Sound Advantage Takes New Name

FOOTHILL RANCH, CA - Sound Advantage LLC announced the restructuring and renaming of the company to Applied Voice and Speech Technologies Inc. (AVST), reflecting the company's expanded focus on bringing to market the core technologies required for effective and powerful unified communications solutions. Concurrent with the name change, the company announced that it had completed the acquisition of the CallXpress® voicemail and unified messaging product line from Captaris Inc. (NASDAQ: CAPA) and that it is preparing to launch its next-generation speech application, Seneca™ in the fourth quarter of 2003. "The renaming of our company to AVST and the acquisition of the CallXpress product line marks a major milestone in company's history," said Hardy Myers, president of Sound Advantage. "The synergy that exists between CallXpress and our proven speech-enabled technology provides us with an unparalleled unified communications solution for businesses of all sizes." The CallXpress acquisition is part of the company's strategic business plan to expand both its technology offerings and customer base. The acquisition includes the retention of key products, technology, employees, office facilities in Bellevue, Wash., and an engineering lab for research and development activities. "We plan to leverage the expertise of the CallXpress and Sound Advantage engineering teams to integrate CallXpress with our next generation speech-enabled application, Seneca," said Myers. "The combined solution will provide superior voicemail, unified messaging, unified communications and speech technology to our current and prospective customers."