FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif., February 4, 2009 – Communications solutions innovator Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) today announced that its flagship product, CallXpress®, was selected by the University of New Mexico (UNM) to support over 9,000 users campus wide.

UNM is the state’s largest university, and when it became apparent that its current voicemail system was performing unreliably, a decision regarding a replacement needed to be made quickly.  With a hospital, health science center, campus security, poison control center, and over 9,000 students and faculty relying on the voicemail systems it was critical that the University be able to rely on its communications infrastructure.  With business continuity being affected due to the unreliability of the current voicemail system, time was of the essence as UNM set out to replace its current system.

Working with a very aggressive timeline, Technical Support Analyst and Voicemail Administrator Margaret Krawic teamed with Information Technology Services Director Paula Loendorf and Associate Directors Mark Reynolds and Ann Swancer to issue an RFP, with the overriding requirement that the system ultimately chosen needed to provide reliability and stability above all else.  UNM’s entire campus community has high exposure to the voicemail system, and any system fallibility would be deemed unacceptable.

After careful consideration and undisputed positive feedback from other universities and corporate references, UNM opted to deploy CallXpress over other systems.  A best-of-breed Unified Communications solution that delivers world-class call processing, voicemail, unified messaging and advanced speech applications, CallXpress integrated flawlessly with UNM’s NEC IP-PBX system.  AVST’s intuitive Telephone User Interfaces (TUIs) enabled easy adoption for UNM’s end users, with no disruption in workflow.  

“Every single organization that we talked to that owned a CallXpress system noted that it was easy to install, extremely stable, and bottom line – it worked,” commented Reynolds.  “UNM’s diverse networking environment, which supports many high-volume, critical-path departments, requires a communications infrastructure that works reliably from day one and needs no babysitting – CallXpress fits the bill on all accounts.  I can now go on vacation and not even give a second thought to the voicemail system, as I know CallXpress is doing its job. ”

UNM’s installation and cutover of CallXpress went off without a hitch.  On the first business day, CallXpress took almost 48,000 calls with no technical issues to speak of.   According to Krawic, “CallXpress was implemented over a holiday weekend, which meant that on its first full business day in operation, the call volume was exceptionally high.  The system didn’t miss a beat.”

UNM officials were introduced to CallXpress by Black Box Corporation (NASDAQ:BBOX), a trusted partner and AVST reseller.  “We are very pleased to add the University of New Mexico to our family of valued customers,” noted Crosby Smith, Vice President, Western Region for Black Box.   “The UNM staff could not have been any easier to work with, and it was a great team effort by all involved to select, purchase and deploy AVST’s solution within the 90-day timeframe allotted.”  Also instrumental in the deployment of CallXpress was NEC Unified, which supported this installation and integration to UNM’s existing NEC PBX system.

“CallXpress is a perfect fit for UNM’s dynamic environment and high expectations for reliability,” said Denny Michael, AVST’s Vice President of Marketing.  “Having deployed CallXpress in nearly 800 educational institutions, AVST is highly experienced in automating and making communication more efficient for students, faculty and staff within any type of educational environment, from the smallest schools to the largest universities.”

With over 40,000 systems deployed worldwide, AVST’s best-of-breed Unified Communications solution, CallXpress, delivers world-class call processing, voicemail, unified messaging, fax, notification and speech-enabled personal assistant and automated attendant capabilities to help organizations become more productive.  Users can manage voice, fax and e-mail messages from any location at any time—via laptop, telephone, cell phone, or the Internet. 

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.