Sharp HealthCare Selects CallXpress 8 for Centralized Communications Network

Replaces End of Life Octel^® System and Achieves High Availability

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif., February 10, 2010 – Communications solutions innovator Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) today announced that CallXpress^® 8 was selected by Sharp HealthCare (Sharp), San Diego’s largest and most comprehensive healthcare organization, to centralize its infrastructure.  Sharp selected CallXpress due to its ability to centralize three standalone Octel voicemail systems onto a single system, while offering dual survivable call servers to protect against critical network failures.

Sharp is a not-for-profit integrated regional health care leader with more than 12 facilities including seven hospitals, two medical groups, medical clinics, urgent care centers, skilled nursing facilities as well as a variety of other community health education programs and related services.  Sharp serves more than three million people, operates 1,870 beds and has approximately 2,600 physicians on medical staffs, more than 1,000 physicians in affiliated medical groups and more than 14,000 employees.

Sharp needed to replace three Octel voicemail systems that were announced ‘end of life.’ The main objective was to identify a solution that offered centralization, thereby eliminating the required maintenance for those Octel systems, and the risk of end users being without voicemail service in the event of a critical system failure.  Sharp conducted an extensive review process with a Technical Review Committee tasked with identifying the right solution.  AVST’s CallXpress was selected in large part for its high availability and the ability to support its mixed TDM/hybrid switches and IP PBXs.

Sharp took great care to ensure the transition from Octel to CallXpress was a smooth process for end users and cites the ease of use in CallXpress as instrumental in the process. “The migration from Octel to CallXpress was one of our biggest implementations and the transition was virtually unnoticeable to our users.  They didn’t need much training since the CallXpress system mimicked the command structure of the Octel telephone user interface (TUI). On the day of the CallXpress cutover, our support staff team members were waiting for help desk calls that never came,” said Steve Cates, Sharp HealthCare Telecommunications Manager.

Today, the Sharp network has three major hub PBXs that are fully redundant and CallXpress supports nearly 4,000 voicemail users and handles approximately 495,000 calls per month.  Outside callers utilize more than 70 system-wide automated attendant menus in CallXpress that efficiently route them to the physician, hospital, department or employee they’re trying to reach.

With call volumes of this magnitude, and with physicians and hospitals relying on uninterrupted communications, CallXpress provides the high availability that Sharp demanded. Sharp now achieves high availability by utilizing a system server and two call servers. In this configuration, if either of the call servers fails, the other is able to answer and process calls, as well as record messages, without the loss of CallXpress application functionality.

Cates added, “Before CallXpress, system maintenance was a real challenge.  We had three separate systems that had to be maintained and everything had to be done after hours to ensure that physicians, staff and other essential personnel had access to voicemail during business hours.  If one system went down, we had a critical situation on our hands with no backup in place and thousands of messages that could be lost.  The CallXpress multiple call server architecture has brought us peace of mind.”

In addition to centralization, CallXpress offered Sharp HealthCare a robust platform with features that make users more accessible and mobile.  CallXpress comes with multiple mobility features, including unified messaging, personal assistant, message notification, single number, and speech recognition for hands-free communications.

Sharp worked closely with Advanced Call Processing (ACP), a trusted partner and AVST reseller, to identify the right solution.   “We have a great deal of experience with CallXpress and understand the needs of the Sharp team,” said Rob Simpson, President of ACP.  “CallXpress is a robust solution that can support, with ease, a high call volume, centralized network like Sharp’s.  The Sharp team needed a solution that offered the next level of reliability and CallXpress was a perfect fit.”

“CallXpress was designed to support the exact scenario that the Sharp network presented,” said Denny Michael, AVST Vice President of Marketing.  “They needed a seamless replacement of their legacy voicemail system, centralization to provide cost savings and high availability for application resiliency. We look forward to supporting Sharp HealthCare as they expand their network and deploy some of the additional functionality available in CallXpress.”

CallXpress 8 delivers a powerful suite of Unified Communications applications including advanced call processing, voicemail, unified messaging, personal assistant, fax, speech and notification capabilities to help businesses become more productive.  For more information about AVST’s products visit the company’s website at www.avst.com.

