Bank of Montreal Selects Aspect Customer Relationship Portal to Bolster Web Capabilities and Boost Productivity.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 24, 2000

Canada's First Bank Aims to Provide Consistent Customer

Experience Across Phone, Fax, E-Mail and the Web

Aspect Communications Corporation (Nasdaq:ASPT), the leading provider of customer relationship portals, today announced that Bank of Montreal, Canada's first bank, has selected the Aspect(R) Customer Relationship Portal.

The company will utilize the Aspect Portal to integrate and expand its customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities, increase productivity and provide customer convenience and consistency across multiple contact media. The company said it plans to implement the portal at its Toronto, Canada, facility.

&uot;When you're talking about financial inquiries -- bank balances for instance -- you're talking about timely information that is near and dear to a customer's heart,&uot; said Bill Swift, senior manager, Merchant Customer Service, Bank of Montreal. &uot;The Aspect Portal not only empowers our customers by providing increased contact avenues to obtain this critical and timely information, but also enables us to centralize our CRM solution, increasing our efficiency and productivity.&uot;

Swift cited an example in which the company intends to utilize the Aspect Customer Relationship Portal to create a more productive workflow. According to Swift, in order to resolve fax inquiries, Bank of Montreal was previously forced to pull customer reports, deliver them to the desired building location manually, then fax them back out

-- a labor intensive, time-consuming process. The Aspect Portal implementation will now enable the company to utilize the convenience of the Web -- allowing agents to simply click on the customer reports, located on their desktops, and send them to the desired destination.

&uot;Bank of Montreal understands that its customers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are now employing numerous mediums for their inquiries,&uot; said David Puglia, vice president, Product Marketing, Aspect. &uot;Ensuring that these multimedia inquiries are channeled appropriately through one source not only makes life easier for the company, but creates a sense of individualism for the customer as well, leading to increased business.&uot;

The Aspect Customer Relationship Portal

The Aspect Customer Relationship Portal allows companies to build eCRM applications that integrate front- and back-office, eCommerce and multimedia contact centers into one centrally managed eBusiness system. It provides a consistent customer experience through one central place that connects customers with the right enterprise resource, no matter how the customer contacts the business.

The Aspect Portal Multimedia application unifies and personalizes customer interactions across Web, phone, fax and e-mail to identify, qualify, cross-sell, up-sell and route customers in real time. The Aspect Customer Relationship Portal was recently named a Best of Show award winner at the Fall '99 Communications Solutions Expo (Formerly CTI Expo) and received Product of the Year in the &uot;Multimedia Customer Contact Portal&uot; category from C@LL CENTER CRM Solutions magazine.

Bank of Montreal

Bank of Montreal, Canada's first bank, is a highly diversified financial services institution. The bank operates in more than 30 lines of business within its group of companies, including Nesbitt Burns, one of Canada's largest full-service investment firms and Chicago-based Harris Bank, a major U.S. mid-west financial institution. Bank of Montreal has an equity position in and a strategic alliance with Grupo Financiero Bancomer, a leading Mexican financial institution.

Aspect Communications

Aspect Communications Corporation is the leading provider of customer relationship portals, a software platform for building and deploying eCRM (electronic customer relationship management) applications that enable businesses to ensure consistent interactions with their customers from one centrally managed eBusiness system.

Aspect's leadership position in eCRM solutions is based on its 14-year history and more than 7,300 customer contact center implementations. Aspect is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with offices in major cities worldwide. For more information about Aspect, visit the company's Web site at http://www.aspect.com or call 888/412-7728.

Note to Editors: Aspect and the Aspect logo are trademarks and/or service marks of Aspect Communications Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other product or service names mentioned in this document may be trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.