SoundBite Communications Solidifies Leadership Position within Automated Voice Messaging Market
Company Demonstrates Significant Momentum through Market Expansion, Increased Customer Adoption, Expanded Infrastructure and Industry Recognition
BURLINGTON, Mass. – December 5, 2006 – SoundBite Communications Inc., a leading provider of hosted, automated customer contact solutions, today announced a series of milestones that have established the company as a leader in the rapidly growing automated voice messaging (AVM) market. Highlights include significant customer adoption, resulting in increased market share; a greatly enhanced infrastructure including a new release of the award-winning SoundBite automated voice messaging solution; key executive appointments and industry recognition for SoundBite's automated customer contact solutions. As a result of its phenomenal growth and momentum, SoundBite projects that it will deliver 400 million messages this year, doubling the number of messages delivered in 2005.
Increased Customer Adoption and Market Growth
According to industry analyst Walt Tetschner of Tern Systems, the AVM market topped $360 million in 2005 and is poised for exponential growth, as evidenced by the rapid adoption of SoundBite's automated customer contact solutions. Significantly expanding its customer base over the past year, SoundBite currently serves more than 250 leading organizations across avariety of industries, including collections, financial services, telecommunications, utilities, insurance, healthcare, retail, and media. These companies rely on the SoundBite solution todeliver automated voice messages faster and more efficiently than traditional customer contact methods. When compared against other contact methods, SoundBite demonstrates a significant increase in call center productivity and response rates, drastically improving results and at a much lower cost.
Expanded Support Infrastructure and Product Innovation
To support its continued growth and provide customers with the industry's most competitive solution, SoundBite has made significant investments in its core technology and infrastructure. The company recently launched the latest version of the SoundBite solution, adding new productivity-enhancing features including Enterprise Manager, Campaign Strategy Manager and Call Forecasting, which dramatically increase an organization's ability to rapidly create, manage and execute highly effective, automated voice messaging campaigns.
In September, SoundBite received its SAS 70 Type I auditors' report, which confirmed the security and integrity of SoundBite's control objectives and activities. A key milestone in SoundBite's comprehensive, long-term security strategy, this independent audit is often required by financial institutions and other consumer-oriented businesses to safeguard sensitive customer data.SoundBite also has invested heavily in the expansion and upgrade of its facilities and support infrastructure. The company has distributed data centers and recently opened a major facility in Ashburn, VA, enabling it to stay ahead of capacity demands by 100 percent. By maintaining redundant operations, SoundBite is able to maximize uptime and ensure enterprise-class reliability – all of which are key requirements for an on-demand application service provider.
Senior Leadership to Drive Growth
SoundBite continues to attract highly skilled and experienced individuals to contribute to the company's growth and customer success. Most recently, SoundBite added Bob Leahy to the executive team as chief operating officer to focus on SoundBite's operational efficiency, financing activity and corporate development efforts. As the former chief financial officer and executive vice president for Brooktrout, Inc., (NASDAQ: BRKT), Mr. Leahy has more than 30 years of finance and operations experience in the high technology industry.
In addition, the company recently appointed Eric Giler and James Roszkowski to the SoundBite Board of Directors. Mr. Giler, CEO of Groove Mobile, brings 25 years of information technology experience, including deep domain expertise in the electronic messaging market, while Mr. Roszkowski has held numerous senior-level positions in the financial services industry, most notably senior executive vice president and senior operating committee member of MBNA America.
"SoundBite has benefited greatly from the phenomenal adoption of automated voice messaging solutions over the past two years, and we are well positioned to take further advantage of the growing demand for compelling customer contact solutions," said Peter Shields, president and CEO, SoundBite. “We have the necessary resources and talent in place to sustain our rapid growth and propel us to the next stage in our evolution, while continuing to deliver the industry's most innovative and effective automated customer contact solutions."
Industry Recognition
SoundBite continues to receive industry awards and accolades for its ongoing commitment to technical innovation and customer satisfaction. In November, Call Center Magazine honored SoundBite with the 2006 Annual Call Center Exhibition Best of Show Award for SoundBite 6.0. In March, Collection Technology News presented SoundBite with the Collection Technology Excellence Award, recognizing the company for its advances in messaging technology as well as enhancements to its core product.
About SoundBite Communications
SoundBite Communications is a leading provider of automated customer contact solutions that are fully hosted and available on-demand. The company's solutions help organizations growrevenue, improve customer service, and secure payments through an efficient, reliable and cost effective approach. SoundBite turns one-on-one customer contacts into results.
SoundBite's highly personalized calling and messaging solutions, used for sales, marketing, customer care and collections applications, reach customers faster and more effectively than any other customer contact alternative. Over 250 world-class organizations use SoundBite's solutions to deliver messages faster, increase call center productivity, improve results per customer contact and assess campaign results in real-time. Organizations across manyindustries use SoundBite including collections, financial services, retail, utilities, telecommunications, insurance, healthcare and media.
With over 500 million calls and 200 million messages delivered in 2005, SoundBite has the best practices know-how, virtually unlimited, on-demand capacity, and robust campaign applications to deliver the customer communication results demanded in today's competitive business environment.
SoundBite is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.SoundBite.com.