Ascendent Systems Accelerates Staff Communications and Response at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; Solutions Provider Enables True Voice Mobility and Fixed-Mobile Convergence for Key Staff at Leading California Hospital.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- To maintain real-time communications to critical staff and employees, the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles chose leading voice mobility provider Ascendent Systems to implement a voice mobility solution that enables users to be reached anywhere and anytime. Ascendent's PowerConnect voice mobility solution was integrated into the hospital's existing telephony infrastructure to deliver key functionality to wireless devices heavily relied upon by nurses, doctors, clinicians, and staff.

"The constantly mobile environment of a hospital demands immediate staff accessibility, dependable wireless connectivity, and high call quality for our staff who are traveling from building to building, both on and off our campus," said Furley Lumpkin, Director of EIS/Telecommunications at Cedars-Sinai. "As we investigated a number of different options for replacing our Digital Wireless Office System, Ascendent Systems was identified as providing the most equivalent functionality that our staff uses. Through implementing their vendor-neutral convergence solution, we can now enjoy the functionality and flexibility of wireless."

"Certain key features of the product - such as single number reachability associated with a person, group or team and get-me-conferencing functions - strongly influenced our decision to choose Ascendent," said Lumpkin. "We also had a short timeline for implementation and testing of the product - about six months from start to finish - and Ascendent was able to meet our immediate need. Most importantly, the product proved extremely user-friendly and easy to implement and enabled the maximum amount of flexibility with the minimum amount of equipment."

Lumpkin noted the dial tone feature as one of the most appealing functions on the solution, as he prefers to "pulse" staff rather than "ping" them, since reaching someone live on the phone can often be critical - particularly in an emergency situation. He plans for the system to be fully deployed by December 31, 2005 and expects that it will ultimately support more than 1400 users.

Ascendent's PowerConnect voice mobility solutions allowed Cedars-Sinai to leverage their legacy Nortel PBX infrastructure but get all of the easy-to-use features that IP PBX vendors promote. The solution extends PBX capabilities to any telephony device (mobile phone, Blackberry(TM), Wi-Fi handset, etc.) such as four-digit call transfer, call conferencing, call park, PBX dialtone, and a single consolidated voicemail. Ascendent mobility features fulfill the hospital's dynamic requirements in the following areas: improved patient care due to quicker collaboration between mobile staff that make informed decisions, and increased collaboration between colleagues resulting from more reliable and faster communications.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center was recognized for its technology leadership in 2005 when Hospitals & Health Networks magazine designated it one of America's "Most Wired" hospitals. It was among only seven hospitals in California and 100 in the nation to receive this distinction for the advanced use of information technology in safety and quality, customer service, business process, workforce, and public health and safety.

About Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is one of the largest nonprofit academic medical centers in the western United States. For 17 consecutive years, it has been named Los Angeles' most preferred hospital for all health needs in an independent survey of area residents. Cedars-Sinai is internationally renowned for its diagnostic and treatment capabilities and its broad spectrum of programs and services, as well as breakthroughs in biomedical research and superlative medical education. Additional information is available at http://www.cedars-sinai.org

About Ascendent Systems

Ascendent Systems is the premier provider of enterprise voice mobility solutions that allow companies to be more responsive to customers and crisis by giving them the power to reach anyone, anywhere, immediately. Ascendent's PowerConnect voice mobility suite of applications provides single number reachability, real-time notification and conferencing, and voice continuity. These solutions allow users to automatically extend the identity and functionality of their business desk phone to any other device. Partnered with major mobile carrier and infrastructure providers, Ascendent has solutions deployed in Fortune 500 corporations across many industry verticals including manufacturing, finance, healthcare, government, hospitality, and education. Ascendent is a privately held company headquartered in San Jose, CA. For more information: http://www.ascendentsystems.com.