Artisoft Breaks Price Performance Barrier With TeleVantage 4.0 and Comprehensive Call Center Solution.

Business/Technology Editors

ICCM 2001

Booth 1319

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 30, 2001

Feature-Rich Call Center Capabilities Priced at $250 per Seat To

Address Mid-Market Needs

Artisoft Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFT), developer of the first software-based phone system, today announced a robust new call center offering in conjunction with the fourth-generation release of its flagship TeleVantage software PBX. TeleVantage Call Center offers a sophisticated feature set that was previously out of reach for most small- to medium-sized businesses, including advanced queue routing, comprehensive trend reports, real-time statistic tracking, remote IP agent support, and agent monitoring, coaching and recording.

In addition to these call center capabilities, TeleVantage 4.0 provides intelligent desktop call control and management, rules-based call handling, graphical voice mail, comprehensive messaging, automated attendant, Web browser access, and IP telephony. Industry-standard APIs enable development of customized applications and tight integration with database systems such as customer relationship management applications.

Optimizing Call Center Performance

According to Gartner Group, more than 900,000 call center agent seats were sold in North America during 2000, and the middle market is expected to experience the strongest growth in system shipments moving forward. "Call centers in this segment are looking for platforms that provide interoperability, feature flexibility, and strong price performance," said Drew Kraus, Principal Analyst at Gartner Group. "Many forward-thinking businesses are recognizing the potential of converged voice and data applications and are looking for solutions to maximize revenues and enhance the customer experience."

Small and medium-sized businesses can benefit from TeleVantage features including:

-- Advanced call routing that delivers calls to the longest idle agent, the least busy agent, or the agent with fewest calls; algorithms can also route calls top-down, round robin, or to all agents simultaneously

-- Skills-based call routing with the ability to route to tiers of overflow agents when all primary agents are busy

-- Multiple-view display of live queue and agent statistics by period, shift and day; statistics can be monitored anywhere on the LAN, over the Web, or by telephone

-- Powerful supervision features for training and managing agents, including silent monitoring, coaching, or joining in on calls

-- Automatic call recording per queue or agent for quality assurance and historical analysis

-- Seamless support for remote PSTN or IP agents to enable "virtual" call centers staffed by contract or remote workers

-- Adjustable, data-driven call priority to support calls from premier customers

-- Graphical system administration for "point-and-click" design of queues, including different music or hold prompts depending on the queue, and per-agent and per-queue settings for permissions and agent wrap-up time

-- Flexible queue design with the ability to prompt callers to enter customer information while in queue

-- Comprehensive reporting for summary and trend analysis of agent and queue performance and overall system utilization

-- Hands-free answering for headset and speakerphone users

-- Open application programming interface (API) to enable

third-party development of IVR and CRM integration, including API access to caller-entered data such as customer or incident numbers

"Artisoft has delivered the intelligence of TeleVantage to the call center," said beta customer and Artisoft reseller John Gagliardi of GTI Solutions in Auburn, Mich. "We run our entire business on this system, and we know our customers will respond well to its elegant after-hours call routing, unified messaging, IVR plug-ins, and drag-and-drop ease of use. Especially appealing is the price -- an entry point any business can afford as it grows its phone applications."

TeleVantage supports up to 96 trunks and 264 user stations in small- to medium-sized offices and branch locations, including international and multi-site locations. TeleVantage Call Center support of agent capacities is based on traffic requirements of incoming PSTN and IP trunks.

New Features in TeleVantage 4.0 Emphasize Productivity and Ease of Use

In addition to the new TeleVantage Call Center, Artisoft announced the availability of its TeleVantage 4.0 phone system. New features include the ability to drag and drop one item onto another item to make a call, transfer a call, or add a call to a conference; bookmark key portions of voice messages; and define powerful call rules to route all calls intelligently. Custom personal statuses such as "at client site" keep colleagues aware of each user's availability and define call routing and greeting behavior. New workgroup capabilities boost productivity for businesses organized into departments or teams.

According to Carol Meier, vice president of marketing at Artisoft, "Today's small- to medium-sized company has never enjoyed such a range of features at such an affordable price. With TeleVantage 4.0, we are offering a high-value platform that provides an immediate return on our customers' investment, as well as greater flexibility for customization and integration with their existing systems."

TeleVantage operates on Microsoft Windows(R) 2000/NT servers, industry-standard Intel communications hardware, and any H.323, ADSI, or CLASS feature phone. By employing open standards, TeleVantage enables small- to medium-sized businesses to scale up to a variety of applications, from unified messaging to industry-specific CRM.

Artisoft will be demonstrating TeleVantage 4.0 and TeleVantage Call Center in Booth 1319 at the ICCM Conference and Exposition to be held at The Lakeside Center at McCormick Place in Chicago, July 31-August 2. TeleVantage 4.0 and TeleVantage Call Center are available from Artisoft's worldwide network of dealers and value-added resellers. A fully configured TeleVantage 4.0 phone system is available starting at $500 per end user including software licenses, telephony boards, and server. End users can also choose from a variety of phones and service options available from their reseller. TeleVantage Call Center licenses are available for an additional $250 per agent MSRP.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

This release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are the impact of competitive products and pricing, product demand and market acceptance risks, the presence of competitors with greater financial resources, product development and commercialization risks, costs associated with integration and administration of acquired operations, capacity and supply constraints or difficulties, the results of financing efforts and other factors detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q.

Artisoft and TeleVantage are registered trademarks of Artisoft, Inc. All other company and product names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.