November 17, 2005

Aspect Software Reports Strong Third Quarter Results

TMCnet News

Aspect Software(TM) Inc. the world's largest company solely focused on the contact center, today announced its financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2005. The pro forma results include the combined financials for both Concerto Software and Aspect Communications beginning July 1, the start of the third quarter. The merger of the two companies, forming Aspect Software, was completed on September 22.

Pro forma revenue for the third quarter of 2005 was $160.3 million, as compared to $158.1 million of pro forma revenue, for the same period last year and $154.6 million of pro forma revenue for the second quarter of 2005.

"Both Concerto Software and Aspect Communications experienced organic growth in the third quarter by staying focused on the companies' core competencies. This is a great achievement while in the middle of completing the $1 Billion merger. It is discipline like this that results in exceeding revenue and earnings targets, adding 50 new name customers and positioning the company for continued growth," said Jim Foy, president and CEO of Aspect Software. "With more than 30 years of insight and complete dedication to the contact center industry, the new Aspect Software is uniquely able to help our customers achieve their customer service, collections and telesales objectives."

Pro forma product revenue for the third quarter was $60.2 million, as compared to $58.1 million of pro forma revenue for the same period last year and $53.9 million of pro forma revenue for the second quarter of 2005.

Aspect Software's balance sheet remains strong, ending the quarter with $57.1 million in cash and short-term investments. In the third quarter, the company generated more than $25 million of positive cash flow from operations on a pro forma basis.

Q3 Highlights

New Customers-- In the third quarter, more than 50 new customers chose Aspect Software solutions for their contact centers. They selected from the company's portfolio of Signature products including automatic call distributors (ACDs) and predictive dialers, Unified products and Optimization products. Among the new customers added in the third quarter are:

-- Expert Serv - an India-based provider of IT & IT-enabled services is implementing an ACD from the Aspect Software Signature product line and Aspect EnsemblePro(TM) from the Aspect Software Unified product line to manage customer service inquiries.

-- InterCapita - a business process outsourcer, based in Mexico, selected a predictive dialer from the Signature product line for collections interactions.

-- Medica - a health plan provider is implementing a workforce management product from the Aspect Software Optimization product line to enhance its customer service.

-- NovaTel - a provider of wireless broadband access solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market selected Aspect EnsemblePro from the company's Unified product line for its outsourcing division to utilize for collections and telemarketing.

-- R Systems - an India-based outsourcer for IT and business processes selected Aspect EnsemblePro from the Aspect Software Unified product line for its sales and telemarketing services.

-- Saxon Mortgage - a mortgage and lending specialist in the United States is implementing a workforce management product and related analytics solutions from the Aspect Software Optimization product line for managing its collections and customer service interactions.

Awards -- In the third quarter, Aspect Software won several awards for its products including:

-- Innovation Award - Aspect EnsemblePro 6.0 and Aspect eWorkforce Management 6.3 were both recipients of the 2005 Innovation Awards from Technology Marketing Corporation's TMC Labs division. The Innovation Awards exemplify the best and the most unique products and services that this industry has to offer. As the founder of the contact center industry more than 30 years ago, Aspect Software is well known as the innovator of multiple contact center milestones including the first intelligent automatic call distributor (ACD) and the first predictive dialer.

-- CRM Excellence Award - Customer Interaction Solutions magazine awarded Aspect Software a 2005 CRM Excellence Award for the innovative use of Aspect Customer Self-Service (CSS) to improve live customer service for healthcare insurance provider, Regence Group. A long-time customer, Regence Group provides service to nearly three million customers across the northwest and intermountain United States. Using a cost-effective contact center survey application running on Aspect CSS to capture real-time customer feedback, Regence Group reported improved agent performance and customer experience--a prime example of how self-service can supplement live service to benefit both customers and employees.

-- ICCM Best of Show Award - In September, Aspect Software garnered the ICCM Best of Show award in the voice-processing category for its Aspect Customer Self Service 7.1 solution. Judges cited the interactive voice response (IVR) platform's ability to accurately pinpoint places of abandonment in the call path as one of the primary reasons for winning this award. The Best of Show awards honor ICCM exhibitors and products that have the most potential to change the future of the contact center industry.

Product Announcements -- In the 3rd quarter, Aspect Software announced the general availability of its Aspect Customer Self-Service (CSS) version 7.1, which offers a platform pre-packaged with contact center speech self-service and enterprise-wide VoiceXML-based auto attendant functionality. Deployment options include connectivity to PSTN networks or to VoIP using SIP. Turnkey--all hardware with preloaded software--or software-only options are available.

In addition, in September, Aspect Software announced several of its products would soon offer new VoIP capabilities. The new releases of the products, scheduled for general availability in the next two quarters, will include support for the session initiation protocol (SIP) to connect the agent to the contact center and the contact center to the network. The products offering new IP capabilities -- Aspect EnsemblePro(TM), Aspect Spectrum(R) ACD, Aspect Unison(R) Predictive Dialer and Aspect Conversations(R)Predictive Dialer -- will enable customers to increase agent productivity and reduce costs without compromising existing technology investments, customer satisfaction and agent satisfaction.

About Aspect Software

Aspect Software, Inc. the founder of the contact center industry, is the only company 100 percent focused on providing proven, innovative products and services that enable key business processes including customer service, collections, and sales and telemarketing for in-house and outsourced contact centers. Each day, companies around the globe conduct more than 125 million customer interactions using Aspect Software's flexible, reliable solutions for automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, workforce management, analytics, IVR and multi-channel contact. Headquartered in Westford, Mass., Aspect Software has operations across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.

Note: Aspect Software and EnsemblePro are trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc; Spectrum, Unison and Conversations are registered trademarks of Aspect Software; All other trademarks or tradenames are the property of their respective owners.