Chelmsford, Mass. - 30 June 2009 – Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, today announced that new enhancements to its UC applications for the contact center are generally available today, 30 June 2009, and include new instant messaging capabilities, expanded presence functionality within the contact center, and increased integration with the Tellme(R) on-demand voice portal. The new features, available through the Aspect(R) Unified IP(R) 6.6.1 platform product, augment the unified communications capabilities available through the UC applications’ core queuing, routing, and reporting functionality.

The new functionality in this latest release adds significant value to the company’s UC applications for the contact center, specifically Seamless Customer Service™, Streamlined Collections™, and Blended Interaction™. UC applications use software to target operational objectives with specific capabilities from the Aspect Unified IP and PerformanceEdge^(R) platform products. The new features include:

- Improved instant messaging (IM) routing for enhanced customer interactions. Customers will be able to interact with contact center agents through various methods like Microsoft Office Communicator and over the web with click-to-IM. Customers can incorporate the IM address for the companies that they do business with as part of their "buddy lists" and can interact with the contact center via IM. With the power of Microsoft(R) Office Communications Server and Aspect UC capabilities, customers can view the presence of the customer service queues and their estimated wait time within the IM client. IM routing also offers an auto attendant capability, or interactive messaging response (IMR), enabling the contact center to fully automate and script a response to an incoming instant message and/or intelligently route the customer to an IM-based agent. These features are available for Seamless Customer Service and Blended Interaction.

- Extended presence and IM communications within the contact center. Agents can instant message with other agents and supervisors for escalations, coaching tips, and to receive assistance with customer inquiries. These features are available for Seamless Customer Service, Streamlined Collections, and Blended Interaction.

- Unique hybrid integration with Tellme’s on-demand voice portal platform. The Aspect On-Demand Voice Portal, powered by Tellme, helps companies leverage a number of network-based services, such as proactive customer contact, post-call surveys, automated appointment reminders, notifications, and business continuity with on-demand self service. These features are available for Seamless Customer Service, Streamlined Collections, and Blended Interaction.

- Improvements in email handling. This includes agent productivity improvements and auto responses. These improvements are available in Blended Interaction.

"More companies are asking for robust IM and voice portal features to streamline communications and deliver a quality customer experience," said Serge Hyppolite, director of interaction product management, Aspect. "Thanks to our global strategic alliance with Microsoft and our partnership with Tellme, Aspect is best equipped to bring these capabilities to the market and demonstrate the value of unified communications in the contact center and the enterprise."

About Aspect Software:
Aspect Software is solely focused on providing products and services for customer care, sales, telemarketing and collections for in-house and outsourcer contact centers. Each day, companies around the globe conduct more than 125 million customer interactions using Aspect’s flexible, reliable solutions for automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, workforce management, analytics, IVR and multi-channel contact.