Kana and Aspect Communications Sign Global Strategic Alliance to Provide Enterprise Relationship Management Solutions
Market Demand for Internet-Architected Solutions Drives Industry Leaders To Provide Complete Offering to Build Today's eBusiness
SAN JOSE and REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Kana Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: KANA - news), a leading provider of enterprise relationship management (eRM) solutions, and Aspect Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: ASPT - news), the leading provider of customer relationship portals, today announced a global strategic alliance that will integrate the award-winning Aspect® Customer Relationship Portal and Web Interaction offering with Kana's industry-leading Internet-architected eRM solution. With this joint eBusiness solution, businesses will leverage the promise of the Internet, such as easy access, maintenance, scalability and affordability, and reap benefits beyond what more limited client-server architectures offer. Businesses will benefit from the ability to foster and manage relationships, along the enterprise, employing all communication touch points.
The Aspect/Kana partnership provides for the integration of the industry-leading Aspect Customer Relationship Portal application software with Kana's eRM suite. With the combined solution, organizations manage all interactions, across all touch points, on a fully scalable and modular Internet-architected platform. The Aspect/Kana alliance enables companies to:
Reap full benefits from the scalability, affordability and universal accessibility provided by the Internet architecture instead of more expensive and complicated client-server architectures
Deliver a consistent, intelligent and personalized experience across all points of contact including phone, Web, e-mail, wireless devices and storefront
Manage customer and partner relationships across marketing, sales and service systems
Tie eBusiness applications together in a highly scalable, flexible and modular platform
Optimize the productivity and decision-making capability of all customer-facing employees, customers and partners
Retain and develop profitable customer relationships by delivering superior service and proactively selling the solutions that satisfy customer needs
``The alliance enables us to deliver on the promise of the Internet -- ubiquitous access and cost-effectiveness -- with immediate benefits, such as rapid development, unparalleled scalability, reliability and ease of maintenance,'' said Beatriz Infante, president and CEO of Aspect. ``Aspect and Kana solutions were both created to manage customer communications over all channels. The alliance enables customers to fully reap the benefits of that goal and sees the completion of a truly comprehensive and Internet-architected customer relationship management solution.''
``Customers have been demanding the mission-critical eBusiness solutions provided by Aspect's Customer Relationship Portal offering and Kana's eRM suite,'' said Michael McCloskey, CEO of Kana. ``Together, Aspect and Kana empower eBusinesses to deliver to their customers a consistent and personalized experience across all communication touch points. Through this alliance, our customers will be able to quickly and cost-effectively deploy an eBusiness strategy that optimizes all relationships wherever customer or partner interaction meets the business.''
Aspect Communications
Aspect Communications Corporation is the leading provider of customer relationship portals, a software platform for building and deploying eCRM applications that enable businesses to ensure consistent interactions with their customers from one centrally managed eBusiness system. Aspect's leadership position in customer relationship management solutions is based on its 15-year history and more than 7,600 customer contact center implementations. Aspect is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with offices in major cities worldwide. For more information about Aspect, visit the company's Web site at aspect.com or call 877-621-3692.
Kana Communications, Inc.
Kana Communications, Inc., a leading provider of Internet-architected enterprise relationship management solutions, delivers a broad range of world-class, integrated eBusiness and interaction applications with a modular and scalable platform for both Internet and Global 2000 companies. Kana solutions deliver personal portals that offer customers, partners and the enterprise a global view of their communications and relationships. This global view includes managing the full set of communications channels such as e-mail, Web, chat, instant message, VoIP, phone and person-to-person, as well as eBusiness and communications applications to integrate the marketing, sales and service functions. This full-service suite enables eBusinesses to compete and succeed in today's customer-driven economy. For more information about the solutions found in more than 850 companies, including eight of the 10 most trafficked Web sites, please visit Kana at kana.com .
NOTE: Aspect, the Aspect logo, the phrase ``The Starting Point for eBusiness,'' and the phrases and marks relating to other Aspect products and services discussed in this press release constitute one or both of the following: (1) registered trademarks and/or service marks of Aspect Communications Corporation in the United States and/or other countries or (2) intellectual property subject to protection under common law principles. All other names and marks mentioned in this document are properties of their respective owners.
NOTE: Kana Communications, Kana, and the Kana logo are trademarks of Kana Communications, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Notes Regarding Forward-looking Statements Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Examples include statements regarding Aspect's products' abilities, and Aspect/Kana joint eBusiness solutions' abilities, to help businesses to: foster and manage relationships; ensure consistent interactions with their customers from one centrally managed eBusiness system; and reap the benefits of the Internet, including rapid development, unparalleled scalability, reliability, ease of maintenance, optimized worker productivity, and development and retention of profitable customer relationships. Examples also include statements regarding market demand for Internet-architected solutions and planned future integrations of Kana and Aspect technology. Because such statements deal with future events, they are subject to various risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from the company's current expectations. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: any unforeseen technical difficulties or product errors related to Aspect's products or connectivity to third parties' technology; difficulties in meeting customer specifications or in providing installation or maintenance services; unforeseen developments in customer service operations; difficulties in coordinating the alliance of two companies that operate independently, including coordination of training, deployment, sales, and marketing efforts; and other factors and risks discussed in Aspect's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999, Aspect's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2000, and June 30, 2000, and other filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Aspect assumes no obligation to update information concerning its expectations.
In addition, information in this release that involves Kana's expectations, beliefs, hopes, plans, intentions, or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements include statements about Kana's strategies in the marketplace, its market position, and its relationship with customers. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to Kana as of the date of the release, and Kana assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results could differ materially from Kana's current expectations. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the successful integration of Silknet, competition, increased competition due to Kana's expanded product offering, risks associated with the evolving and varying demand for customer communication software, Kana's ability to expand its operations, the successful integration of BEI and NetDialog, acceptance of e-mail and the Internet as communications media, litigation over property rights, and general economic factors. These and other factors are risks associated with Kana's business that may affect Kana's operating results and are discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (``SEC'') including Kana's registration statements on Form S-4 and S-1, Annual Report on Form 10-K, and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.
SOURCE: Aspect Communications Corporation |
