Aspect Software Acquires BlueNote Networks

CHELMSFORD, Mass. – 9 July 2008 – Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, today announced it has acquired substantially all of the assets of BlueNote Networks based in Tewksbury, Mass.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition furthers the company’s recently announced unified communications for the contact center strategy with the addition of IT-ready, software-based products that communications-enable business processes (CEBP).  Leveraging the BlueNote Networks technology, Aspect Software customers will now be able to extend session initiation protocol (SIP)-based voice, video and other real-time interactive communication services to enterprise users as an integral part of a service oriented architecture (SOA).

Gartner defines CEBP as the ability to enable “communications functions to be directly and tightly integrated with the IT systems and applications that individuals may be working with at any time.” In its March announcement, Aspect said that unified communications for the contact center streamlines and enhances customer-facing business processes by providing organizations with complete visibility and control. In addition, it enables businesses to seamlessly extend those processes beyond the traditional boundaries of the contact center to reach knowledge workers or subject matter experts in the enterprise in order to enhance collaboration.

“The addition of BlueNote Networks’ intellectual property allows Aspect to further enhance the way our customers implement their unified communications for the contact center strategies, whether they do service, sales or collections,” said Jim Foy, CEO, Aspect Software. “They will be able to seamlessly communications-enable their processes and make these interactive, multichannel capabilities easily available to contact center agents and knowledge workers alike to help companies enhance the customer experience they deliver, increase their first call resolution rates and improve their overall productivity.”

Aspect can now deliver the features, services and tools necessary for building and deploying real-time interactive communications as Web services in an enterprise applications architecture. By combining the features of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) with Web services, organizations will be able to drive innovation in the contact center and across the enterprise while radically lowering the cost and complexity of their voice, video and data services. Specifically, Aspect customers and prospects will now be able to:

• Quickly and easily incorporate SIP-based interactive multichannel communications into their contact centers and internal and customer-facing business processes using industry-standard interfaces and technology.
• Leverage existing IT and telephony application investments and development resources to build and deploy communications-enabled business applications and lay the foundation for enabling globally-reachable communication services and integrated workflow applications.

Michael Regan, a co-founder and vice president of engineering of BlueNote Networks, joins Aspect as vice president of Unified IP development. Regan has 20 years of professional experience at leading communications companies and has delivered complex voice and data networking products to market for large enterprises and public service providers.

“I am thrilled to be joining Aspect in the midst of its strategy to inform the market about how unified communications for the contact center can really transform the way companies interact with their customers,” said Regan. “The position that Aspect has taken on the topic of UC is unique and really sets the company apart from its competitors. I am looking forward to being part of this team and helping Aspect customers and prospects navigate the path to a successful unified communications for the contact center implementation.”

About Aspect Software

Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.