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HP and WebTone to Deliver Customer Interaction Solutions to Financial Services InstitutionsPALO ALTO, Calif. & ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 31, 2002--HP (NYSE:HPQ - News) and WebTone Technologies today announced an agreement to deliver customer interaction solutions targeted at the top 100 financial services institutions in North America. The solutions collect and manage customer interaction data while offering sales, service and fulfillment functionality for both institution-based and self-service transactions. By integrating these solutions into existing IT infrastructure, financial services institutions can expect to securely, reliably and profitably interact with customers across an entire enterprise -- spanning branches, contact centers, kiosks and Web sites. "This agreement allows HP and WebTone to harness their strengths into a combined offering that addresses all facets of an enterprise-wide customer interaction solution," said Jim Szyperski, chief executive officer, WebTone Technologies. "This combination represents a distinctive opportunity for our customers to purchase a pre-packaged total solution encompassing proven software, reliable hardware, financing and cost-efficient deployment options." According to TowerGroup, a research and advisory firm specializing in the financial services industry, U.S. banks will spend $1.6 billion, or 18 percent of their 2002 corporate banking IT expense, on customer technology. "HP and WebTone are helping financial services institutions to stretch their IT expenditures without sacrificing their ability to deliver consistent, predictable customer interactions across their entire enterprise," said Mark Bubar, worldwide director of Global Financial Solutions, HP Enterprise Systems Group. "In today's challenging market, financial institutions must continue to focus on improving customer service, customer retention and multi-channel integration." Under the terms of the agreement, HP and WebTone will jointly market, deploy and support a total solution consisting of WebTone's TouchPoint® customer interaction software suite and HP's services and technology, including HP ProLiant servers and HP StorageWorks storage systems. In addition, HP Services will provide customers with managed services and hosting capabilities while HP Financial Services will provide customers with flexible leasing and asset management options. HP and WebTone have recently worked with one of the nation's largest insurance companies to deploy TouchPoint's e-mail, secure messaging, Web-based self-help and contact management capabilities to more than 60,000 desktops within the organization's agent network and insurance consolidated centers. The software and HP hardware platform allows the organization to capture, store and disseminate more than 200 million customer interactions to more than 17,000 locations across the United States and Canada. About WebTone Technologies WebTone Technologies provides solutions that optimize the interaction between financial service institutions and their customers. The company's flagship solution, TouchPoint®, combines robust sales, service and fulfillment functionality with the latest in multi-channel interaction management to allow institutions to consistently, predictably and profitably interact with their customers across the entire enterprise. With its enterprise-wide reach and multi-channel functionality, TouchPoint enables a complete, 360-degree interaction between an institution and its customers. For more information, please visit www.webtonetech.com or call 866-WEBTONE. About HP HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP completed its merger transaction involving Compaq Computer Corp. on May 3, 2002. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com. This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any projections of earnings, revenues, or other financial items; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning proposed new products, services, or developments; any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance; statements of belief and any statement of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. The risks, uncertainties and assumptions referred to above include employee management issues; the timely development, production and acceptance of products and services and their feature sets; the challenge of managing asset levels, including inventory; the flow of products into third-party distribution channels; the difficulty of keeping expense growth at modest levels while increasing revenues; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to HP's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 30, 2002 and reports filed subsequent to HP's annual report on Form 10-K, as amended on January 30, 2002, for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2001. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements. Editorial Contact: Virginia Dimpfl HP 408/447-1695 virginia_dimpfl@hp.com top of page |
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