Convergys Launches New Geneva Active Revenue Management Initiative with Industry-Leading Partners.

Business Editors

CINCINNATI & CAMBRIDGE, UK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 20, 2001

Convergys Corporation (NYSE:CVG), the global leader in billing and customer care services, today announced the formal launch of the Geneva(TM) Carrier Grade Real-Time partner accreditation program as part of its Geneva Active Revenue Management (ARM) initiative.

The program is being launched in tandem with Geneva version 5.0, Convergys' award-winning ARM software. Under the program, Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partners will develop and test pre-integrations against the new Carrier Grade Real-Time interface to Geneva's active rating engine. Such pre-integrations help improve time-to-market and reduce the risk of technology integrations, providing support for existing and future revenue-generating services.

Current members of the program are: Ace*Comm Corporation; Comptel Corporation; iPIN; Kabira Technologies; Openet Telecom; Narus, Inc; Tertio Ltd; and XACCT Technologies, Inc.

Next-generation services require a next-generation billing system. This is why operators are increasingly embracing Convergys' Geneva Active Revenue Management software, which turns billing from a passive pricing and invoicing process into a powerful tool for managing and developing revenue streams.

For example, new content- and commerce-based business models require pre-authorization of transactions in real-time against pre- and post-paid accounts held within the ARM system. Rating therefore becomes an active process, calculating prices and returning transaction authorizations to the commerce management platform -- in other words, rating becomes a mission-critical element of the service and customer experience.

Transaction authorization must take place in real-time, while the customer is waiting. If the system goes down whilst a transaction authorization is in progress, there is a danger that an inappropriate charge will be made to the customer's account, without the commerce management platform receiving an authorization.

For this reason, Geneva version 5.0 introduces an enhanced Carrier Grade Real-Time interface between its active rating engine and external systems, providing event mediation and e-/m-commerce support. This enables robust, message-based data transfer, allowing real-time events and messages to be passed back and forth with full recoverability and revenue assurance in the event of system failure. The Carrier Grade Real-Time interface is capable of processing any real-time event, including advice of charge, transaction pre-authorization, and "partial events" for pre- or post-paid services.

Carrier Grade Real-Time capabilities become especially important for e-/m-commerce. Consider an MP3 music download service. Without the revenue assurance provided by the Carrier Grade Real-Time interface, the operator could lose event data and not be able to charge its subscribers appropriately. This scenario would leave the operator still needing to settle with its content partners, such as the copyright holder of the MP3 file -- a direct cost to the operator and not just lost revenue.

The Carrier Grade Real-Time concept requires support from the systems at both ends of the information flow -- not only Geneva's active rating engine, but also mediation and commerce management platforms. For this reason, Convergys has been engaged with many industry-leading partners for the last 12 months regarding the specification of the Carrier Grade Real-Time interface. With the availability of the new interface in Geneva version 5.0, Convergys has launched a formal accreditation program targeted at testing and validating the carrier-grade interfaces between Geneva's active rating engine and its industry partners' systems.

"Close collaboration with our partners is important to ensure that our technologies integrate seamlessly, reducing the risk associated with the new infrastructure required to launch new services," said Stephen Thomas, Managing Director of Convergys EMEA. "Geneva version 5.0 provides the market with a step change in real-time capability, and we are pleased that so many industry-leading partners share our vision."

More information on the Carrier Grade Real-Time program is available on the Convergys stand at Billing & CRM 2001 in Paris from 20-22 November 2001, where there will also be a demonstration of Geneva version 5.0.

About Convergys

Convergys Corporation (NYSE:CVG), a member of the S&P 500 and the Forbes' Platinum 400, is the global leader in integrated billing and customer care services provided through outsourcing or licensing. We serve top companies in telecommunications, Internet, cable and broadband services, technology, financial services, and other industries in more than 30 countries. We also provide integrated, outsourced, human resource services to leading companies across a broad range of industries.

We bring together world-class resources, software, and expertise to help create valuable relationships between our clients and their customers. This commitment is validated by the more than 1.3 million individual bills our software produces each day to support more than 100 million subscribers, and by the more than 1.2 million separate customer contacts we manage each day, both live and via electronic interaction.

Convergys (TM) employs nearly 44,000 people in 46 customer contact centers and in our data centers and other offices in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Israel, and Europe. Convergys is on the net at www.convergys.com, and has world headquarters in Cincinnati.

(Convergys, the Convergys logo, and Geneva are trademarks of Convergys Corporation.)

Convergys EMEA is located in Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB3 6DN, UK. In addition to its five offices in the UK, Convergys has European offices in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

Previous news releases and other information about Convergys can be viewed on our Web sites: www.convergys.com and www.genevatechnology.com

Note to Editors: In the company name "Ace*Comm" mentioned above, there is an asterisk symbol between "Ace" and "Comm". This symbol may not transmit properly.