Aspect Announces Aspect IP Contact Suite-Enterprise

SAN JOSE, CA - Aspect Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: ASPT), the provider of enterprise customer contact solutions, announced Aspect IP Contact Suite—Enterprise, the customer contact suite that integrates to the enterprise through PSTN and IP telephony products and simplifies CTI with Web services. Aspect IP Contact Suite—Enterprise delivers on the vision and promise of the initial release. With Aspect solutions, potentially any employee at any location in banking, retail, health care and business services firms can take customer contacts, expanding customer service capabilities. Companies benefit by expanding the number of possible agents without increasing headcount. By supporting leading PSTN and IP telephony systems and providing Web services, Aspect IP Contact Suite—Enterprise delivers convenience and freedom of choice in choosing telephony platforms and integrating with any enterprise application. Over time, CRM applications such as mySAP can be quickly integrated through Web services. Shurgard Storage Centers Inc. ("Shurgard"), which operates a network of more than 545 storage centers in the United States and Europe, has been using the current release of Aspect IP Contact Suite to improve customer service and increase operational efficiency. Shurgard plans to use Aspect IP Contact Suite—Enterprise to meet the challenges of providing quality service at hundreds of locations around the clock by enabling employees from outside the traditional call center to handle customer inquiries, making the best use of resources and providing customers with fast service. "Through IPCS—Enterprise we are able to easily migrate from our traditional Aspect call center to IP telephony thereby extending customer contacts to employees in every location supported by IP-PBXs of our choice," said Richard Robinson, of Shurgard. "The Aspect IP Contact Suite—Enterprise has changed the idea of the contact center at Shurgard. By taking advantage of VoIP, we've extended the capabilities of the contact center to a large number of employees, drastically expanding the pool of qualified people who can provide customer service." "Microsoft is very excited to be working with Aspect to deliver the next-generation contact center solutions and technology utilizing .NET and Web services," said Sanjay Parthasarathy, Microsoft's vice president for .NET Strategy and Partner Group. "Combining .NET and Web Services with Aspect's IP Contact Suite will enable enterprise customers to create more agile, connected and successful businesses." The Aspect IP Contact Suite—Enterprise key features include: -Support for leading traditional and IP PBX vendors including CISCO, Avaya, Nortel, 3COM, Siemens, Rockwell and Shoreline. -Web services enabled through industry standards including SOAP, WSDL and Microsoft .NET Connected Premium Certified. -Integration with PSTN, hybrid and pure IP network platforms. -Full multichannel contact center including IP and PSTN IVR support through VXML. "Aspect is the leader in bringing .NET Web services to the IP contact center," said Gary Barnett, Aspect's chief technology officer. "As Web services become more popular, Aspect customers will be the first to benefit from easier integrations. At the same time, Aspect is bringing unprecedented improvements in efficiency and customer satisfaction by potentially extending the contact center to every employee in a company." Aspect is .NET Connected Premium Certified. Aspect IP Contact Suite—Enterprise v2.0 will be generally available in the first quarter of 2003.