior management and the board of directors on legal transactions, overseeing corporate compliance and governance initiatives, managing mergers, acquisitions and other commercial transactions, as well as providing legal support and insight to the sales, services and partner organizations at Aspect Software. “The software industry is a very exciting place to be due to the constant evolution of products and services, and I welcome the opportunity to share my insights and experiences with Aspect Software,” said Reibel. “Global development and corporate growth are such important factors within businesses today, and I look forward to playing a valuable role within an organization that is at the forefront of unified communications in the call center and across the enterprise.”Reibel brings extensive corporate and technology transaction experience in both the U.S. and overseas. Prior to joining Aspect, Reibel held General Counsel positions at Esprit Telecom, First Telecom, Aprisma Management Technologies and WAY Systems. He has industry experience in telecommunications, software, hardware, financial services and electronic transactions. Earlier in his career, Reibel practiced law with two firms in Washington, DC, worked for a non-profit space institute, and was a legislative aide to a U.S. Congressman. “Aspect operates throughout the world and we have ambitious plans for the future. The challenges from a legal and business perspective are significant and will demand a great deal from our General Counsel,” said Jim Foy, CEO Aspect Software. “David’s leadership skills and vast experience as General Counsel, which includes international experience, as well as his communications and software knowledge, are exactly what we have been looking for to ensure that Aspect Software maintains a strong legal presence globally as it continues to grow.”About Aspect Software Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. Note:  Aspect and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.#  #  # text/html 2008-09-16T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/Tellme_and_Aspect_Announce_Partnership Tellme and Aspect Software to Deliver Innovative Solution To Contact Center Customers Companies Combine Aspect Unified IP and Tellme Voice Self Service to Deliver a New Hybrid Premise- and Network-based Contact Center Solution 16 Sept 2008 ACCE-ANNUAL CALL CENTER EXHIBITION, PHOENIX, AZ– Sept 16, 2008 – Tellme®, a Microsoft® subsidiary, and Aspect Software today announced an agreement to bring together  the Aspect leading unified contact center solution and services with Tellme's proven voice services platform to deliver a flexible, cost effective joint contact center solution.  The agreement between Tellme and Aspect expands on the strategic, multi-year alliance that Aspect and Microsoft made earlier this year to deliver contact center solutions with deeper unified communications capabilities.  Through the agreement with Tellme, Aspect will enhance speed to market of a hybrid solution leveraging a premise-based and network-based contact center offering, helping businesses realize cost savings benefits. The agreement includes a joint roadmap to deliver Tellme's world-class, on-demand voice services platform to US-based customers along with a tight integration with Aspect® Unified IP™.Additionally, Aspect® Professional Services will provide all consulting services across automatic call distributors (ACDs), predictive dialers and interactive voice response (IVR) systems, inclusive of building the Tellme speech applications.  The robust functionality will serve to help companies better manage spikes in volume, ensure business continuity and improve their customer service, collections and sales interactions.“Enterprises spent $875 million for ‘customer care on demand’ (CCOD) in 2007,” observed Dan Miller, Sr. Analyst at Opus Research. “We forecast double digit growth in this category in the coming years as partnerships like Aspect/Tellme make it simpler to leverage premises-based resources with robust capabilities “in the cloud.” This provides enterprises with ways to reduce expenses while maintaining control over the quality of care.”With this partnership, Tellme's caller experience monitoring and reporting capabilities will be integrated into the Aspect Unified IP offering to create the most reliable and seamless solution in the market. The tight integration between Aspect Unified IP and Tellme enables common reporting, routing and administration – giving users a unified view of their contact center operations. “With our Tellme partnership, Aspect is uniquely positioned to help customers manage expenses, while meeting consumer demands, by melding premise and on-demand capabilities together to give contact centers the best of both worlds,” said Mike Sheridan, Senior Vice President of Strategy at Aspect Software.  “This is a great option for organizations that have dynamic requirements, are managing a growing or inconsistent call volume, and need lots of flexibility to deliver a superior customer experience.” "The market is looking for a solution, where a single provider can build, deploy, manage, and monitor their customer experience," said Bob Crissman, General Manager Partner Programs at Tellme. "With this alliance, enterprises now have a one-stop-shop for the traditional contact center scenario as well as new opportunities for voice-driven customer service, such as HR and CRM needs."Tellme’s voice platform is the largest VoiceXML network in the world for phone self-service applications. The platform handles billions of calls every year, providing carrier-grade reliability, best-of-breed speech technologies and flexible capacity for call traffic spikes that make it easier for customers to manage IVR costs.Aspect Unified IP is a session initiation protocol (SIP)-based Voice over IP (VoIP) unified contact center solution that provides automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, voice portal capabilities, Internet contact, workflow management, multichannel recording and quality management to help organizations achieve their customer service, collections and sales and telemarketing business process goals.About Tellme Networks, Inc.Tellme fundamentally improves how people use the phone to get the information they need everyday. By combining web applications and a voice interface, Tellme's services let businesses deliver robust functionality on the phone to the consumers they serve.  People simply say what they want and get it. Some of the services running on Tellme's platform include next generation customer self- service, logistics/supply chain, healthcare services, financial services and ordering for some of  the largest companies in the world. Today Tellme powers billions of calls every year and is used by more than 40 million people every month. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., Tellme is a Microsoft subsidiary.About Aspect Software  Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions help two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100 and a variety of small and medium enterprises to communications-enable their customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.Note:  Aspect, Unified IP and Aspect Software are registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks or trade names are the property of their respective owners. text/html 2008-09-10T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/Peak5_Uses_PerformanceEdge_Workforce_Management Peak5 Improves Overall Customer Satisfaction and Contact Center Productivity with PerformanceEdge Contact Center Reduced Call Abandonment from 10 to Three Percent with PerformanceEdge - Aspect eWorkforce Management 10 Sept 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 10 September 2008 – The PerformanceEdge Group of Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center, today announced that Peak5, a privately held loan servicing provider, has reduced call abandonment from 10 to three percent and improved overall customer satisfaction by implementing PerformanceEdge workforce management in its contact center.“Loan servicing is a competitive industry where customer care and collections initiatives are critical to success. Aspect understands this and has helped us manage our contact center for improved productivity and job satisfaction.  Aspect eWorkforce Management has made a huge impact throughout our contact center,” said Bill Heep, Assistant Vice President of Loan Servicing at Peak5. “Everything has been working smoothly, down to the agent training on the new applications, which only takes a short half-day, as well as the follow-on service.”Peak5 is utilizing the capabilities of Aspect eWorkforce Management and the Empower and Perform enhancement packages to help their multiskill and multichannel contact centers accurately plan, manage and optimize performance. The company also is leveraging the Real-Time Adherence capability of the solution to help contact center managers and supervisors monitor agents’ schedule adherence in real time. In addition, with PerformanceEdge, Peak5 is automating the schedule change and notification process, enabling agents to view their work schedules and easily request shift changes, vacations, and other schedule adjustments.“Workforce management applications can make a big difference in an organization’s customer service and its overall business processes.  The results that Peak5 has seen are a great example of the value that workforce management can provide,” said Bob Kelly, Vice President of the PerformanceEdge Group at Aspect Software. “We look forward to continuing to support Peak5’s efforts and business objectives by providing enhanced capabilities and services that will make a positive impact on the bottom line and provide its customers with a truly unique experience.”Read the case study for more information about Peak5’s implementation of PerformanceEdge – Aspect eWorkforce Management.About Peak5Headquartered in Centennial, CO and currently employing approximately 250 talented associates, Peak5™ provides flexible and dynamic third-party receivable management solutions for the financial, health care, student loan, and credit card industries including loan servicing, collections, payment processing, and remarketing. Industry experience, coupled with state-of-the-art technology, credit and behavioral scoring models, portfolio reporting methods, and other client tools deliver the leadership and support clients desire for the management of their portfolios. For more information about Peak5™, visit www.peak5.com.About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge combines workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to enable organizations to holistically respond to changing business conditions. The PerformanceEdge applications dynamically interoperate to help contact center managers consider everything and act immediately, ultimately making it easier for inbound, outbound and blended contact centers to control costs, enhance service levels and align performance with strategic goals. For more information, visit www.performanceedgesuite.com.About Aspect Software  Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. #  #  #Aspect, PerformanceEdge, eWorkforce Management  and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners text/html 2008-08-19T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/Aspect_Software_Names_SVP_Corporate_Development Aspect Software Names Senior Vice President of Corporate Development Andy Bezaitis Appointment to Drive Strategic Partnerships and Explore Acquisition Candidates 19 Aug 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 19 August 2008— Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center, today announced the appointment of Andy Bezaitis as senior vice president of corporate development. In this role, Bezaitis’ responsibilities will include driving partnerships with strategic players and exploring and evaluating potential acquisition candidates. A key objective will be identifying opportunities to further enhance the Aspect Software Unified Communications for the Contact Center™ strategy.