AVST
Encyclopedia
Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) is a privately held
software company in the telecommunication industry
, headquartered in Orange County, California
. It specializes in developing business-level communications solutions focusing on medium to large enterprise, government, higher education and healthcare markets.
The company is known for its primary product, a speech-enabled unified communications
platform, called CallXpress. It includes advanced call processing
, voicemail
, unified messaging
, personal assistant
, fax
, speech
, and notification
capabilities. AVST is one of the few switch independent developers of unified messaging
/unified communications
solutions.
and Unified Messaging
product line from Captaris and this merger of technologies became a new entity called Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST). The acquisition included the retention of key products and technology as well as the entire product engineering, support and sales teams. AVST was established in September 2003 by the merger of Sound Advantage (established in 1997) and the AVT division (established in 1982) of Captaris, Inc. (NASDAQ
: CAPA).
The first AVST release, CallXpress 7.0, was in April 2004. Frost & Sullivan recognized AVST with the 2004 Entrepreneurial Company Award for its sound marketing strategy and identification of a new and exceptional product solution. In September 2004, AVST announced further validation of its strength in the market by procuring $10 million in new funding from Ignition Partners and Dolphin Equity Partners. Shortly after, in November 2004, AVST introduced CallXpress 7.5 which provided the Centigram telephone user interface emulation. CallXpress 7.5 also offered user administration via Microsoft
Active Directory and SMTP message notification.
In 2005, AVST expanded worldwide by adding 30 new resellers to its list of channel partners. Some of the significant partnerships include Shared Technologies and NetVersant. In May 2005, the company released another version of its product, CallXpress 7.7, which emulated the Octel Serenade (VMX) telephone user interface. CallXpress 7.7 received the Frost & Sullivan 2005 Product Differentiation Innovation Award for the North American enterprise voice and unified messaging
solutions market.
In 2006, VARBusiness awarded AVST with Five Star Partner Program Winner for its innovative Marketing in a Box (MIB) program, which enables resellers to brand their AVST business through effective communication with customers and prospects. Version 7.8 of CallXpress was released on June 2006. It emulated the Avaya
Intuity Audix
user interface.
In February 2007, AVST made a contribution to market awareness with the launch of a unified messaging educational website. This website is an information portal containing white papers, industry research, videos, case studies and recent industry news on unified messaging and unified communications. The site is being hosted by ITworld.com and AVST is being its sponsor.
In June 2007, the company unveils CallXpress 7.9 that offered four types (called the four flavors) of unified messaging
: server-based; client-based; secure and simplified. To assist the easy acquisition
of complete solutions for businesses of any size, in August 2007, AVST introduced the CallXpress Speed Bundles. The solution was designed to support the small to medium business (SMB) marketplace.
In 2008, AVST was named the top Unified Messaging Provider according to COMMfusion report. The company was identified as having the most complete UM solution. At the end of 2008, the company's product was enhanced with the speech-to-text feature (STT).
In March 2009, AVST shipped CallXpress 8.0 to provide a fault tolerant system through its multi-server architecture. The solution also delivered Neverfail continuous availability
and disaster recovery deployment options.
In 2010, AVST acquired Active Voice, a division of NEC Corporation of America
. NEC
became AVST's OEM partner, integrating CallXpress 8.0 Unified Communications
platform with NEC
's IP telephony and Unified Communications
solutions.
: CAPA) and Escalate Capital Partners are minority shareholders.
Since September 2003, AVST is under the leadership of the President
& CEO, Hardy Myers. The company's Board of Directors
is in charge of supervising the strategic direction, business, operations and organizational structure of AVST. Current members of The Board of Directors of AVST are: Steve Hooper, Pat Howard, Dennis O'Connell, and Charles Stevens.
All of AVST's sales are realized through indirect channels. Company's Unified Communications solutions are sold and supported by a network of resellers and OEM partners including Advanced Call Processing, Altura Communications Solutions, Black Box Network Services, Cincinnati Bell Inc., NEC
, Qwest Communications, Shared Technologies, Verizon Business
, Westcon Group, and Aastra AB. The company has strong ties with IBM
.
