SupportSoft Further Automates Customer Service For BellSouth(email this article)

Redwood City, CA – September 16, 2003 -- SupportSoft (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies), Inc. (Nasdaq: SPRT), a leading provider of service and support automation software, today announced that BellSouth has chosen SupportSoft as a software vendor for complete service automation to support all of BellSouth’s retail DSL Internet access subscribers.  BellSouth’s purchase of SupportSoft’s SmartAccessÔ, HomeNetÔ, and Knowledge CenterÔ products is in addition to BellSouth’s previous deployment of SupportSoft’s Service Automation SuiteÔ, which helps BellSouth provide superior customer service to its broadband customers daily.

“Customer satisfaction is the top priority for BellSouth. Working with SupportSoft’s solutions, BellSouth delivers a superior and simplified customer support experience with solutions for maximizing Internet performance and resolving issues,” said Scott Peters, Vice President of Customer Support for BellSouth.  “Online support utilizing SupportSoft software has not only helped BellSouth realize operational efficiencies, but has also helped us maintain high customer satisfaction ratings.”
BellSouth’s purchase of SmartAccess software can help BellSouth to integrate its installation process with its full suite of support automation solutions to both improve the customer experience and reduce support costs. SupportSoft’s Knowledge Center Suite can provide BellSouth’s customers and service representatives with faster access to more relevant information to answer “how to” questions, personalized to the customer’s needs and computing system.  And finally, SupportSoft’s HomeNet software can enable BellSouth to offer customers an easy solution for pre-qualifying, installing, configuring and receiving ongoing support for a home network.  

SupportSoft’s HomeNet recently was recognized by a panel of industry experts as a “Most Promising Network Technology in 2003” at SuperComm - the telecommunications industry's premier annual communications infrastructure exhibition and conference.

“BellSouth and SupportSoft share a common business philosophy: the customer comes first.  We are proud and delighted to assist BellSouth in enhancing the service they deliver to their customers,” said Radha Basu, Chairman and CEO of SupportSoft.  “We are enabling our service provider customers to scale their business and drive top line growth by helping them activate subscribers and deliver new services faster and in a more cost-effective manner.  BellSouth’s choice of our software was even more gratifying because it was based on the positive results they have already achieved using our software, with the promise of even greater results to come through standardizing on one, comprehensive service automation solution for their broadband subscribers.”    

Among its many customers, SupportSoft counts 6 out of the top 7 North American broadband service providers.  

About BellSouth
BellSouth Corporation is a Fortune 100 communications services company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth serves more than 45 million local, long distance, Internet and wireless customers in the United States and 14 other countries.

Consistently recognized for customer satisfaction, BellSouth provides a full array of broadband data solutions to large, medium and small businesses.  In the residential market, BellSouth offers DSL high-speed Internet access, advanced voice features and other services.  BellSouth also offers long distance service throughout its markets, serving both business and residential customers.  The company’s BellSouth AnswersSM package combines local and long distance service with an array of calling features; wireless data, voice and e-mail services; and high-speed DSL or dial-up Internet service.  BellSouth also provides online and directory advertising services through BellSouth® RealPages.comSM and The Real Yellow Pages®.  

BellSouth owns 40 percent of Cingular Wireless, the nation's second largest wireless company, which provides innovative data and voice services.

About SupportSoft
SupportSoft (Nasdaq: SPRT) is a leading provider of service and support automation and endpoint management software for corporate enterprises and broadband service providers worldwide. SupportSoft's patented software platform allows businesses to automate and personalize the support they provide to their customers, partners and employees, helping them reduce costs, increase revenues and drive user satisfaction. Global 2000 companies using SupportSoft's comprehensive family of software solutions include enterprises like Procter & Gamble, Clorox, GE, Cisco Systems, Bank of America, NEC, BT and Schlumberger, broadband providers like Comcast, BellSouth and Cox Communications, OEMs and System Integrators like IBM, Sony, Siebel Systems and CSC. SupportSoft has offices and customers located throughout the world. For more information, visit www.supportsoft.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including the statements about the expected benefits from the SupportSoft solution and the announced customer’s planned use of the solution, which are subject to significant risks and uncertainties including but not limited to the time and effort required to configure, test and deploy the software, the announced customer’s continued acceptance and usage of the solution, technical challenges specific to the announced customer’s implementation of the solution, and competition from other vendors. Additional risks and uncertainties are set forth in SupportSoft’s SEC filings. SupportSoft assumes no obligation to update the information in this press release.