“Aspect Software is the market leader in the contact center space and has a successful history of strengthening its core offerings through key technology partnerships and strategic acquisitions,” said Bezaitis. “This is a great opportunity to help continue this successful track record and enable the company to focus on enhancing its unified communications for the contact center strategy. Furthermore, our strategic alliance with Microsoft has created tremendous energy and possibilities for Aspect.”Bezaitis brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in business development and communications technology to Aspect Software. Most recently, Bezaitis was the senior vice president of business development at Cantata Technology. While there, he led ongoing business development and strategic partner initiatives, and also established relationships with industry-leading organizations in the carrier and enterprise markets.  Bezaitis has served as founder and chief executive officer of Apopleo, Inc. as well as founder and chief executive officer of Cambia Networks. He has also held senior management positions at 3COM Corporation, Motorola, Inc., and IIT Research Institute.“Andy has demonstrated an ability for building organizations from inception through the growth phase, which will be a tremendous asset to the Aspect development strategy,” said Jim Foy, chief executive officer, Aspect Software. “His experience will play an integral role in the success of the company’s future unified communications for the contact center strategy by ensuring that Aspect is able to offer the most complete set of solutions and services that will allow customers to achieve their critical customer interaction objectives.”  Bezaitis has authored several wireless data networking white papers, frequently speaks at industry trade events and regularly provides commentary to key industry publications and journals. Bezaitis has also been awarded nine United States patents for various technologies, including mobile Internet protocol (IP), point-to-point protocol (PPP) connection, wireless networking authentication, and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).About Aspect Software Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Note:   Aspect, Unified Communications for the Contact  Center, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2008-08-14T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease8_14_08b Aspect Software Names Executive Vice President of Global Professional Services Kevin Schwartz to Focus on Delivering Global Best Practices and Building New Services Offerings 14 Aug 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 14 August 2008— Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, today announced the appointment of Kevin Schwartz as executive vice president of global professional services. In this role, Schwartz’s responsibilities will include providing global executive leadership and direction for the Aspect® Professional Services organization, which supports customers with the services, skills and resources to successfully integrate, tailor, deploy and optimize Aspect products.Schwartz is also responsible for building a professional services and systems integration practice for Microsoft’s unified communications software that is a significant part of the Aspect Software Unified Communications for the Contact Center strategy. The initial objective of the new unified communications services practice is to help customers deploy, customize and manage Office Communications Server in contact centers and throughout organizations for software-powered voice, instant messaging, presence and conferencing.“It is exciting to be joining a leading team at a time where the products and services that Aspect Software offers, particularly related to unified communications, can create such a competitive edge for the companies that use them. The Aspect unified communications services practice is going to be an important enabler to helping companies achieve their UC strategies,” said Schwartz. “Plus, as more and more companies implement contact centers in multiple locations around the globe, it’s important to develop a services organization that can offer a global perspective on the contact center industry while delivering best practices based on specific regional requirements.  These two initiatives are paramount for me in this new role.”Schwartz brings exceptional leadership experience in management consulting to Aspect. Prior to joining Aspect, Schwartz worked for Experian as senior vice president and general manager of their Integrated Marketing Services business unit, where his responsibilities ranged from strategic planning to day-to-day operations, as well as for transforming the business unit from having a pure product focus to being focused on delivering business value and insights to the customer base. Before working at Experian, Schwartz had 21 years of management consulting experience with large professional services firms including Capgemini, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Andersen Consulting.  In addition to his client, practice, and operations executive roles, Schwartz focused for more than a decade on helping companies from strategy through implementation of complex Customer Relationship Management capabilities.“Professional services is an extremely important part of the Aspect Software growth strategy and plays a significant role in ensuring that our customers are able to meet their own critical business objectives,” said Jim Foy, CEO, Aspect Software.  “We want to demonstrate to customers and prospects that we understand their overarching goals, and that we are very clearly focused on providing the highest levels of service.  Kevin’s senior leadership experience and broad-based operations knowledge across multiple industries provides the exact skills that we need to strongly execute on our strategy.”About Aspect Software Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.Note:  Aspect, Unified Communications for the Contact Center, Aspect Professional Services, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. #  #  #  text/html 2008-08-05T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease8_5_08 Aspect Software Receives 2008 North American Product Line Strategy Award from Frost & Sullivan Award Recognizes Aspect Software for Thought Leadership with Microsoft Alliance and Innovative Unified Communications for the Contact Center Strategy 5 Aug 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 5 August 2008 –Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, today announced it has been recognized with the 2008 North American Product Line Strategy Award from Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, for its leadership in the North American Inbound Contact Center Routing Market. Frost & Sullivan is recognizing Aspect with this award for thought leadership by a vendor in helping companies understand the benefits of unified communications when combined with customer interactions by launching a far-reaching and highly innovative Unified Communications for the Contact Center strategy. By combining its Aspect® Unified IP™ solution with unified communications applications from Microsoft, it is providing enterprises with the tools necessary to enhance customer experiences, keep costs in check and to help generate additional revenues.”It is becoming more evident that unified communications is going to help drive the need for unified contact center solutions.  The completeness of Aspect Unified IP, in terms of the sheer volume of capabilities available on a single, software platform, is what will allow organizations to leverage all of the functionality that a sound unified communications strategy will demand,” explains Frost & Sullivan senior analyst Keith Dawson. “Essentially, a unified solution will make it easier for organizations to streamline their customer-facing business processes and extend them logically beyond the traditional boundaries of the contact center into the enterprise.”The Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Line Strategy Leadership is presented each year to a company that has demonstrated the most insight into customer needs and product demands. The recipient company has optimized its product line by leveraging products with the various price, performance and feature points required by the market.Specifically, the award recognizes Aspect Software for excelling in its ability to:  • Introduce new products strategically positioned to balance the product line  • Accommodate different market segments  • Enhance its products offerings through optimization of service, delivery,  financing and other value-added services  • Successfully manage strategic technology or marketing acquisitions and alliances.”With its latest game-changing deal [with Microsoft] and product line strategy, Aspect may have even topped its mega-merger for sheer impact,” continues Frost & Sullivan’s Dawson.  “Clearly looking to take a leadership role in helping companies understand the benefits of unified communications in customer interactions organizations, the company launched a far-reaching and highly innovative Unified Communications for the Contact Center strategy. And while the contact center market has experienced several bumps over the past five years, Aspect Software has always been a company clearly unafraid of upsetting the status quo in that market.”