(Unity) systems, Microsoft
(Exchange) and Avaya
. AVST also competes with: Siemens
and Interactive Intelligence.
Privately held company
A privately held company or close corporation is a business company owned either by non-governmental organizations or by a relatively small number of shareholders or company members which does not offer or trade its company stock to the general public on the stock market exchanges, but rather the...
software company in the telecommunication industry
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
, headquartered in Orange County, California
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
. It specializes in developing business-level communications solutions focusing on medium to large enterprise, government, higher education and healthcare markets.
The company is known for its primary product, a speech-enabled unified communications
Unified communications
Unified communications is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging , presence information, telephony , video conferencing, data sharing , call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified...
platform, called CallXpress. It includes advanced call processing
Call processing
In telecommunication, the term call processing has the following meanings:# The sequence of operations performed by a switching system from the acceptance of an incoming call through the final disposition of the call...
, voicemail
Voicemail
Voicemail is a computer based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to individuals, organizations, products and services, using an ordinary telephone...
, unified messaging
Unified messaging
Unified Messaging is the integration of different electronic messaging and communications media technologies into a single interface, accessible from a variety of different devices....
, personal assistant
Personal assistant
A personal assistant or personal aide is someone who assists in daily business or personal tasks. It is common in design to have a PDA, or personal design assistant....
, fax
Fax
Fax , sometimes called telecopying, is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material , normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device...
, speech
Speech recognition
Speech recognition converts spoken words to text. The term "voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to recognition systems that must be trained to a particular speaker—as is the case for most desktop recognition software...
, and notification
Notification system
A modern notification system is a combination of software and hardware that provides a means of delivering a message to a set of recipients. For example, notification systems can send an e-mail when a new topic has been added to Wikipedia. The complexity of the notification system is often...
capabilities. AVST is one of the few switch independent developers of unified messaging
Unified messaging
Unified Messaging is the integration of different electronic messaging and communications media technologies into a single interface, accessible from a variety of different devices....
/unified communications
Unified communications
Unified communications is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging , presence information, telephony , video conferencing, data sharing , call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified...
solutions.
Corporate history
The company's history goes back to the 1980s when the first versions of Intel server based voice messaging and call processing systems were released. CallXpress originated from Applied Voice Technology (AVT) which later became Captaris, Inc. In 2003, Sound Advantage purchased the CallXpress VoicemailVoicemail
Voicemail is a computer based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to individuals, organizations, products and services, using an ordinary telephone...
and Unified Messaging
Unified messaging
Unified Messaging is the integration of different electronic messaging and communications media technologies into a single interface, accessible from a variety of different devices....
product line from Captaris and this merger of technologies became a new entity called Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST). The acquisition included the retention of key products and technology as well as the entire product engineering, support and sales teams. AVST was established in September 2003 by the merger of Sound Advantage (established in 1997) and the AVT division (established in 1982) of Captaris, Inc. (NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
: CAPA).
The first AVST release, CallXpress 7.0, was in April 2004. Frost & Sullivan recognized AVST with the 2004 Entrepreneurial Company Award for its sound marketing strategy and identification of a new and exceptional product solution. In September 2004, AVST announced further validation of its strength in the market by procuring $10 million in new funding from Ignition Partners and Dolphin Equity Partners. Shortly after, in November 2004, AVST introduced CallXpress 7.5 which provided the Centigram telephone user interface emulation. CallXpress 7.5 also offered user administration via Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Active Directory and SMTP message notification.
In 2005, AVST expanded worldwide by adding 30 new resellers to its list of channel partners. Some of the significant partnerships include Shared Technologies and NetVersant. In May 2005, the company released another version of its product, CallXpress 7.7, which emulated the Octel Serenade (VMX) telephone user interface. CallXpress 7.7 received the Frost & Sullivan 2005 Product Differentiation Innovation Award for the North American enterprise voice and unified messaging
Unified messaging
Unified Messaging is the integration of different electronic messaging and communications media technologies into a single interface, accessible from a variety of different devices....
solutions market.