About Sharp HealthCare
Sharp HealthCare is San Diego’s most comprehensive health care delivery system. It is recognized for clinical excellence for services in cardiac, cancer and multiorgan transplantation, as well as orthopaedics, rehabilitation, behavioral health and women’s health. Sharp HealthCare has been widely acclaimed for its commitment to transform the health care experience for patients, physicians and staff through an organization-wide performance improvement initiative called The Sharp Experience. The Sharp system includes four acute-care hospitals, three specialty hospitals, two affiliated medical groups and a health plan. To learn more about Sharp, visit www.sharp.com.

About Advanced Call Processing (ACP)
Advanced Call Processing (ACP) is a comprehensive provider of telecommunications services and solutions with a customer base spread across the United States and throughout the world.  Established in 1990, ACP has enjoyed exceptional growth, while supplying customized solutions for hundreds of businesses and government agencies.    ACP has assisted hundred of companies to achieve their business goals while controlling costs through the effective deployment of communications technology.

About AVST
Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) is a leading developer of communications solutions with over 10 million users that rely on its products and services to maximize their productivity. With nearly 30 years of innovation excellence, AVST is focused on delivering solutions that increase user and business productivity. Its flagship Unified Communications platform, CallXpress®, offers unprecedented interoperability and delivers advanced call processing, voicemail, unified messaging, personal assistant, fax, speech and notification capabilities. With CallXpress, an organization can protect and extend its existing data and telephony infrastructure investment — now and into the future.

Headquartered in Orange County, Calif., AVST maintains facilities in Seattle, Wash. and the United Kingdom and has remote sales offices across the United States. AVST’s Unified Communications solutions are sold and supported internationally by an extensive network of resellers and OEM partners. For more information contact Denny Michael, Vice President of Marketing, at 949-699-2300 or access the company’s website at www.avst.com.

AVST Announces Plans For 2010 End User Seminar Series

Conscious of the current global economy and its effect on our customers, AVST has decided to take a brief pause from hosting our annual conference to focus efforts on expanding  the benefits of the AVST online community.  During this time, we have been talking to customers from around the country about options for the 2010 CallXpress End User Conference.  The feedback has been consistent – end users want to participate, but they are limited by corporate travel restrictions.

So, AVST has decided to change the format of the CallXpress End User Conference in 2010 to ensure we provide as many customers as possible with the opportunity to connect and collaborate with their peers.  Instead of requiring end users from all over the world to travel to a single location, starting in Spring 2010, AVST will be taking the show on the road and offering a series of 1-day end user seminars across the U.S. The multi-city tour will allow users to come together at regional venues to share ideas and expertise with other users, as well as provide access to AVST executives and product specialists in a small group environment.

The final cities will be announced on AVST Blog soon…stay tuned for more information!

UCConnect launches as part of AVST Developer Network

What is UCConnect™?

UCConnect is a Microsoft® .NET development framework (SDK) for CallXpress 8 used to create custom UC solutions including call processing applications, notification and alerting applications, and other customer or vertical market-specific information access and delivery applications commonly referred to as Communication-Enabled Business Processes, or CEBP.

Access to UCConnect is limited to members of AVST’s new Developer Network (full program launching Q1/2010).

To join the AVST Developer Network, complete this online form and an AVST representative will contact you with full program details. For more information, please contact AVST at ucconnect@avst.com.

• Full Program Launching Q2/2010 – Register now and be the first to reap the benefits:
• FREE to join for developers, customers, resellers, technology partners and consultants
• Utilizes Microsoft .NET development tools to create custom UC applications for CallXpress 8
• Downloadable code samples
• Training – tips and tricks + online training videos
• Developer’s community to share ideas

Click here to learn more about the AVST Developer Network.

CallXpress 8.1 Announced

Continuing on the success of the CallXpress 8 platform, AVST is pleased to announce CallXpress 8.1.

Feature highlights:

• Tertiary System Server for CallXpress high availability solution to meet organizations’ disaster recovery initiatives
• Enhanced unified messaging for IMAP to support Google Gmail and other secure IMAP e-mail servers and services
• Lotus Notes 8.5 support for unified messaging users
• Windows 7 Professional support for end-user and administrative client applications
• AVST Developer Network featuring UCConnect, a Microsoft .NET development environment used to create custom applications. Click here to learn more or join the AVST Developer Network.  

In a recent report entitled “Critical Capabilities for Corporate Telephony,”¹ leading industry research firm Gartner identified architecture, scalability, high availability, and UC integration capability as the primary critical capabilities for building next generation corporate telephony.  These four critical capabilities are also the core framework of the CallXpress 8 platform.  To learn more about the CallXpress platform, visit the AVST website, or read CallXpress 8.1 news release.