“This is a powerful endorsement of the Aspect Software strategy and recognition that our unified approach is the way that contact centers and organizations can provide a customer experience that truly exceeds consumer demands,” said Mike Sheridan, senior vice president of strategy and marketing, Aspect Software. “This recognition also helps reinforce our belief that the contact center must be a key element in every organization’s unified communications strategy – that it supplies the applications, the best practices, and the processes to enable an exceptional customer experience, regardless of where that interaction is taking place within the organization.”About the Unified IP product lineArchitected to help organizations execute on their unified communications strategies, the Aspect Software Unified IP™ products are all-in-one, IT-ready solutions that bring extreme flexibility to dynamic organizations. Aspect® Unified IP™ is a session initiation protocol (SIP)–based voice over IP (VoIP) product that unites automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, voice portal, Internet contact, workflow management, multichannel recording and quality management applications in a single software platform. Unified Command and Control™ is a highly scalable product that consolidates administration, reporting and routing across multiple contact center applications and locations. Aspect voice portal applications, deployable as either standalone software or within Aspect Unified IP, empower customers with speech self service while seamlessly extending to live assistance as required.About Frost & SullivanFrost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership™ empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Partnerships, visit http://www.awards.frost.com.About Aspect Software  Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. #  #  #Aspect, Unified Communication for the Contact Center, Unified IP, Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-07-31T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease7_31_08_PerformanceEdge_Workforce_Management_Market_Leadership_Award PerformanceEdge Receives 2008 EMEA Contact Center Workforce Management Frost & Sullivan Award for Market Leadership Award Recognizes Aspect Software for its Four Consecutive Years of Strong Strategy and Innovation 31 Jul 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 31 July 2008 – The PerformanceEdge Group of Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, today announced it has been recognized with the 2008 EMEA Contact Center Workforce Management Award for Market Leadership from Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company. The award acknowledges Aspect Software as the leading vendor in the EMEA workforce management space for contact centers, with a market share that, according to Frost & Sullivan, is significantly ahead of its competition. The Frost & Sullivan Award is given to the company that has exhibited market share leadership through the successful implementation of market strategies. Aspect Software has been recognized specifically for its capabilities in expanding its PerformanceEdge software footprint to bring other agent-facing tools into the mix, while also maintaining focus on developing and strengthening its core solutions, such as PerformanceEdge – Aspect® eWorkforce Management™. In addition, the PerformanceEdge Group was also recognized for successfully addressing significant localization challenges with its solutions to address local language and labor law requirements.”In today’s economy, companies all over the world are looking to optimize all areas of operations, especially in the contact center,” explains Frost & Sullivan senior analyst Keith Dawson. “Aspect Software continues to gain a competitive advantage in the EMEA region, implementing superior market strategies that recognize the particular challenges of that region – stringent local labor regulations, as well as a very complex contact center environment in EMEA.  By creating applications that directly address those issues, Aspect is creating a market leading differentiator.”The criteria used by Frost & Sullivan to determine the 2008 EMEA Contact Center Workforce Management Award for Market Leadership recipient include:• Market Share• Revenue Growth Rates• Profitability• Market and Technology Innovation“Companies in the EMEA market are looking for advanced performance optimization solutions to help them do more with fewer resources and that also meet their specific local needs,” says Bob Kelly, vice president of the PerformanceEdge Group, Aspect Software. “Having Frost & Sullivan consistently recognize our leadership in the workforce management market over the last several years is very important to Aspect Software.  This award is another proof point that companies around the world have truly begun to recognize the value of PerformanceEdge and its innovative workforce management capabilities.”The Frost & Sullivan Market Leadership award adds to the list of accolades for PerformanceEdge workforce management capabilities.  In 2008, the solution has garnered awards for both Aspect and its customers:• International Cruise & Excursions (ICE) won the 2008 Workforce Management Professional of the Year Award from the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP) and the CRM Magazine Service Elite award for successful workforce planning and the implementation of PerformanceEdge™ workforce management capabilities. • Virgin Airlines won the 1to1 Impact Award for customer service initiatives assisted by the PerformanceEdge solution. • Aspect was recognized by CRM Magazine with a Service Leaders Award in the workforce optimization category.About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge combines workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to enable organizations to holistically respond to changing business conditions. The PerformanceEdge applications dynamically interoperate to help contact center managers consider everything and act immediately, ultimately making it easier for inbound, outbound and blended contact centers to control costs, enhance service levels and align performance with strategic goals. For more information, visit www.performanceedgesuite.com.About Frost & SullivanFrost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership™ empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Partnerships, visit http://www.awards.frost.com.About Aspect Software Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. #  #  #Aspect, PerformanceEdge, eWorkforce Management and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-07-29T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease7_29_08_eLearning PerformanceEdge from Aspect Software Offers Enhanced eLearning and Hiring Capabilities to Improve Agent Development and Reduce Attrition Contact Centers to Benefit from Improved Agent Retention and Performance with Advanced eLearning and Job Match Capabilities 29 Jul 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 29 July 2008 - The PerformanceEdge Group of Aspect Software, the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, today announced that it will be offering PerformanceEdge™ eLearning and PerformanceEdge Job Match, which enables contact centers to improve agent recruitment, retention, and training processes along with overall contact center productivity. With these new eLearning and hiring capabilities, PerformanceEdge provides customers the most complete depth and breadth of contact center performance optimization capabilities on the market. The capability is provided through a partnership with Knowlagent, the leading provider of on-demand call center agent performance improvement tools.PerformanceEdge eLearning is designed to improve training and coaching by delivering the right content at the right time to agents and supervisors. PerformanceEdge Job Match is a Web-based job screening application specifically designed for the call center that helps companies assess candidates against the critical job requirements and provides them with the opportunity to assess their own fit. The result is fewer “false starts“, therefore reducing attrition and improving overall performance.“Agent attrition is one of the most prevalent problems that contact centers face today. Hiring and training new agents is a costly and time-consuming process,” said Robert Kelly, vice president of the PerformanceEdge Group. “With PerformanceEdge Job Match and PerformanceEdge eLearning, contact center managers now have sophisticated hiring and training options to better address these challenges. These capabilities will help our customers overcome the difficult task of lowering hiring costs and improving agent retention and skills, ultimately enabling their contact centers to deliver improved customer service, collections and sales.”PerformanceEdge eLearning and PerformanceEdge Job Match capabilities will be delivered via the Web as a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering from Aspect Software beginning August 2008. This simplifies distribution, reduces costs and implementation time, lowers professional services fees, and eliminates annual software maintenance fees and hardware costs. This is the first time Aspect is directly providing hosted services to customers via the Internet.“Aspect is clearly reinforcing its commitment to agent training and contact center optimization with the PerformanceEdge eLearning and Job Match offering,” said Paul Stockford, president and chief analyst at Saddletree Research. “The eLearning market will continue to grow in the near future as companies look for ways to streamline the process of hiring and training knowledgeable contact center agents. By delivering the application via SaaS, Aspect is making eLearning capabilities easily accessible to its customers and speeding the adoption process of this essential performance optimization application.”Finding the Time for Agent Training Through eLearningPerformanceEdge eLearning integrates with automatic call distribution (ACD) and workforce management systems to deliver learning sessions without impacting ACD service levels. It monitors the levels of required ACD metrics, and can prevent or interrupt learning sessions in real-time as well as update the PerformanceEdge workforce management application, Aspect® eWorkforce Management™, indicating whether training was delivered. In addition, PerformanceEdge eLearning offers customized pre-packaged courses to meet specific training needs, aid deployment and speed ROI. Specialized content learning bundles include Agent Productivity Improvements, Sales Optimization, and an upcoming Collections Skills course. The benefits of PerformanceEdge eLearning include:• Improved agent performance management through delivery of targeted eLearning sessions.• Reduced training time and costs.• Certification and compliance with key business initiatives.PerformanceEdge eLearning will offer product integrations to Aspect® eWorkforce Management™, Aspect® CallCenter® ACD and Aspect® Spectrum® ACD. Integrations with Aspect® Unified IP™ will be delivered in a subsequent release.Transforming the Hiring Process with Job MatchPerformanceEdge™ Job Match provides applicant screening capabilities that improve the agent selection and hiring process by identifying candidates with the best aptitudes and skills to increase recruiting efficiency, reduce attrition and improve new hire productivity. With its complete process and tool set, PerformanceEdge Job Match automates key steps of the selection process to eliminate wasted time screening and interviewing unqualified candidates, so you can hire the right agents from the start.PerformanceEdge Job Match creates models that reflect unique job activities and business needs and provides applicants with a realistic overview of the position and its associated tasks. Skills, personality and voice fit are assessed to determine if candidates are capable of performing job-specific behaviors. Benefits to users include:• Increased agent retention and productivity.• Decreased new hire attrition and hiring costs incurred by screening and interviewing unqualified candidates.• Streamlined and automated hiring process.• Improved time to proficiency.About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge combines workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to enable organizations to holistically respond to changing business conditions. The PerformanceEdge applications dynamically interoperate to contact center managers consider everything and act immediately, ultimately making it easier for inbound, outbound and blended contact centers to control costs, enhance service levels and align performance with strategic goals. For more information, visit www.performanceedgesuite.com.About Aspect Software  Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. #  #  #Aspect, PerformanceEdge, eWorkforce Management, Aspect CallCenter, Aspect Spectrum, Unified IP, Unified Communications for the Contact Center and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-07-09T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/BlueNote_Networks_Acquired_by_Aspect Aspect Software Acquires BlueNote Networks Acquisition Furthers Company's Unified Communications for the Contact Center Strategy 9 July 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass. – 9 July 2008 – Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, today announced it has acquired substantially all of the assets of BlueNote Networks based in Tewksbury, Mass.