Banyan Productions Achieves 100 Percent Reliability with AVST's CallXpress(R).

Philadelphia-Based Production Company Cites Mobility and Flexibility as Major Benefits of Unified Communications Solution

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. -- Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST), a leading provider of unified communications solutions, today announced that its flagship product, CallXpress, has achieved 100 percent reliability in over nine years at the headquarters of Philadelphia-based Banyan Productions. A production company with clients that include FOX, NBC, Travel Channel, Lifetime, HGTV, Discovery Channel and the Food Network, Banyan Productions selected AVST's CallXpress in 1997 after searching for an in-house voice mail system to replace its existing Centrex solution.

Key requirements in a voice mail system for Banyan Productions included mobility, flexibility and technology that would grow and evolve with the business. Initially, Banyan sought a system that offered the basic benefits of standard voice mail and call transfer capabilities. That was nine years ago. Today, Banyan is taking advantage of the main features of a unified communications solution, including find-me-follow-me capabilities and the integration of voice mail, e-mail and fax in one box.

According to George Kalman, Banyan Productions' Director of Information Technologies, "CallXpress is ideal for our production staff - the nature of our business requires frequent travel and access to voice mail and e-mail remotely. As remote workers, our employees need to have access to everything at their fingertips at all times. CallXpress is the means to that end for our business and has worked flawlessly for almost a decade."

CallXpress was introduced to Banyan Productions by Telephone Intelligence, a trusted partner to Banyan and an AVST authorized reseller. Lou Hansell from Telephone Intelligence recognized the need for a communications solution that would support Banyan's growing company and its need for an integrated solution that was reliable, easy to use and manage.

"Whether a small to medium business or an enterprise, CallXpress can be tailored to meet the needs of any business in any industry," said Denny Michael, AVST's Vice President of Marketing. "We have designed CallXpress from the ground up taking great care to provide a unified communications solution that is easy to implement, painless to manage and highly reliable. Banyan Productions is an ideal case study for how the right communications solution can significantly improve a business' productivity."

CallXpress is a unified communications solution which delivers world-class call processing, voice messaging, unified messaging and advanced speech applications. CallXpress increases employee productivity, effectiveness and collaboration at a minimal investment. With all messages arriving in a single inbox, CallXpress greatly improves message management time. Its extensive voice mail functionality ensures that all employees receive their messages efficiently and have the ability to answer queries promptly.

With capabilities beyond one-box access to e-mails, faxes and voice mails, Banyan Productions has customized its use of CallXpress to help with other areas of its business and to perform functions that were not imagined possible when the system was sold. For example, Banyan has various TV shows that require the capture of information from viewers. Banyan plans to offer viewer call-in voting whereby viewers can 'vote' for contestants on a reality show by calling a number that is routed through CallXpress. From there, CallXpress creates a log file and a program is written that reads that file and dynamically updates a website showing results of the voting process.

"CallXpress is so flexible that we're able to customize it on the fly and it takes minutes to do so. I have never heard an employee say that they wish we could do something with our phone system - because everything we've tried can be done," added Kalman.

About AVST

Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) is a leading developer of communications solutions for businesses of all sizes. Through its world-class unified communications platform, CallXpress[R], and its innovative speech application module, Seneca[R], AVST offers the industry's most powerful suite of second generation communications solutions including voice messaging, unified messaging, speech-enabled applications (including automated attendant and hands-free mobile worker access), and call processing (including embedded IVR).

The CallXpress unified communications platform is designed to facilitate the enterprise migration from legacy TDM call processing and voice mail solutions to IP-enabled unified communications by delivering the interoperability, scalability, feature depth and flexibility, and administrative capabilities that enterprise IT and Telecom teams are demanding.

Headquartered in Orange County, CA, AVST maintains facilities in Seattle, WA and the United Kingdom and has remote sales offices across the United States. With over 35,000 systems installed worldwide, AVST's unified communications solutions are sold and supported internationally by an extensive network of resellers and OEM partners. Established in September 2003, AVST was formed from the combined businesses of Sound Advantage (established in 1997) and the AVT division (established in 1982) of Captaris, Inc. For more information contact Denny Michael, Vice President of Marketing, at 949-699-2300 or access the company's website at www.avst.com.