In 2006, VARBusiness awarded AVST with Five Star Partner Program Winner for its innovative Marketing in a Box (MIB) program, which enables resellers to brand their AVST business through effective communication with customers and prospects. Version 7.8 of CallXpress was released on June 2006. It emulated the Avaya
Avaya
Avaya Inc. is a privately held computer networking, information technology and telecommunications company that is a global provider of business communications systems. The international head quarters is in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States...
Intuity Audix
AUDIX
AUDIX is a Voicemail server intended to be used with Lucent/Avaya PBXes. It features many integrations with Avaya's PBXes, such as capturing the extension of the calling party and pronouncing that person's name when announcing the attributes of a message,...
user interface.
In February 2007, AVST made a contribution to market awareness with the launch of a unified messaging educational website. This website is an information portal containing white papers, industry research, videos, case studies and recent industry news on unified messaging and unified communications. The site is being hosted by ITworld.com and AVST is being its sponsor.
In June 2007, the company unveils CallXpress 7.9 that offered four types (called the four flavors) of unified messaging
Unified messaging
Unified Messaging is the integration of different electronic messaging and communications media technologies into a single interface, accessible from a variety of different devices....
: server-based; client-based; secure and simplified. To assist the easy acquisition
Takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company by another . In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to the acquisition of a private company.- Friendly takeovers :Before a bidder makes an offer for another...
of complete solutions for businesses of any size, in August 2007, AVST introduced the CallXpress Speed Bundles. The solution was designed to support the small to medium business (SMB) marketplace.
In 2008, AVST was named the top Unified Messaging Provider according to COMMfusion report. The company was identified as having the most complete UM solution. At the end of 2008, the company's product was enhanced with the speech-to-text feature (STT).
In March 2009, AVST shipped CallXpress 8.0 to provide a fault tolerant system through its multi-server architecture. The solution also delivered Neverfail continuous availability
Continuous Availability
Continuous Availability is an approach to computer system and application design that protects users against downtime, whatever the cause and ensures that users remain connected to their documents, data files and business applications. Continuous availability describes the information technology...
and disaster recovery deployment options.
In 2010, AVST acquired Active Voice, a division of NEC Corporation of America
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
. NEC
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
became AVST's OEM partner, integrating CallXpress 8.0 Unified Communications
Unified communications
Unified communications is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging , presence information, telephony , video conferencing, data sharing , call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified...
platform with NEC
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
's IP telephony and Unified Communications
Unified communications
Unified communications is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging , presence information, telephony , video conferencing, data sharing , call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified...
solutions.
Corporate information
AVST is a privately-owned company. Company's major institutional investors are Ignition Partners, Seattle, Washington and Dolphin Equity Partners, New York. Captaris, Inc. (NASDAQNASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
: CAPA) and Escalate Capital Partners are minority shareholders.
Since September 2003, AVST is under the leadership of the President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
& CEO, Hardy Myers. The company's Board of Directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
is in charge of supervising the strategic direction, business, operations and organizational structure of AVST. Current members of The Board of Directors of AVST are: Steve Hooper, Pat Howard, Dennis O'Connell, and Charles Stevens.
All of AVST's sales are realized through indirect channels. Company's Unified Communications solutions are sold and supported by a network of resellers and OEM partners including Advanced Call Processing, Altura Communications Solutions, Black Box Network Services, Cincinnati Bell Inc., NEC
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
, Qwest Communications, Shared Technologies, Verizon Business
Verizon Business
Verizon Business is one of three operating units of Verizon Communications It was created in 2006 when Verizon Communications closed on its merger with MCI, Inc..Verizon Business has over 30,000 employees with 321 offices in 75 countries...
, Westcon Group, and Aastra AB. The company has strong ties with IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
.
Competition
The major competition for AVST comes from CiscoCisco
Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore...
(Unity) systems, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
(Exchange) and Avaya
Avaya
Avaya Inc. is a privately held computer networking, information technology and telecommunications company that is a global provider of business communications systems. The international head quarters is in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States...
. AVST also competes with: Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
and Interactive Intelligence.