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition furthers the company’s recently announced unified communications for the contact center strategy with the addition of IT-ready, software-based products that communications-enable business processes (CEBP).  Leveraging the BlueNote Networks technology, Aspect Software customers will now be able to extend session initiation protocol (SIP)-based voice, video and other real-time interactive communication services to enterprise users as an integral part of a service oriented architecture (SOA).Gartner defines CEBP as the ability to enable “communications functions to be directly and tightly integrated with the IT systems and applications that individuals may be working with at any time.” In its March announcement, Aspect said that unified communications for the contact center streamlines and enhances customer-facing business processes by providing organizations with complete visibility and control. In addition, it enables businesses to seamlessly extend those processes beyond the traditional boundaries of the contact center to reach knowledge workers or subject matter experts in the enterprise in order to enhance collaboration.“The addition of BlueNote Networks’ intellectual property allows Aspect to further enhance the way our customers implement their unified communications for the contact center strategies, whether they do service, sales or collections,” said Jim Foy, CEO, Aspect Software. “They will be able to seamlessly communications-enable their processes and make these interactive, multichannel capabilities easily available to contact center agents and knowledge workers alike to help companies enhance the customer experience they deliver, increase their first call resolution rates and improve their overall productivity.”Aspect can now deliver the features, services and tools necessary for building and deploying real-time interactive communications as Web services in an enterprise applications architecture. By combining the features of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) with Web services, organizations will be able to drive innovation in the contact center and across the enterprise while radically lowering the cost and complexity of their voice, video and data services. Specifically, Aspect customers and prospects will now be able to:Quickly and easily incorporate SIP-based interactive multichannel communications into their contact centers and internal and customer-facing business processes using industry-standard interfaces and technology.Leverage existing IT and telephony application investments and development resources to build and deploy communications-enabled business applications and lay the foundation for enabling globally-reachable communication services and integrated workflow applications.Michael Regan, a co-founder and vice president of engineering of BlueNote Networks, joins Aspect as vice president of Unified IP development. Regan has 20 years of professional experience at leading communications companies and has delivered complex voice and data networking products to market for large enterprises and public service providers.“I am thrilled to be joining Aspect in the midst of its strategy to inform the market about how unified communications for the contact center can really transform the way companies interact with their customers,” said Regan. “The position that Aspect has taken on the topic of UC is unique and really sets the company apart from its competitors. I am looking forward to being part of this team and helping Aspect customers and prospects navigate the path to a successful unified communications for the contact center implementation.”About Aspect SoftwareAspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Aspect, Unified Communications for the Contact Center and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-06-17T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease6_17_08 Aspect Software Solution Gets High Marks for Hosted Contact Center Offering Aspect Unified IP Garners Strong Customer Satisfaction Scores in the DMG Consulting 2008 Hosted Contact Center Infrastructure Report 17 Jun 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 17 June 2008 - Aspect Software, the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, today announced its Aspect® Unified IP™ solution received a strong overall customer satisfaction rating in the 2008 Hosted Contact Center Infrastructure Report from DMG Consulting LLC, a market research firm specializing in contact centers and real-time analytics. Customers surveyed in the report gave Aspect Unified IP an overall hosted solution satisfaction rating of 4.33 on a five-point scale, based on their entire experience with Aspect Software. The company also received the highest scores in hosted solution product satisfaction with a score of 4.67, demonstrating that customers were highly satisfied with the features and functionality of Aspect Unified IP.Aspect Unified IP offers multi-tenancy capabilities, enabling companies to take advantage of the secure partitioning and session initiation protocol (SIP)-based voice over IP (VoIP) applications that support software as a service (SaaS) models to provide hosted contact center functionality to internal and external customers.DMG1 defines a hosted contact center solution as “a multi-tenant, multi-channel, inbound/outbound routing and queuing solution for contact centers that is owned and managed by a vendor and made available to the user/tenant over the Internet.”“The hosted contact center infrastructure market has grown slowly since 2004, but the increased adoption of VoIP and significant pressure within companies to reduce operation expenses, has led to more interest in hosted offerings,” said Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting LLC. “In today’s economy, many companies are looking for ways to lower contact center costs while continuing to provide an outstanding customer experience. As the U.S. economy slows, more companies are expected to turn to hosted solutions to help them achieve their goals.  DMG Consulting predicts that by the end of 2011, 30 percent to 35 percent of all new contact center seats will be hosted.”The 2008 report detailed some of the strengths of the Aspect Unified IP hosted solution including a functionally rich hosted solution, comprehensive call recording and a flexible scripting tool. The report also highlighted the solution’s reporting and security features, as well as the agent and supervisor capabilities.  “Our hosted contact center customers have been enjoying the flexibility and the benefits of a unified approach and they’re seeing the value that it is bringing to their end-users,” said Serge Hyppolite, director of interaction product management, Aspect Software. “Aspect Unified IP delivers all the capabilities they need to reduce complexity and improve their customer service, sales and collections business processes and this has been underscored by our rankings in this report.”Aspect Unified IP is a SIP-based VoIP product that unites full-featured automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, voice portal, Internet contact, workflow management, multichannel recording and quality management applications in a single software platform, giving business and IT more choice and control. 1DMG Consulting LLC. “2008 Hosted Contact Center Infrastructure Report”, April 2008. Donna Fluss.About Aspect Software Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.Aspect, Unified IP, Unified Communications for the Contact Center and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. #  #  # text/html 2008-06-10T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease6_10_08 Aspect Unified IP from Aspect Software Named 2008 American Business Awards Finalist All-in-one, IT-Ready Contact Center Solution Among Good Company in Computer Software Category Competing for "Business World's Own Oscars" 10 Jun 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 10 June 2008—Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, has been named a 2008 American Business Award finalist in the computer software category for Aspect® Unified IP™  as the Best New Product or Service.“This nomination reflects our ongoing commitment to delivering innovative solutions that are changing the way companies interact with their customers,” said Jim Foy, president and chief executive officer, Aspect Software. “This being the third year in a row that Aspect has been honored as either an American Business Awards winner or finalist underscores that the technology industry is recognizing Aspect for providing products that bring real and measurable value to contact centers and organizations.”Aspect Unified IP is a session initiation protocol (SIP)-based voice over IP (VoIP) product that unites full-featured automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, voice portal, Internet contact, workflow management, multichannel recording and quality management applications in a single software platform, giving business and IT optimal choice and control.  Aspect combines unified communications applications with contact center technologies, like Aspect Unified IP, to help companies streamline and enhance customer-facing business processes and enable them to seamlessly extend those processes beyond the contact center.The American Business Awards are the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business. The award is nicknamed “Stevie” for the Greek word “crowned.” Stevie Award winners will be announced during the annual gala on Thursday, 12 June 2008 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.  More than 600 executives from across the U.S.A. are expected to attend.  The ceremonies will be broadcast on the radio nationwide by the Business TalkRadio Network and hosted by Liz Claman of FOX Business Network.In 2007, Aspect Software won the American Business Award for the PerformanceEdge™ workforce management capabilities delivered by Aspect® eWorkforce Management™ 7.0, for Best New Product or Service in the computer software category. Aspect eWorkforce Management helps managers maximize service and minimize the costs of a contact center’s operations with strategic planning, scheduling and forecasting tools that automate tasks and enhance productivity.Members of the Awards' Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors and their staffs select Stevie Award winners from among finalists in final judging during the week of 19 May.  Finalists are chosen by business professionals nationwide during preliminary judging that takes place April through early May.Details about the American Business Awards and the list of finalists in all categories are available at www.stevieawards.com/aba.About The Stevie AwardsStevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, The Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  Honoring companies of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide.  Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.About Aspect Software  Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. Note:  Aspect, Unified IP, PerformanceEdge, eWorkforce Management, Unified Communications for the Contact Center and Aspect Software are registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks or trade names are the property of their respective owners. #  #  # text/html 2008-06-09T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease6_9_08 Aspect Software Named as Finalist in 2008 Techworld Awards Aspect&#174 Unified IP&#8482 Recognised Among Top UK VoIP Convergence Products for 2008 9 Jun 2008 STOCKLEY PARK, London, 9 June 2008 - Aspect Software, Inc., the world's largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, today announced that Aspect® Unified IP™, an all-in-one IT-ready contact center solution, is a finalist in the ‘VoIP/Convergence Product of the Year’ category of the 2008 Techworld Awards.Each award finalist is selected based on product specifications, pricing, customer testimonials, and the technology capabilities, including technical performance and innovative features that differentiate the product from the competition. Judging is carried out by an independent panel of industry luminaries together with the editorial board of Techworld.com.  The category winner will be announced at the 2008 Techworld Awards dinner at the indigO2 club at the O2 Arena in London on 11 June 2008.“Aspect Software is committed to educating companies on the value of IP in the contact center and how taking a unified approach with a product like Aspect Unified IP will enable them to improve performance, enhance agent productivity, reduce costs and deliver a better customer experience,” said David West, senior vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, Aspect Software.  “Voice over IP will play a key role in growing telephony and technology trends such as Web services, unified communications, and Software as a Service (SaaS), and Aspect is clearly helping companies incorporate these technologies into their business strategies with IT-ready, all-in-one, SIP-based solutions. This nomination validates that the industry and our customers are seeing the tangible benefits that our unified platform can deliver.” Aspect Unified IP is a session initiation protocol (SIP)-based voice over IP (VoIP) unified contact centre solution that provides automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialling, voice portal capabilities, Internet contact, workflow management, multichannel recording and quality management to help organisations achieve their customer service, collections and sales and telemarketing business process goals.The 2008 Techworld Awards cover 24 separate categories from Security Software Product of the Year to Mobile Application Product of the Year and IT Department of the Year.  Backed by the resources of IDG Communications, the largest IT publishing company, the Techworld Web site provides articles on technology, product reviews, how-to pieces and the latest news on networking products.  Techworld's editors combine a wide experience of technology with in-depth knowledge of the networking marketplace.About Aspect SoftwareAspect Software Inc. founded the contact centre industry and is now the world's largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact centre. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. Aspect, Unified IP, Unified Communications for the Contact Center and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. #  #  #  text/html 2008-06-05T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease6_3_08b Aspect Software and Touchpoint Associates Provide Frontline Leadership Skills Training Through New Management Impact Program Training Program for Frontline Contact Center Managers Helps PerformanceEdge Customers Improve Agent Performance, Reduce Turnover and Increase Customer Satisfaction 5 Jun 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 5 June 2008 — Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, the company’s PerformanceEdge Group, and Touchpoint Associates, Inc., contact center consultants and industry thought leaders, today announced the availability of a new service focused on improving the skills of the contact center frontline manager – the Management Impact Program from Aspect® Professional Services.  The Management Impact Program combines consulting, classroom training, one-on-one coaching and PerformanceEdge™ workforce management and quality management tool utilization to give frontline contact center managers the skills they need to become more effective leaders and positively impact agent performance, contact center efficiency and customer satisfaction.“Frontline managers play a crucial role in the success of agent/customer interactions, yet they are faced with a number of difficult business challenges, including keeping agent morale high, minimizing turnover and keeping costs down,” said Bob Furniss, president of Touchpoint Associates. “Through the Management Impact Program, managers and supervisors will learn how to address these challenges and will gain a deeper understanding of their contact center operations with a focus on leadership, coaching, time management and how to use their PerformanceEdge solutions to support these efforts.  With the right management techniques and technology, frontline leaders can significantly impact the bottom-line success of the entire organization and create a key differentiator for their business in the marketplace.”The Management Impact Program is based on highly successful courses developed by Furniss that have strengthened hundreds of frontline contact center managers’ skill sets over the last five years.  Training is conducted by Touchpoint Associates consultants with extensive contact center, coaching and people management expertise, as well as Aspect® eWorkforce Management™ and Aspect® Quality Management™ technology training. The initial program offering has been tailored specifically for Aspect eWorkforce Management and Aspect Quality Management customers while future versions of the offering will incorporate training for Aspect® Unified IP™ and other Aspect Software solutions.“Every company has unique challenges and objectives with their customer-facing initiatives and this new program is designed to help our PerformanceEdge customers optimize their performance in all facets of the contact center, in an environment tailored to their specific needs and requirements,” said Clare Anderson, vice president, Aspect Professional Services.  “By offering the Management Impact Program with Touchpoint Associates, we deliver our combined expertise and deep understanding of the contact center and its processes to PerformanceEdge customers, providing opportunities for frontline managers to learn important leadership skills and better utilize the extensive capabilities and functionality that these solutions provide.  As a result, PerformanceEdge customers will see even greater benefits and value from their performance optimization investments.”One of the three branches of Aspect® Global Services, Aspect Professional Services offers a team of industry experts that work closely with contact center customers to understand their unique needs and provide expert analysis and recommendations, customized application development services, and implementation services that help companies maximize their contact center investments.  The Aspect Professional Services team includes a dedicated group of contact center professionals with performance optimization technical, process and application subject matter expertise that help customers leverage their infrastructure investments to maximize their optimization potential.About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge combines workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to enable organizations to holistically respond to changing business conditions. The PerformanceEdge applications dynamically interoperate to help contact center managers consider everything and act immediately. Inbound, outbound and blended contact centers can now more easily control costs, enhance service levels, align performance with strategic goals, and extend those benefits into the enterprise. For more information, visit www.performanceedgesuite.com.About Touchpoint AssociatesTouchpoint Associates, Inc. offers a wide array of consulting services to help companies improve the Customer Experience. The company was founded in 2003 by industry thought-leader Bob Furniss with a specific focus on improving the greatest resource in the company – the people. Touchpoint consultants have worked with some of the top companies in the world and offer real-life experience in the areas of leadership and people management. For more information, visit www.touchpointassociates.com.About Aspect SoftwareAspect Software, Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. Aspect, Unified Communications for the Contact Center, PerformanceEdge, eWorkforce Management, Aspect Quality Management, Unified IP, and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.#  #  # text/html 2008-06-03T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease6_3_08 Aspect Software Furthers Its Commitment to SIP Interoperability with AireSpring AireSpring SIP Trunking Enables Aspect Customers to Lower Routing and Deployment Costs and Leverage Standards-based IP Telephony Platforms 3 Jun 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 3 June 2008 — Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, and AireSpring, multiple award-winning provider of telecommunications services, today announced successful interoperability between Aspect Software session initiation protocol (SIP)-based solutions and SIP Trunking products from AireSpring.By utilizing and interoperating with AireSpring’s SIP Trunking suite of products, Aspect Software can route calls directly to SIP-based voice over IP (VoIP) contact center products, like Aspect® Unified IP™.  SIP Trunking helps organizations cut international and interstate call costs, while at the same time increasing call quality and reducing points of failure.“In today’s economy, many companies are looking for ways to cut costs and make operations more efficient, and they are recognizing the value of SIP-based platforms in reducing routing charges and integration costs,” said Daniel Lonstein, chief operating officer for AireSpring. “By interoperating the AireSpring SIP Trunking products with Aspect solutions, contact centers can see potential cost savings of up to 40 percent over traditional platform routing.  That means a much faster return on the typical hardware investment and the opportunity to focus more resources on the kinds of customer-facing processes that create more profitable client bases.”Interoperability testing is one of the many steps Aspect Software is taking to underscore its support of SIP and other industry standards to help educate companies about the value of standards-based solutions in the contact center industry. The success with AireSpring further validates the company’s commitment to its SIP Power Through Choice program, which issued a challenge to the contact center industry to adopt SIP interoperability policies.  This provides users and business partners with the confidence to use SIP 2.0 compliant devices and software. For more on the Aspect SIP Interoperability Policy and Guarantee, visit http://www.aspect.com/Solutions/ForIT/SIPPowerThroughChoice.html.“AireSpring clearly understands the telecom needs of both contact centers and large enterprises and the value that end-to-end SIP connectivity can bring to contact centers,” said Mike Sheridan, senior vice president of strategy and marketing, Aspect Software.  “Anything that we can do to help our customers reduce their costs is important to us and SIP Trunking is a clear way we can support those strategies. The demonstrated interoperability with AireSpring’s SIP Trunking capabilities further demonstrates that Aspect Software SIP-enabled solutions are IT-ready, can easily fit into any enterprise architecture and help eliminate IT complexity.”Aspect Unified IP is a SIP-based VoIP product that unites full-featured automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, voice portal, Internet contact, workflow management, multichannel recording and quality management applications in a single software platform, giving business and IT more choice and control.  AireSpring SIP Trunking was designed from the ground up as an enterprise-class product to support businesses with high intensity traffic such as call centers and predictive applications. About AireSpringHeadquartered in Los Angeles, award winning AireSpring is one of the fastest growing telecommunications carriers in the USA, with over 3 billion call records processed per year. AireSpring is a privately held, 100% debt free, diversified and full service communications company offering a broad range of innovative services at competitive prices to corporate and residential customers nationwide. AireSpring’s new Dynamic X, a dynamically allocated integrated voice and data solution and its market-leading long distance and data products, provide companies with tailored services that are powerful and cost-effective.  Information about AireSpring’s SIP products can be found at www.airespring.com/sip.  AireSpring has been voted, by its peers in the Telecom Association, as the “Members Choice” top reseller for three consecutive years (2006-8). To date, Airespring has set the record for more Telecom Association awards (11) than any other carrier/reseller. For more information, visit www.airespring.com. Interested telecom agents can contact VP Agent Sales Lanny Eule at lanny@airespring.com or call 866-925-9803 ext. 229About Aspect SoftwareAspect Software, Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.Aspect.com. #  #  # Aspect, Unified IP, Unified Communications for the Contact Center and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-05-15T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease5_15_08 PerformanceEdge from Aspect Software Leads Contact Center Performance Management Market in Customer Satisfaction 2008 Contact Center Performance Management Report from DMG Consulting Shows High Customer Satisfaction Score and 16 Percent Market Share for PerformanceEdge 15 May 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 15 May 2008 - The PerformanceEdge Group of Aspect Software, the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, today announced it has the highest customer satisfaction rating for contact center performance management solutions in the 2008 Contact Center Performance Management Report from DMG Consulting LLC, a market research firm specializing in contact centers and real-time analytics. Customers surveyed in the report gave Aspect Software an overall vendor satisfaction rating of 4.67 on a five-point scale.  In addition, based on contact center seats, Aspect holds a significant share of the performance management market at 16 percent.Performance management is the process of systematically using data for business improvement by integrating data from disparate sources, distributing highly personalized information to every employee in the operation, empowering individuals to make better fact-based decisions and then taking the best action to drive results. According to DMG1, these solutions are “intended to deliver actionable recommendations that help enterprises improve the customer experience, increase sales, improve productivity, reduce costs and agent attrition, as well as enhance the perception of the contact center within the enterprise.”“Aspect received a high score of 4.67 out of 5.0 in the ‘Overall Vendor Satisfaction’ category, tying with another company for best overall performance in the developing contact center performance management market. The ‘overall’ category evaluates all aspects of the relationship between customers and the vendor,” said Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting LLC. “The contact center performance management market grew at a rate of 79 percent from 2006 to 2007.  We expect the demand for these applications to be even higher in 2008 as contact centers continue to experience concrete results, including improved agent productivity, lower costs and an enhanced customer experience.”The report reviewed the three core performance management solutions from Aspect:The performance management capability of PerformanceEdge™ - Aspect® Performance Management™ - provides out-of- the-box flexible analysis and reporting capabilities that enable contact centers to uncover reasons for performance shortfalls, increase agent performance with coaching for continuous process improvement and reduce complexity and costs through integration.The workforce management capability of PerformanceEdge - Aspect® eWorkforce Management™- Analyze II enhancement package - includes a coaching form, dashboards and out-of-the-box key performance indicators (KPIs). Unified Command and Control™-Reporting gathers and consolidates information from one or more contact centers, providing a consistent enterprise-level view of agent and operational performance, utilizing standard real-time canvases or by creating a customized real-time view.“Performance management is still an emerging market in contact centers, and more of our customers are starting to adopt these solutions and see dramatic results, such as improved productivity and enhanced customer interactions,” said Robert Kelly, vice president, PerformanceEdge Group. “As more companies see the value in systematically using data for business process improvement, we will continue leading the market by developing performance management solutions that consolidate and synchronize contact center data and deliver improved business results. With this report, DMG Consulting validates that our performance management offerings are providing the capabilities our customers need to make better fact-based decisions and drive results in the contact center.“In addition, companies using performance management coupled with a synchronized suite of performance optimization applications are finding even greater results,” Kelly added. “Performance management can dynamically interoperate with coaching and eLearning, workforce management, campaign management and quality management solutions to transform metrics and data into improved forecasts, schedules, analyzed calls, alerts and trend analysis information.”1DMG Consulting LLC. “2008 Contact Center Performance Management Report”, April 2008. Donna Fluss.About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge combines workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to enable organizations to holistically respond to changing business conditions. The PerformanceEdge applications dynamically interoperate to help contact center managers consider everything and act immediately, ultimately making it easier for inbound, outbound and blended contact centers to control costs, enhance service levels and align performance with strategic goals. For more information, visit www.performanceedgesuite.com.About Aspect Software  Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. #  #  #Aspect, PerformanceEdge, Aspect Performance Management, eWorkforce Management, Unified Command and Control, Unified Communications for the Contact Center and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.  text/html 2008-05-13T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease5_13_08 Corsidian to Offer Unified Solution from Aspect Software in Latin America and the Caribbean Aspect Partner to Sell the Latest Version of the All-in-one, IT-ready, Aspect Unified IP Platform to Help Companies Improve the Customer Experience 13 May 2008 MEXICO CITY -- 13 May 2008 – Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, announced that Corsidian, its regional partner and a leading contact center technology provider, is offering the latest version of Aspect Unified IP, an all-in-one, IT-ready contact center solution, in the Latin America region. This software was specifically created to unify multiple contact center capabilities in a single software platform and allow clients to use additional functionality as needed.“At Corsidian, we focus on offering the most innovative solutions to the contact center market and the best ROI to help maximize our client’s experience”, said Alejandro Suárez, chief operating officer, Corsidian. “Therefore, we believe that offering a platform such as Aspect Unified IP will make history in the Latin American contact center industry, due to the product’s functionality and the robustness of the solution. Aspect Unified IP enables contact centers to manage, improve and automate collections, customer service and telemarketing while maintaining low administration costs, integration and maintenance, and improving customer-company interactions.“Leveraging its extensive experience in the contact center space and the technology industry, Corsidian will support the Aspect Software unified approach by offering Aspect Unified IP in the Latin American and Caribbean regions. The company is exclusively focused on assisting contact centers in technology selection and implementation and understands companies’ needs for robust and reliable contact center solutions.“Corsidian has been very successful to date selling Aspect solutions to some of the largest banking and telecom institutions in Latin America,” said Paul Bullett, vice president, Caribbean and Latin America region, Aspect Software. “Aspect and Corsidian believe that by offering an all-in-one, unified solution, we will help these companies further reduce the complexity of managing the contact center, speed investment returns, and improve the experience these companies deliver to customers.”Aspect Unified IP is a session initiation protocol (SIP)-based voice over IP (VoIP) product that unites full-featured automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, voice portal, Internet contact, workflow management, multichannel recording and quality management applications in a single software platform, giving business and IT optimal choice and control.Corsidian has immediate availability of Aspect Unified IP. If you need more information, please contact info@corsidian.comAbout CorsidianCorsidian is one of the leading providers of the contact center solutions industry. We have the experience and the personnel to assist our clients in the creation of contact solutions that help them acquire new clients while increasing the loyalty and the satisfaction of their current client base. Our more than ten years’ experience, as well as our installed solution base for contact centers vouch our commitment with our clients, offering them a specific strategy to improve their results and operations.  www.corsidian.comAbout Aspect SoftwareAspect Software, Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world's largest company focused solely on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions help two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100 and a variety of small and medium enterprises to communications-enable their customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. # # # Aspect, Unified IP, Unified Communications for the Contact Center and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.    