$6.2 million boost for new phone technology; Weiss, Peck & Greer leads new round of investment in Xantel Corporation.PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 15, 1997--Xantel Corporation today announced a $6.2 million vote of confidence for its newly developed Xantel Connex(TM) telephone technology from several of the nation's premier venture capital funds Venture Capital Funds An investment fund that manages money from investors seeking private equity stakes in small and medium-size enterprises with strong growth potential. Notes: . Weiss, Peck & Greer has joined a consortium of earlier investors including Benchmark Capital Benchmark Capital is a venture capital firm responsible for the early stage funding of some very successful startups, including eBay. In 1995, the firm invested $6.7 million in eBay, which became worth more than $5 billion by the spring of 1999 and resulted in one of Silicon Partners, St. Paul St. Paul as a missionary he fearlessly confronts the “perils of waters, of robbers, in the city, in the wilderness.” [N.T.: II Cor. 11:26] See : Bravery Venture Capital and One Liberty Ventures to lead this second-round $6.2 million investment in the company's new approach to computer-telephone integration (CTI (Computer Telephone Integration) Combining data with voice systems in order to enhance telephone services. For example, automatic number identification (ANI) allows a caller's records to be retrieved from the database while the call is routed to the appropriate party. ) -- bringing total investment in Xantel Connex(TM) to over $12 million. Blurring the Line Between Telephones and Computers The Company's new technology, called Xantel Connex CTI, is a next generation system that marries Windows NT (Windows New Technology) A 32-bit operating system from Microsoft for Intel x86 CPUs. NT is the core technology in Windows 2000 and Windows XP (see Windows). Available in separate client and server versions, it includes built-in networking and preemptive multitasking. computer technology with existing business telephone systems. The result is an immediate upgrade and migration path for any closed, proprietary business telephone systems to an open-architecture system running on a true client/server network (1) A communications network that uses dedicated servers. In this context, the term is used to contrast it with a peer-to-peer network, which allows any client to also be a server. (2) A network that is processing applications designed for client/server architecture. . This means any company can now create an extremely high performance solution for positive caller identification, priority call management, distant routing and delivery. More importantly, running on an open architecture, client/server network means Xantel Connex also provides seamless connections to remote cell phones, PC-based desktop FAX systems and even Internet connections -- all controlled and monitored from desktop PCs. Connex CTI: Moving Customer Care to the Next Level Terry Gustafson, Xantel's CFO See Chief Financial Officer. , characterized the investment as a solid vote of confidence from the investment community for the new technology and the start of an entirely new way of doing business: "This investment represents a pistol shot The discharge of a pistol The distance to which a pistol can propel a ball. See also: Pistol Pistol signalling the start of a race to an entirely new class of customer-centric business systems. "Two of the most powerful influences in modern business: the telephone and the computer, have converged with Xantel Connex," said Gustafson. "The result is an entirely new class of products that will literally collapse the electronic distance between a business and its customers," he concluded. Next Steps -- Rapid Globalization globalization Process by which the experience of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, is becoming standardized around the world. Factors that have contributed to globalization include increasingly sophisticated communications and transportation The primary use of the investment will be to fund the launch and development of Xantel Connex markets worldwide. The funding comes on the heels of a recent agreement between Xantel and Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, Japan's largest telecommunications giant. The agreement will introduce Xantel's multimedia call management technology to Japan for the first time, and set the stage for similar introductions into South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , Europe and the Far East. "The demand-pull for multimedia CTI technology is tremendous. For the first time businesses can realize the promise of marrying the power of the computer with the reach of the world's telephone networks in a single, fully integrated product," said Peter Buswell, Xantel's V.P. of Marketing. "Xantel Connex provides an entirely new level of customer-care for telephone centric business units, workgroups and casual call centers." -0- Note To Editors: For more information, including a comprehensive backgrounder and industry whitepaper available on Zip Disk, please contact rdudley@sirius.com . CONTACT: Xantel Corporation Peter Buswell, 602/437-6405 pbuswell@xantel.com or R. M. Dudley Corporation Roy Dudley, 415/991-9500 rdudley@sirius.com |
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