COPC Cements Singapore Initiative; COPC Continues Global Growth; New Office will Serve Customers in Asia Pacific.

Business Editors and High-Tech Writers

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 2001

Customer Operations Performance Center Inc. (COPC), a performance management organization for the customer contact industry, today launched the next phase of its broader corporate strategy, focusing on the Asia Pacific region by opening a regional headquarters in Singapore.

This furthers the company's overall global expansion plan of gaining a significant customer presence in the most prominent geographic segments worldwide.

Although active in the region for several years, COPC has established an Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore, confirming the company's commitment to its existing and future customers there. COPC has attracted two industry veterans to lead the strategic direction and business development efforts from the new office. Elizabeth Prakasam will serve as CEO, drawing upon her previous experience as vice president of customer service at Singapore Telecommunications, where she managed all of the company's call centers. Andrew Cranshaw will serve as vice president of the office and joins COPC from eLoyalty Australia where he was senior partner.

"COPC already enjoys a strong presence in Singapore with highly visible customers," said Prakasam. "We are poised for explosive growth in this region as more customer-focused companies in the region become aware of the company's services and the benefits of certification to the COPC-2000(R) Standard."

The COPC-2000(R) Standard, the industry's only standard for operational assessment and analysis, provides a framework and an operational benchmark for customer service providers to improve their cost, service quality and performance. It includes specific components in four categories: processes, planning and leadership, people and performance measurement.

City Cab, one of Singapore's largest cab companies, is already certified to the Standard. Other companies have been trained in the use of the Standard and several are seeking certification in the near future. These companies include some of the region's largest mobile service providers such as Mobile One (Singapore) and Far EasTone (Taiwan). Several of the region's third-party contact center companies are also formally seeking certification including TeleDirect and DataCom.

"Providing the highest level of quality customer service is a key strategy for our business," said Neil Montefiore, chief executive officer, MobileOne (Asia) Pte Ltd. "To be a successful player in the highly competitive communications industry in Singapore, it is imperative that we adopt world-class processes and quality standards. Achieving COPC certification will go a long way in helping us meet these objectives and establishing ourselves as a customer service leader in Singapore."

The company's global footprint continues to expand as it recognizes the opportunities in markets outside of North America, as evidenced by this opening of the Asia Pacific headquarters. In addition to its office in Singapore, COPC opened an India office in May this year and has had an office in Japan for nearly three years.

"Our expansion into additional geographic segments such as Asia Pacific allows us to better serve customer-focused companies around the world," said COPC co-founder, Peter Bloom. "We have the unique opportunity to help shape the customer contact industry by creating the only global standard of performance excellence."

About COPC

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, and Amherst, New York, COPC is the leading authority on customer intensive operations, as typified by customer contact centers and fulfillment services. COPC is authorized to issue certification to the COPC-2000(R) Standard, a comprehensive operations performance standard that specifies minimum operational requirements in critical functional areas. COPC services clients on a worldwide basis and has representatives in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Singapore, India, Japan and the United States.

The COPC-2000(R) Standard was developed in 1995/96 by individuals from Microsoft, Motorola, Dell, American Express, L.L. Bean and other customer-focused companies who were concerned with the level of service quality provided to customers by customer service provider organizations. More than 200 locations in 30 countries are using the Standard to improve performance. Users include firms in e-commerce, computer hardware and software, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications and consumer products. For additional information about COPC, visit the Web site www.copc.com, email [e-mail] or call 512/329-0010.