CallXpress 8.1 is scheduled for general availability in Q1 2010 through AVST’s established reseller channels.

¹ _{Gartner “Critical Capabilities for Corporate Telephony”, by Jay Lassman and Steve Blood.September  11, 2009}

Prospective AVST Customers Invited to Attend Technology Discussion

AVST is inviting all prospective customers to join its Senior Management Team for a Special Technology Discussion & Reception on November 3rd at the Intercontinental San Francisco Hotel.

Event Details:

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009

Discussion; 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Cathedral Hill Meeting Room, 4th Floor

Reception; immediately following from 5:00pm -7:00pm
Pacific Terrace Foyer

Click here to R.S.V.P. by November 2nd

Attending Senior Mangement Team:
Hardy Myers, President and CEO
Tom Minifie, CTO
Mike Berlin, VP of Sales
Denny Michael, VP of Marketing

Hotel Information:
Intercontinental San Francisco Hotel
  888 Howard Street
  San Francisco, CA 94103
  888-811-4273
The InterContinental San Francisco is adjacent to the Moscone West Convention Center

Click here to R.S.V.P. by November 2nd

Tune into AVST Channel on YouTube

In addition to our online presence on AVST Blog, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, AVST has also branded a channel on YouTube to share videos with the AVST Community.  Over the past two months, over 10 new videos have been uploaded to the AVST Channel. 

 Watch AVST on YouTube

We at AVST are committed to creating an ongoing, shared social space for people who are geographically dispersed. We believe the benefits of connecting people and building relationships across boundaries of geography or discipline will not only stimulate the capture of ideas to better our product offerings, but it will also improve the peer-to-peer collaboration and satisfaction of our loyal customers. Read the AVST Social Networking Blog Post

Legacy Voicemail Users – Know Your Options

Many IT professionals today are advocating the replacement of older voicemail systems that don’t support the mobile work force or are based on obsolete proprietary platforms or technology. Others, unfortunately, continue to bear the burden of the increased maintenance and support costs of legacy voicemail systems that simply do not integrate with new technologies within the organization, nor meet the needs of the modern enterprise.

If you are charged with researching a replacement solution for your first‐generation voicemail system, make sure you KNOW YOUR OPTIONS!

Look for a replacement to your current voicemail system that offers a flexible solution for integrating, automating and improving your business processes. CallXpress was built to achieve maximum return on investment by:

• Minimizing training by mimicking the Telephone User Interface (TUI) of your Nortel Meridian Mail, Octel Aria, Octel Serenade, and other popular first generation voicemail systems
• Leveraging the global administration capabilities of the CallXpress platform to reduce administrative cost
• Automating information delivery accessible to customers 24 x 7
• Allowing for customized IVR applications such as bank by phone, financial reporting, campus directory, 24-hour technical support line, and employee locator
• Providing notification to customers of timely information
• Intelligent routing of calls
• Streamlining message management through unified messaging

Related Links:

• AVST On-Demand Webcast – CallXpress 8 – Ideal Legacy Voicemail Replacement Solution
• Datasheet – CallXpress Legacy Voicemail Replacement
• Nortel Investment Protection Program Resource Library

Looking Forward to Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2009

Discover the Difference in CallXpress 8

If you’ve read my recent blog posts and/or checked out our new CallXpress Resource Center on AVST.com, then you’re already aware that there is a wealth of information posted about the architectural changes and feature enhancements that we’ve incorporated into CallXpress 8.  From new feature and benefits pages to an enhanced 12-page brochure, our marketing team and product management staff have done their best to ensure you have all the information you need to make a thorough evaluation of this power new Unified Communications platform.

If you’re still unclear as to why you should upgrade to CallXpress 8, or if you’re wondering if there is really a need for more features and functionality, then I think you’ll be interested in checking out the two new presentations that our Director of Sales Engineering, Neil Bulter, has put together to help new and existing customers Discover the Difference in CallXpress 8.

Click here to view these short and insightful presentations:

• Discover the Difference – Why Upgrade to CallXpress 8
• Transform Your Voicemail – Why CallXpress 8 is the Perfect Legacy Voicemail Replacement
• About AVST – An introduction to AVST and CallXpress 8

Twelve Months of CallXpress Gifts from AVST

On behalf of the entire staff at AVST, we thank you for your business and support in 2008 and we wish you a safe and prosperous New Year!