Contactual Wins Global Excellence in Technology Award from Frost & Sullivan

San Mateo, Calif. and Ft. Meyers, Fla. – April 20, 2005 – Contactual™, the leading provider of on-demand contact center solutions, today announced that it will receive the Global Excellence in Technology of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan, a leading industry analyst firm.  The award is for the category of Customer Contact Center, and will be presented at Customer Contact 2005, a Frost & Sullivan Executive Conference for customer care, contact center and sales and marketing executives seeking to maximize ROI through integrated technology innovations and customer-focused strategies.

“We are very pleased that our VoIP-based, Contactual OnDemand Contact Center has won the Global Excellence in Technology Award from Frost & Sullivan,” said Mansour Salame, Founder and CEO, Contactual. “Frost & Sullivan analysts singled out Contactual as a hosted contact center leader for reasons of stability, scalability and ease-of-use.  This type of credible, third-party validation of our business and product echoes our strong customer references, and solidifies our leadership position in this fast-growing market.”

The award will be presented to Contactual executives at the Customer Contact 2005 Best Practices Award Banquet, held at the Sanibel Harbour Resort and Spa. 

“Contactual, over the years, has built a large network of clients by touching base with their customers across the globe through their On Demand Contact Centre solutions. This company has proven itself to be the key for many companies to set up world class contact centers by providing their customized turnkey service solutions to clients” says Frost & Sullivan, Research Analyst, Haritha.

About the 2005 Global Excellence in Technology of the Year Award
Frost & Sullivan’s Excellence in Technology Award is bestowed upon the company that has pioneered the development and introduction of an innovative technology into the market; a technology that has either impacted or has the potential to impact several market sectors. This award recognizes a company’s successful technology development that is expected to bring significant contributions to the industry in terms of adoption, change, and competitive posture. It also recognizes the overall technical excellence of a company and its commitment towards technology innovation.
 
To choose the award recipient, Frost & Sullivan’s analyst team tracks technology innovation in key hi-tech markets. The selection process includes primary participant interviews and extensive primary and secondary research via the bottom-up approach. The analyst team shortlists candidates won the basis of a set of qualitative and quantitative measurements. The analyst also considers the pace of technology innovation, the potential relevance or significance of the technology to the overall industry. The ultimate award recipient is chosen after a thorough evaluation of this research. 

About the Contactual OnDemand Contact Center
Over the past five years, Contactual has developed a feature-rich on-demand contact center product that leverages state-of-the-art technologies, like VoIP and SIP.  Contactual has identified the key features that any call center needs, and delivered, without lowering our industry-leading standards for reliability, scalability and ease-of-use. Feature examples include, but are not limited to:
•        Multimedia Interaction Router/ACD
•        Multimedia switch
•        Real-time reporting and monitoring
•        Call recording and monitoring
•        Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
•        Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
•        Chat
•        Co-browsing
•        Knowledge Base
•        Self Help
•        Web Administration

About Contactual
Contactual was founded in 2000 as White PJ, Inc., with the goals of reducing costs and eliminating the risks companies face when deploying customer service automation solutions. The White PJ customer service automation center quickly established itself as an award-winning solution for small and medium call centers. In 2004, White PJ’s founder and CEO embarked on a successful business strategy that reinforces the company's key product advantages of scalability and reliability, targeting vertical industries that deal in mission critical data and services. With hundreds of companies using Contactual products, the company has matured and emerged as the leader in on-demand contact center products.  To match the new business strategy, a new company name (Contactual) was selected in 2004 to communicate the core value of the product. In January of 2005, NEC Business Solutions Australia was announced as Contactual’s first product licensee (Agent 99) for the Pacific Rim.  For more information, visit www.contactual.com.

*Contactual is a trademark of Contactual, Inc.  NEC and NEC Business Solutions are registered marks of NEC Corp., Agent 99 is a trademark of NEC Corp.