Foothill Ranch, Calif., January 30, 2007 – Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) today announced it has signed an agreement with CIT Technology Financing Services, Inc., a unit of CIT Group Inc. a leading global provider of commercial and consumer finance solutions. Through the agreement, CIT will provide AVST resellers and end-user customers with easy, flexible and innovative financing solutions for its CallXpress product line and related IP telephony equipment.

A leading provider of unified communications solutions, AVST has partnered with CIT to enable businesses of all sizes to realize the business and productivity benefits of a second generation communications platform through flexible financing options.  AVST’s CallXpress platform delivers world-class call processing, voice messaging, unified messaging and advanced speech applications and increases employee productivity, effectiveness and collaboration at a minimal investment.

Ron Arrington, President of CIT Vendor Finance U.S., said, “CIT is excited to provide alternative financing options that make it easy for clients to acquire AVST’s technology. The unified communications marketplace is taking hold, and our new relationship with AVST will further the advancement of this growing space.”

AVST has introduced the new program to its 180 U.S. based reseller partners with overwhelming response.  “Our technology is all about choice and flexibility,” said Denny Michael, AVST Vice President of Marketing.  “Our new partnership allows us to extend those basic principles to financing options.  Flexible and easy options in financing make our products more available to our end-user community thereby enabling them to upgrade their communications infrastructure to take them into the future.”

CIT Vendor Finance is a global leader in financing solutions that drive incremental revenues for manufacturers, distributors, and other intermediaries.  It provides customized financing solutions to customers in nearly 40 countries, supporting a wide variety of industries, including health care, industrial equipment, and technology.

About CIT
CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT), a leading commercial and consumer finance company, provides clients with financing and leasing products and advisory services. Founded in 1908, CIT has more than $74 billion in managed assets and possesses the financial resources, industry expertise and product knowledge to serve the needs of clients across approximately 30 industries worldwide. CIT, a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 Index, holds leading positions in cash flow lending, vendor financing, factoring, equipment and transportation financing, Small Business Administration loans, and asset-based lending. With its global headquarters in New York City, CIT has more than 7,300 employees in locations throughout North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. http://www.cit.com

About AVST
Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) is a leading developer of Unified Communications solutions with over 15 million users relying on its products and services to maximize their productivity. With three decades of innovation excellence, AVST is solely focused on delivering communications solutions that increase individual, group and enterprise productivity. Its flagship Unified Communications platform, CallXpress®, offers best in class interoperability, scalability and resiliency while delivering advanced call processing, voicemail, unified messaging, personal assistant, fax, speech and notification capabilities. With CallXpress, an organization can uniquely protect and extend its existing IT and telephony infrastructure investments — 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 throughout 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.