Cintech Announces Next Generation e-Contact Center fore-Business.

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 1999--

Cintech's NetVIA e-contact Center Solution Unifies

Voice, e-mail, and Web Interactions; Utilizes Leading Edge IP Technology to Enable Customer Interactions Anywhere, Anytime, Anyway

Cintech (TSE:CTM) today announced that

it has developed an IP-based, e-contact center solution that is affordable and easy to implement in departments, branch offices and other small- to mid-size entities throughout an enterprise. The solution, named NetVIA, is a critical component of a comprehensive e-business strategy. Using IP transport, it unifies voice, e-mail, and web contacts, thereby enabling customer interactions to occur virtually anywhere, anytime and in anyway the customer chooses. NetVIA reaches across the enterprise to connect departments, branch offices, at-home workers and mobile workers into an integrated, virtual organization, and delivers the customer contact to the most qualified agent or subject-matter expert, regardless of where they are located in the enterprise. It also serves as an e-business-to-business (e-B2B) solution, allowing businesses to interact in diverse ways, supporting interactions with front- and back-office systems, and serving as a portal into the enterprise.

"Cintech is launching the next generation of call centers -- the e-contact center," said Diane M. Kamionka, Cintech President and CEO. "Today's e-business is integrating Internet technologies into all of its core business processes, from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to Supply Chain Management (SCM). Utilizing the same open-standards IP network, the e-contact center is, essentially, the `front door' or entryway into the e-business. And, at the same time, the e-contact center is effectively `de-centering' the traditional call center, by allowing remote resources, such as branch offices or departments, to join in a virtual community across the enterprise to participate in, and drive the customer interaction process. Our NetVIA technology will enable enterprises of all sizes to compete in the "new world" communications landscape that has the Internet at its core."

Today's announcement builds on Cintech's market leadership and extensive expertise in delivering small- to mid-size call center solutions and services. The NetVIA solution is targeted to the market that Cintech knows best -- the enterprise with small to mid-size contact center environments such as departments, branch offices, and workgroups, and small and medium size businesses.

NetVIA e-Contact Center Highlights

-- Unifies multi-media contacts including voice, e-mail and web

interactions.

-- A true IP-based solution. Beyond web-enabled, it leverages a

converged network making it location neutral. It connects

departments, at-home-workers, branch offices, work groups, etc,

that are distributed across the enterprise into a virtual

customer interaction community. By virtue of the IP network,

management of the virtual e-contact center is facilitated through

remote administration and consolidated management information

(reports and real-time statistics).

-- A revolutionary technology that is engineered for an

open-standards environment, allowing for simpler and faster

application and database integration.

-- Leverages existing investments in voice/telephony networks by

interacting with traditional, circuit-switch telephony

environments, including PBXs, Key Systems, and Centrex.

-- Leverages existing investments in data networks, including

LANs/WANs/VPNs and IP transport technologies, including Frame

Relay, ATM, T-1/T-3, xDSL and cable modem.

-- The value proposition to the customer includes consistent service

across all types of media, access to remote resources via a

virtual environment, increased productivity and profitability,

enhanced management capabilities, and increased customer

responsiveness and satisfaction.

-- Following an end-to-end delivery approach, the NetVIA solution is

a comprehensive offering that includes the software, hardware and

services necessary to assist customers in deploying an IP-based

e-contact center. Cintech will partner with leading e-business

technology experts to provide extensive services, and with

service providers to provide transport and connectivity in

addition to the distribution of solutions and services.

NetVIA Solution Means Virtual Interactions...Anywhere, Anytime,

Anyway.

NetVIA uses IP transport and connectivity that is achieved through a network of LANs/WANs/VPNs, to connect internal and external resources anywhere access is available, thereby eliminating physical, geography-centric boundaries. In contrast to traditional call centers or web-enabled contact centers, the IP-based NetVIA application effectively "de-centers" the call center by reaching across and beyond an enterprises' network, creating a virtual community out of a dispersed, global enterprise.

"Customers are communicating in new and diverse ways, and expectations for service, regardless of the chosen media, is rising," continued Ms. Kamionka. "The NetVIA solution, through leading edge IP technology, unifies the most prolific points of entry into an enterprise -- voice, e-mail and web -- and enables the enterprise to build a virtual environment that brings together value-added resources from across the enterprise."

