Attenza to Power Self-Service Capabilities at McKesson.

Business Editors

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 2002

Attenza, a leading provider of online customer service and support software, and McKesson Corporation today announced that Attenza will power a Web self-service and knowledge management initiative targeting the IT support needs of McKesson's employees. Specifically, McKesson is leveraging Attenza's Answer Suite(TM) as part of a company-wide plan to enhance employee technical support services while reducing the overall cost of service delivery.

With Attenza's solution, McKesson will be able to offer its employees an "always on" support channel, allowing them to resolve inquiries over the Web and without the need to contact a help desk analyst. Since Forrester Research estimates a 33-to-1 cost savings when customers opt for self-service versus phone interaction, Attenza's solution not only enhances customer satisfaction, it also reduces help desk costs via call avoidance. In addition, McKesson help desk analysts will be able to access Attenza's knowledge management and desktop diagnostic applications to improve resolution times and decrease the number of costly desk-side support visits.

Although McKesson had evaluated several different eSupport and eCRM packages, it found the license fees, implementation challenges, and ongoing management of these systems to be cost-prohibitive. However, with Attenza's ASP delivery model and native Web architecture, McKesson is easily integrating the Attenza applications within its current framework and will realize a much lower Total Cost of Ownership ("TCO") as well as a much shorter implementation cycle. "We evaluated a number of self-service alternatives and found Attenza to provide the best mix in terms of functionality, integration, and domain expertise," says Alan Pearson, McKesson's Director for Advanced Technologies. "We believe that Attenza's Answer Suite, combined with our current Remedy ticketing system and a remote control tool currently under evaluation will provide a comprehensive platform for us to deliver on our corporate-wide objectives."

McKesson is implementing Attenza's Answer Suite to drive employee technical support self-service and improve help desk analyst workflow. The solution will be integrated within McKesson's existing intranet and trouble-ticketing system, and includes Attenza's Answer Express(TM) for employee self-service; Answer Assistant(TM) for agent productivity; Management Console(TM) to publish and manage knowledge, administer users, and access reports; System Profiler(tm) for desktop discovery and diagnosis; and an IT Support Knowledge Library with over 30,000 IT support tutorials and videos. "In addition to Attenza's comprehensive functionality, we were intrigued by their ASP delivery model and the value proposition of rapid ROI and lower TCO. We are excited with the prospects of this new model for self-service and support automation and the limited resources required from my team to deploy the solution," noted Pearson.

"We are delighted that McKesson has selected Attenza as an integral part of its initiative to drive organizational efficiencies and enhance service levels," said Lawrence Schwartz, CEO of Attenza. "Our engagement with McKesson further validates what other Fortune 1000 companies such as Dell and BMC Software have already realized: Attenza's online service and support model delivers the functionality required without the upfront costs, resource requirements or lengthy implementation cycles typically associated with traditional CRM software applications. We look forward to helping McKesson achieve a rapid ROI and ever-increasing cost savings by leveraging the Attenza Answer Suite."

ABOUT ATTENZA

Attenza is a leading provider of customer service and support software. Attenza's integrated web self-service solutions enable leading companies such as AON, Belo Corporation, BMC Software, Dell, Gateway, IBM, Lycos, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Mckesson, Motorola, Office Depot, uBid, and Vignette to reduce support costs, improve customer satisfaction, increase revenue, and enhance business intelligence. For more information, visit www.attenza.com or call 1-866-attenza (toll-free).