text/html 2008-05-05T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease5_5_08c PerformanceEdge Offers Enhanced Recording and Quality Management with Latest Product Release Aspect® Quality Management™ 2.8.1 Includes Integrations into Aspect® Unified IP™ and Voice over IP (VoIP) Recording for Aspect® CallCenter® ACD 5 May 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 5 May 2008 - The PerformanceEdge Group of Aspect Software, the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, today announced the general availability of Aspect Quality Management 2.8.1, which provides the recording and quality management capabilities of PerformanceEdge™.  This release offers tight integrations to Aspect Unified IP, VoIP recording for Aspect CallCenter ACD, and enables Aspect customers to reap the benefits of advanced recording and quality management using a session initiation protocol (SIP)-based VoIP or a time-division multiplexing (TDM) telephony platform.Aspect Quality Management 2.8.1 includes a connector that enables the product to record voices and screens of agents using Aspect Unified IP 6.5 and higher. This helps companies achieve full-time call logging, rules-based recording driven by specific business criteria, or on-demand ad hoc recording of specific interactions.  Recordings are then made available for playback and evaluation via the Aspect Quality Management interface. In addition, Aspect Quality Management now supports VoIP-based recording for the Aspect CallCenter ACD 9.1, including full-time call recording and logging on SIP trunks and phones.“Quality management and recording capabilities have already provided contact centers with measurable improvements to their overall customer experiences, as well as aided in regulatory compliance,” said Paul Stockford, president and chief analyst at Saddletree Research.  “It will play an equally key role for every organization’s unified communications strategy.  With this enhancement to PerformanceEdge, Aspect Software is continuing to demonstrate innovation in the performance optimization space by extending screen recording to other key applications that are used in managing customer interactions, and by aligning their solutions with market demands and key contact center strategies.”With this release, Aspect customers can gain greater insight into their company-customer interactions by taking advantage of a standards-based, feature-rich, single recording solution for multi-platform environments, while maintaining their existing contact center infrastructures.“In today’s tough economy, it is rare to see a company that isn’t trying to do more with fewer resources in every area of business.  We believe these enhancements to Aspect Quality Management give our customers an advantage by helping them obtain more detailed information from their existing technology applications,” said Robert Kelly, vice president, PerformanceEdge Group.  “Since more companies are looking to implement SIP-based VoIP contact center solutions, these organizations will need quality management tools to record and monitor calls, within the contact center and also for calls that extend out to experts within the enterprise.  Because it can provide those capabilities, PerformanceEdge quality management is ideal for every contact center, and particularly compelling for companies looking to develop a unified communications for the contact center strategy.  Customers will be able to better pinpoint areas for improvement in agent productivity and business processes, as well as optimize their customer interactions and increase customer loyalty.”  About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge combines workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to enable organizations to holistically respond to changing business conditions.  The PerformanceEdge applications dynamically interoperate to help contact center managers consider everything and act immediately, ultimately making it easier for inbound, outbound and blended contact centers to control costs, enhance service levels and align performance with strategic goals.  For more information, visit www.performanceedgesuite.com.About Aspect Software  Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center.  Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100.  For more information, visit www.aspect.com. #  #  # Aspect, PerformanceEdge, Aspect Quality Management, Unified IP, CallCenter ACD, Unified Communications for the Contact Center and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries.  The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-04-16T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease4_16_08 CallMiner and Aspect Software Empower Evanston Northwestern Healthcare to Enhance Overall Patient Care, Improve Productivity and Ensure Compliance Organization Chooses CallMiner's Speech Analytics and Aspect Unified IP to Record, Monitor and Analyze Contact Center Calls 16 Apr 2008 Fort Myers, Fla. and Chelmsford, Mass. – April 16, 2008 – CallMiner, the leader in advanced speech analytics, and Aspect Software, the world’s largest company focused solely on unified communications for the contact center, today announce that Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH), an integrated system of hospitals and a 500-physician medical group, will be deploying Aspect® Unified IP™ coupled with CallMiner Eureka. The implementation of Aspect’s unified contact center platform that offers automatic call distributor (ACD), voice portal, dialer, quality management, and unified reporting, routing and administration capabilities, and CallMiner’s sophisticated speech analytics functionality, will enable the organization to greatly enhance overall patient care.The ENH contact center, which supports more than 50 clinical departments and physician locations where it can route calls, is key to helping the organization differentiate itself in a competitive market. By automatically recording, monitoring and analyzing every call, the health system can apply the knowledge learned from patient conversations to improve the quality of customer service and patient care.“Chicago is a very competitive market where patients have vast healthcare choices,” said Fran Horner, senior director of patient access for Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, “So we know we need to differentiate ourselves when it comes to patient care and service. We decided to integrate CallMiner Eureka with our existing Aspect Unified IP platform so we could create a very detailed view of our patient processes and determine how well our agents and processes are performing for the customer. Together, the solutions will let us better serve our patients by improving contact center productivity and ensuring that we are handling each call in the most sensitive and beneficial manner while maintaining compliance with healthcare regulations, which is critical to us in the overall care we are delivering to patients.”Integrating Aspect Unified IP with Eureka provides ENH with an all-inclusive contact center platform that reduces complexity and improves the patient experience. Now, the organization can better understand why patients are calling and see how well agents are handling those calls, while ensuring reduced risk and HIPPA compliance. “Our customers are becoming increasingly interested in how unified solutions and speech analytics can enhance their business processes,” said Serge Hyppolite, director of product management, Aspect Software. “Evanston Northwestern Healthcare has been using our unified solution for years and has seen the benefits first-hand. By coupling robust contact center capabilities with a comprehensive speech analytics solution, the organization will be able to enhance their services and deliver tangible value to their patients.” “CallMiner’s speech analytics technology will help Evanston Northwestern Healthcare differentiate itself because it will now have access to the ‘true’ voice of its patients,” said Jeff Gallino, CTO, chairman and co-founder for CallMiner. “Eureka automatically captures and analyzes all details from every contact center call so the organization can apply that knowledge to improve customer service and agent quality. By utilizing both Aspect Unified IP and Eureka, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare will be able to further discover areas for coaching and training, helping the organization realize tangible productivity improvements very quickly in a competitive environment.”About Evanston Northwestern HealthcareLocated in Chicago’s northern suburbs, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH) is an integrated healthcare system that includes Evanston, Glenbrook and Highland Park Hospitals, ENH Medical Group (comprising 68 medical offices and facilities), ENH Home Services, ENH Research Institute and ENH Foundation.Through its affiliation with Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, ENH supports extensive medical education and research programs. ENH is in the top nine percent of all institutions that receive funding from the National Institutes of Health, and ranks 9th in the nation among multi-specialty independent research hospitals.Evanston Northwestern Healthcare has been named as one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals® and the only Illinois hospital ranked as a Top 15 Major Teaching Hospital by Thomson Healthcare®, a leading source of healthcare information products. This is the 12th time ENH has received this recognition — the most times of any healthcare system in the country.ENH is also recognized as a leader for implementing technology and improving processes to advance the safety and quality of patient care. Hospitals and Health Networks magazine recently named ENH one of the “Most Wired” healthcare organizations in the nation. For more information on Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, visit http://www.enh.org.About CallMinerCallMiner is the leader in advanced speech analytics.  Eureka, the company’s flagship product, is the only speech analytics solution that automatically and accurately discovers the content, context and purpose of an entire conversation and of every call, enabling companies to understand why customers call and how agents respond.  With this knowledge, CallMiner customers are able to significantly improve customer service, enhance agent quality, increase sales and impact marketing effectiveness. For more information, please contact CallMiner at (239) 689-6463 or visit www.callminer.com.About Aspect SoftwareAspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.Aspect, Unified IP, Unified Communications for the Contact Center and Aspect Software are trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc. in the United States and other countries. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.# # # text/html 2008-04-15T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease4_15_08 Aspect Software Receives Unified Communications Magazine's 2007 Product of the Year Award Aspect® Unified IP™ Recognized for Its Ability to Enable Unified Communications for the Contact Center™ 15 Apr 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 15 April 2008 — Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center, has received Unified Communications Magazine’s 2007 Product of the Year Award for Aspect Unified IP,  an all-in-one, IT-ready solution that powers the company’s Unified Communications for the Contact Center strategy. Aspect Unified IP unites full-featured automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, voice portal, Internet contact, workflow management, multichannel recording and quality management applications in a single software platform.