"We took a completely new approach to engineering NetVIA," said Bryant A. Downey, Cintech Chief Technology Officer. "Unlike other multi-media contact center applications, NetVIA was engineered from the ground up and resides on the data network. The power of this lies in the inherent advantages of the IP network, such as location or geographic neutrality, telephony switch technology indifference, open-standards for easier integration, and transport independence. This architecture enables NetVIA to combine all customer interactions, whether voice, e-mail, or web, in a single system, providing not only consistent treatment across all media types but also consolidated statistics, reporting, and management. NetVIA is different because it embraces the IP network, taking full advantage of flexibility."

Small- to Mid-Sized Entities (SME) within Enterprises to Benefit.

Enterprises with multiple small- to mid-size business entities (SMEs) such as departments, branch offices, workgroups, and at-home workers, stand to benefit from the NetVIA offering. "Because of the multitude of technologies through which customers may communicate with companies, the contact center is one of the primary areas in the enterprise that will show benefits of the flexibility of IP-based communications systems," stated Drew Kraus, senior analyst at Dataquest. "The value of the IP-based contact center application such as Cintech's NetVIA, is that organizations of all sizes, from the global enterprise with multiple smaller offices to the small single-site business, can all compete on a level playing field, and can in fact differentiate themselves cost-effectively."

"We hope to realize tremendous value from NetVIA by streamlining our customer interaction processes, ultimately making us more competitive, more efficient and more productive," commented Andrew Fessler, Senior Support Engineer at Allegro, (a subsidiary of mail.com) an Internet e-mail gateway company. "Today, we have numerous, disparate processes that are often manual, repetitive, and rely on the employees to be effective. Although our overall service levels are high, these incongruent processes mean our employees are under tremendous pressure to keep our multiple databases updated, answer our helpdesk e-mail consistently, and log customer calls. NetVIA should allow us to bring our customer interaction processes in sync, to handle any type of media contact, to integrate with our databases, and overall create a fluid, streamlined environment for working with our business customers."

An End-to-End Offering

The NetVIA offering encompasses four critical components: 1) software-engineered by Cintech; 2) hardware servers and VoIP gateways; 3) transport and connectivity - provided by service providers in addition to using existing voice and data networks, and; 4) services - ranging from e-business consulting through contact center deployment. "Cintech will partner with leading e-business experts and service providers to deliver an end-to-end offering that encompasses software, hardware and services," explained Troy Gross, Cintech Director of Business and Market Development. "We believe it is important to partner with the right vendors to assist customers as they evolve to e-businesses and adopt NetVIA as their e-contact center solution. It's not enough to offer a standalone solution. We recognize that the e-contact center must become an integrated part of the e-business environment. We will bring the best partners together to deliver the solution, the services and the expertise."

About Cintech

Cintech is a leading provider of contact center solutions and services. Over ten years ago, Cintech broke new ground by introducing PC-based call center solutions to the then undeveloped small- to mid-size call center market. Today, the smaller call center market flourishes and Cintech is a leading provider of solutions to this market with nearly 8,000 installations. Its customers range from small and mid-size businesses to global enterprises implementing departmental, branch office, and workgroup call centers. In 1999, exploiting the Company's unique knowledge and focus on the small- to mid-size call center within an enterprise, Cintech developed a true IP-based e-contact center solution that enables an enterprise to support its e-business strategy.

Cintech solutions and services are marketed and sold through its Business Partners including IBM, Nortel Networks and NEC. The distribution networks of its Business Partners include companies such as Williams Communications, GTE, Sprint, Ameritech and Bell Canada. For more information on Cintech, visit the web site at www.cintech-cti.com.

For more information on Cintech's strategy for delivering NetVIA as a component of an end-to-end e-business solution, see today's press release entitled, "Cintech's `e-Contact Center' Technology to be Marketed by IBM,'" or visit www.cintech-cti.com/netvia.

NetVIA is a trademark of Cintech Tele-Management Systems, Inc.

Certain statements in this news release (for example, statements using the expressions "the Company expects" or "the Company anticipates" and other similar statements) contain "forward looking" information (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) involving risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, projections for sales and expenditures, and various business environment and trend projections. Actual future results and trends may differ materially depending on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the risks discussed in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors are encouraged to consider the risks detailed in those filings.