Aspect's New Uniphi Suite Gathers Strong Reseller Support in North America And Europe

Aspect's New Uniphi Suite Gathers Strong Reseller Support in
North America And Europe
Norstan and Voicetec Endorse Next-Generation Contact Center Solution 


NEW ORLEANS, eBIZ 2004, Oct. 26  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aspect
Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:ASPT), a leading provider of enterprise
customer contact solutions, today announced reseller support for Aspect(R)
Uniphi Suite from Norstan Communications Inc., a leading provider of
communications solutions and services based in Minneapolis, Minn., and Voicetec
B.V., an independent solution provider and distributor of advanced VoIP-based
communications solutions based in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands. Announced earlier
today at eBIZ 2004, Aspect Uniphi Suite is a next-generation solution for
managing and measuring customer interaction activities. The product is
delivered in a tightly integrated software format based on open industry
standards to meet the requirements of advanced contact centers both today and
in the future.

"Contact center solutions providers have come a long way in integrating
applications for managing communications, workforces and information. But,
next-generation solutions such as Aspect Uniphi Suite take that further by
using standards-based, open technology to pull a wide range of contact center
functionality together tightly into one environment that offers a single point
of control for managing and analyzing customer interactions and relies on tools
familiar in the IT world," said Art Schoeller, senior analyst, The Yankee
Group. "Products like Uniphi Suite can help IT and contact center experts
collaborate more effectively and ultimately enable businesses to better
integrate the contact center into their overall operations. The integrated
suite approach also provides distribution partners a more complete platform to
deliver enhanced services and applications, so they don't have to struggle to
assemble multiple, disparate solutions to solve customer problems."

Aspect solution resellers Norstan and Voicetec are applauding Aspect's latest
innovation at Aspect's customer conference, eBIZ 2004, in New Orleans this
week. Uniphi Suite offers investment protection by delivering new capabilities
in an open standards-based software format that supports existing PSTN and IP
environments. Both companies point to Uniphi Suite's centralized
administration, single-agent interface spanning a variety of media channels and
ability to leverage existing infrastructures for remote locations as
significant capabilities that simplify contact center management. Also
appealing to resellers is Uniphi Suite's ability to operate in PSTN, IP-PBX or
hybrid environments to deliver advanced contact center capabilities, making it
possible for users to add new functionality without disrupting service.

"As the market shifts to IP communications, companies need the assurance that
mission-critical applications housed in their contact centers are secure," said
Scott G. Christian, president and chief executive officer of Norstan. "With
Uniphi Suite, Aspect provides the framework for supporting true centralized
applications convergence in the contact center. Customers continue to benefit
from the intellectual and monetary capital investment in existing
infrastructure, while expanding their communications capabilities in a secure
environment using this new open architecture. Norstan, which has enjoyed a 15-
year relationship with Aspect, can continue to leverage our expertise in IP-
based contact center platforms by packaging Uniphi Suite and other technology
partners' offerings to create value for our customers."

"With Uniphi Suite, Aspect brings together two decades of contact center
application-functionality development into one open software product that
provides a smooth migration path to IP," said Hanjo Huizing, chief executive
officer of Voicetec. "Our enterprise customers are asking for contact centers
that can bridge traditional mission-critical applications with newer products
such as IP-PBX's using open standards. Uniphi Suite will help us address this
trend by offering a single operating environment that meets the business
requirements of our customers, while simplifying and centralizing contact
center management with integrated business rules and a single routing engine
for a variety of media and agent locations."

An open contact center operating environment, Uniphi Suite supports a common
set of technology standards, including Web services, SOAP, SIP, VXML, HTTP and
SNMP. Uniphi Suite also leverages one set of business rules across each
application in the suite and enables systems administrators to define, develop
and deploy contact centers virtually anywhere more quickly and easily than
previous enterprise applications of this scale. Customers can develop once and
deploy once across the entire enterprise, resulting in significant up-front
cost savings. In addition, Uniphi Suite features a single-agent desktop for
managing customer interactions across media channels including voice, e-mail
and Web and for providing centralized reporting and analytics.

"Aspect Uniphi Suite enables our customers to focus more resources on their
customer-care strategies and business requirements because it simplifies
contact center operations by providing a single point of control for managing
applications that handle communications, workforces and information," said
Brian Gentile, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Aspect. "We
are pleased to have the support of respected resellers like Norstan and
Voicetec because their Aspect product expertise combined with complementary
products and services enable them to reach a wide range of customers in two
very important geographies for Aspect."

About Norstan Communications Inc.

Norstan Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NRRD) is a full-service communications
solutions company that delivers voice and data technologies and services and
remanufactured equipment to corporate end-users and public-sector companies.
Norstan offers a full range of integrated technologies for converged solutions,
customer contact solutions and ProtectNet Life Cycle services. The company has
offices located throughout the U.S. and Canada. To learn more, visit the
Norstan Web site at http://www.norstan.com/.

About Voicetec B.V.

Voicetec B.V. is an independent solution provider and distributor of advanced
communications solutions based on VOIP, e-mail and Web. The company is enriched
with years of professional experiences in the fields of voice processing,
telecommunications and IT. Voicetec distributes and markets communication
solutions that help companies improve customer relationship management and
employee productivity while letting them reap the benefits of tremendous cost
savings. By using advanced eService software, Voicetec's customers can
distinguish themselves by offering their clients an optimum service level,
which is the crux of successful business.

About Aspect Uniphi Architecture

Uniphi Suite is the latest development originating from Aspect's Uniphi
architecture.  The architecture is designed to unify the contact center and the
enterprise by integrating the applications that drive customer communications,
contact center and customer information, and workforce productivity --
resulting in better insight to business and customer activity. The Aspect
Uniphi architecture extends Aspect's vision of delivering proven, multi-product
solutions, whether PSTN, IP-hybrid or pure VoIP, while still lowering total
cost of ownership and protecting contact center investments as new technologies
and standards emerge.

About Aspect Communications

Aspect Communications Corporation is a leading provider of contact center
solutions and services that enable businesses to manage and optimize customer
communications. Aspect's global customer base includes more than two-thirds of
the Fortune 50 and leading corporations in a range of industries, including
transportation, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, retail and
outsourcing, as well as large government agencies. The company's leadership is
based on 19 years of expertise. Aspect is headquartered in San Jose, Calif.,
with offices in countries around the world.

NOTE:  Aspect, the Aspect logo and the phrases and marks relating to other
Aspect products and services discussed in this press release constitute one or
both of the following:  (1) registered trademarks and/or service marks of
Aspect Communications Corporation in the United States and/or other countries
or (2) intellectual property subject to protection under common law principles.
All other names and marks mentioned in this document are properties of their
respective owners. 

DATASOURCE: Aspect Communications Corporation



CONTACT:  media, Jennifer Stroud, [phone], or

, or investors, Carrie Kovac, [phone], or

, both of Aspect Communications



Web site:  http://www.norstan.com/

Web site:  http://www.aspect.com/

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