“Aspect Software believes that organizations of all shapes and sizes need a unified communications strategy that takes the front lines of customer contact into account,” said Mike Sheridan, senior vice president of strategy and marketing, Aspect Software. “In fact, the contact center should be the starting point for any organization’s unified communications strategy. The Aspect unified approach for helping companies implement a unified communications strategy is being validated with the Product of the Year Award for the value and benefits that it can bring to companies and their customers.” The 2007 Unified Communications Product of the Year Awards distinguish those companies that have developed ground-breaking advancements in UC technologies in the past year. Aspect Unified IP was recognized for delivering all the capabilities to extend the contact center into the enterprise, helping organizations reduce the time it takes to get calls to knowledge workers, to record those calls for quality of service, and provide reports to gauge the success of each interaction.Aspect Software supports unified communications for the contact center strategies with current versions of Aspect Unified IP, a comprehensive session initiation protocol (SIP)-based voice over IP (VoIP) unified contact center solution, and PerformanceEdge™, the industry’s first complete contact center optimization suite. The company will also release new versions of Aspect Unified IP and PerformanceEdge to deliver interoperability with unified communications software products including Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 to enhance collaboration between the enterprise and the contact center. “Aspect Software has proven it is committed to quality and excellence while addressing real needs in the marketplace.  Unified Communications is pleased to grant a 2007 Product of the Year Award to Aspect Unified IP,” said Rich Tehrani, TMC President and Editor-in-Chief of Unified Communications Magazine. “We’re proud to honor the company’s hard work and accomplishments and look forward to more innovative solutions from Aspect Software in the future.”The recognition from Unified Communications Magazine came the same week that Aspect Software and Microsoft announced a global strategic alliance to bring unified communications (UC) to the contact center.For more information on Unified Communications for the Contact Center, visit www.aspectcometogether.com. For more information on the Aspect-Microsoft alliance, please visit http://www.aspect.com/About/OurPartners/Microsoft.About Aspect SoftwareAspect Software, Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.Aspect.com. #  #  # Aspect, Unified IP, PerformanceEdge, Unified Communications for the Contact Center™ and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-04-10T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease4_10_08 Aspect Software PerformanceEdge Customer Wins 2008 SWPP Workforce Management Professional of the Year Award Adelina Petrov of International Cruise & Excursions is Lauded for Leadership and Endorsement of Workforce Management Strategies 10 Apr 2008 CHELMSFORD, Mass., 10 April 2008— The PerformanceEdge Group of Aspect Software, the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center, today announced that its customer, Adelina Petrov, director of sales and operations analysis at International Cruise & Excursions (ICE), has won the 2008 Workforce Management Professional of the Year Award from the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP). Petrov won the award for successful workforce planning and the implementation of PerformanceEdge™ workforce management capabilities.The Workforce Management Professional of the Year Award recognizes a workforce management professional who has shown outstanding leadership in the industry. Petrov received the honor at the 2008 SWPP Annual Conference on March 27, 2008 in Nashville, Tenn.Petrov made it a top priority to educate the business and financial decision makers at ICE on the value of workforce management strategies and tools, detailing how measuring and improving workforce metrics would translate into reduced costs and increased revenue. Her efforts resulted in the implementation of Aspect® eWorkforce Management™ with its Analyze II performance management package, enabling the company to improve productivity and save $2.5 million dollars in the first year.“PerformanceEdge has received several industry awards, yet it is an even greater pleasure to see our customer praised by the industry for having the foresight to recognize that a robust workforce management tool and a solid performance optimization strategy are necessary to achieve higher revenue, lower costs, and ultimately improve customer satisfaction,” said Bob Kelly, vice president, PerformanceEdge Group at Aspect Software. “Advanced forecasting, scheduling as well as agent empowerment and performance management are critical to every contact center’s optimization strategy. Adelina and the ICE contact center demonstrate that this strategy works and results in improved business results with an excellent return on investment.”About SWPPThe Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP) is an organization devoted to facilitating education and networking opportunities among workforce planners across all industries. Membership in SWPP is available to all workforce planning professionals and other interested parties from consulting and vendor organizations. Both individual memberships and corporate membership options are available, with full benefits and costs outlined on the organization’s website at www.swpp.org.About PerformanceEdgePerformanceEdge combines workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and eLearning to enable organizations to holistically respond to changing business conditions. The PerformanceEdge applications dynamically interoperate to help contact center managers consider everything and act immediately. Inbound, outbound and blended contact centers can now more easily control costs, enhance service levels, align performance with strategic goals, and extend those benefits into the enterprise. For more information, visit www.performanceedgesuite.com.About Aspect Software  Aspect Software, Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.#  #  #Aspect, PerformanceEdge, eWorkforce Management and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. text/html 2008-04-08T07:00:00+01:00 Aspect http://www.aspect.com/newsitems/NewsRelease4_8_08 CallMiner and Aspect Software Awarded Contract by Daimler Financial Services Americas to Improve Contact Center Operations Speech Analytics Solution Integrated with PerformanceEdge? Recording and Quality Monitoring Will Help Increase Sales, Decrease Costs and Enhance Compliance 08 Apr 2008 Fort Myers, Fla. and Chelmsford, Mass. – April 8, 2008 – CallMiner, the leader in advanced speech analytics, and the PerformanceEdge Group of Aspect Software, the world’s largest company focused solely on unified communications for the contact center, have been chosen by Daimler Financial Services Americas to monitor the quality, content, context, intention and outcome of  contact center conversations. Implementation is scheduled to begin mid-Q2 2008 with an estimated go-live date of mid-Q3 2008.Daimler Financial Services’ Mercedes-Benz Financial business unit provides financing for Mercedes-Benz dealers and their customers. In the U.S. trucking industry, its Daimler Truck Financial finances commercial vehicles including Freightliner, Sterling and Western Star for dealers and their customers.“We chose CallMiner and Aspect® Quality Management™ because their solutions delivered the best method of improving the result of every contact center conversation,” said Wes Bumgarner, collections and customer service manager of Daimler Financial Services Americas.“This intelligence will enable us to operate more efficiently across all aspects of our business while maximizing opportunities to increase revenues,” said Paul Morack of ITM and Telecommunications at Daimler Financial Services Americas.CallMiner Eureka! provides sophisticated speech analytics and the Aspect Quality Management piece of PerformanceEdge provides Daimler Financial Services with 100 percent call recording, quality monitoring and workforce coaching capabilities. Together, the platform allows Daimler Financial Services to accurately capture and analyze every conversation between its contact center agents and customers, enabling Daimler Financial Services to decrease collections write-offs and ensure agent compliance with scripted language for liability purposes.“Speech analytics coupled with quality management applications can bring real and measurable value to Daimler Financial Services,” said Jeff Gallino, CallMiner CTO, chairman and co-founder. “The goal of implementing CallMiner Eureka! and Aspect’s PerformanceEdge is to help the company to gain productivity improvements.”“We are providing Daimler Financial Services with the best possible applications to record, analyze and evaluate agent performance and capture real-time customer feedback, giving them insight to deliver a repeatable, best-in-class experience every time,” said Brian Derr, vice president of quality management solutions for Aspect Software. About Daimler Financial Services Americas (DFSA USA LLC)Daimler Financial Services Americas (DFSA USA LLC) provides brand-specific financing for Mercedes-Benz automotive dealers’ inventories and their retail customers, and conducts business in the United States luxury car market as Mercedes-Benz Financial. In the U.S. trucking industry, Daimler Financial Services Americas conducts business as Daimler Truck Financial and finances Daimler commercial vehicle products such as Freightliner, Sterling and Western Star for dealers and their customers in the fleet, vocational, municipal and owner/operator segments. Daimler Financial Services Americas serves as the headquarters for operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, and has approximately 1,600 employees. Daimler Financial Services Americas is a company of the Daimler Financial Services Group, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, which operates in nearly 40 countries with an employee base of close to 6,800.  Daimler Financial Services is one of the leading financial services organizations worldwide. About CallMinerCallMiner is the leader in advanced speech analytics solutions.  CallMiner Eureka!, the company’s flagship product, is the only speech analytics solution that automatically and accurately discovers the content, context and purpose of the entire conversation and of every call, enabling companies to understand why customers call and how agents respond.  With this knowledge CallMiner customers are able to significantly improve customer service, enhance agent quality, increase sales and impact marketing effectiveness.  CallMiner, founded in 2002, is headquartered in Southwest Florida with leading institutional investors that include Inflexion Partners, Intersouth Partners, Sigma Partners, Village Ventures, and In-Q-Tel.  For more information, please contact CallMiner at (239) 689-6463 or visit www.callminer.com.About Aspect Software  Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.Aspect.com.Aspect, Aspect Quality Management and Aspect Software are trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc. in the United States and other countries. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. # # #