Angel.com Strengthens Leadership Position in Speech Technology Industry with Record Growth in 2004
Angel.com, a leading provider of web-based, advanced telephony solutions and a division of MicroStrategy(R) Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR), today announced a record performance in 2004 that included revenue growth of over 200 percent and a doubling of its customer base to more than 1,400. Angel.com, wi
MCLEAN, Va., (January 20, 2005) –
Angel.com, a leading provider of web-based, advanced telephony solutions and a division of MicroStrategy(R) Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR), today announced a record performance in 2004 that included revenue growth of over 200 percent and a doubling of its customer base to more than 1,400. Angel.com, with its innovative web-based solution that makes creating and managing interactive voice response (IVR) applications remarkably easy, accomplished its goal of entering the enterprise market by deploying applications for new customers including adidas, Reebok Outlet Stores, and KB Toys.
The new customers joined other satisfied small and medium businesses that rely on Angel.com for solutions that generate revenue, increase customer satisfaction, and reduce call center costs. Telephony solutions range from virtual receptionists to phone surveys, store locators, lead capture, and benefits enrollment applications. Angel.com customers span the country and vary in size from small businesses with just a few employees to large, multi- national corporations.
“Angel.com achieved notable success in 2004,” said president and founder Mike Zirngibl. “We expanded our customer base, continued to enhance our technology and, most importantly, successfully penetrated the enterprise market by delivering solutions to many well-known organizations. We are on course to become one of the leaders in the speech technology industry in 2005.”
Market Opportunity
In its most recent Voice Business Market Update, Datamonitor projects the voice business market to grow at a rate of 30 percent annually, from $1.0 billion in 2004 to $1.3 billion in 2005. For Angel.com, the market opportunity within this enormous segment derives from the acceptance by enterprise customers of web-based, hosted solutions.
“In 2005, the hosted IVR services segment should exhibit meaningful growth due to the continuous enterprise focus on cost reduction and customer service improvement,” said Datamonitor analyst Daniel Hong. “Companies and vendors alike have enhanced user interface design and introduced a number of innovative and successful voice-based marketing campaigns. All these factors should help increase the demand for voice solutions.”
Angel.com 2004 highlights included:
Awards/Accolades
* In June, PC Magazine published a glowing review of Angel.com, awarding the company’s core product 4.5 out of 5 stars and declaring that, “Any operation that can benefit from the business and image boost provided by an IVR should consider Angel seriously.”
* In September during the 10th annual SpeechTEK Conference, Angel.com president, Mike Zirngibl, was named by Speech Technology Magazine as one of the Top Ten Leaders in Speech.
* In April, AVIOS/SpeechTEK, the foremost authority on speech technology, issued the “Best Voice Portal Approach” award to Angel.com for its “low-cost custom voice solutions (Voice Sites) that leverage the web to build, manage and deploy applications for the SME market.”
Customer Wins
Examples of enterprise customer wins include:
* KB Toys — Just in time for the holidays, Angel.com built a voice site for KB Toys that provided consumers with store location information based on their zip code.
* adidas — To support the winter launch of the new David Beckham inspired Predator Pulse soccer shoe and apparel collection, Angel.com built a voice site for consumers to call in and listen to a message from Beckham about the new adidas line. The number is posted on in-store displays at Dick’s Sporting Goods and Sports Authority locations throughout the country, and provides adidas with store-specific tracking information.
* WageWorks — For WageWorks, a provider of outsourced benefits administration, Angel.com built a hosted call center management solution which automates specific caller transactions. WageWorks will use Angel.com to automate nearly 1 million calls in 2005.
Technology/Product Releases
* In September, Angel.com released Site Builder 2005(TM), the next generation product for the creation, deployment and maintenance of IVR applications.
* Also in September, the Company unveiled its new product suite of high-quality, low-cost packaged IVR applications called Enterprise Voice Sites(TM). Enterprise Voice Sites are a set of high-end, packaged IVR applications that allow businesses to increase customer satisfaction, collect valuable data, and automate routine tasks while lowering the costs of customer service.
* In December 2004, Angel.com released its revolutionary Virtual Call Center(TM) product, which can be used to manage the front-end of small to mid-sized call centers, all within Angel’s unique web-based interface.
About Angel.com
Angel.com is a leading provider of web-based, advanced telephony solutions. More than 1,400 customers turn to Angel.com to quickly deploy powerful applications using Angel.com’s patented Voice Site technology. These applications make IVR remarkably easy, and power customer service and marketing phone numbers using intelligent speech recognition technology. With an innovative web-based solution that requires no investment in hardware, software, or human resources, Angel.com balances the need for advanced communications with affordable, pay-as-you-go pricing.
About MicroStrategy
Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a worldwide leader in the business intelligence software market. Leading Fortune 2000 companies are increasingly integrating MicroStrategy’s business monitoring, reporting, and analysis software into their operations. The MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform(TM) distills vast amounts of data into vital insight to help drive cost-efficiency, revenue-generation, and productivity. Top companies are using MicroStrategy to cost-effectively empower thousands of employees, partners, and suppliers with the business insight they need to make better business decisions everyday.
MicroStrategy has over 2,800 enterprise-class customers, including General Motors, Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, Yahoo!, Visa International, Wells Fargo, Telecom Italia, AT&T Wireless Group and Aventis. MicroStrategy also has relationships with over 300 systems integrators and application development and platform partners, including IBM, PeopleSoft, Sun, HP, and Teradata, a division of NCR. MicroStrategy is listed on Nasdaq under the symbol MSTR. For more information or to purchase or demo MicroStrategy’s software, visit MicroStrategy’s Web site at http://www.microstrategy.com.
This press release may include statements that may constitute “forward- looking statements,” including its estimates of future business prospects or financial results and statements containing the words “believe,” “estimate,” “project,” “expect” or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results of MicroStrategy Incorporated and its subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company”) to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that could contribute to such differences include: the ability of the Company to implement and achieve widespread customer acceptance of its MicroStrategy 7i and MicroStrategy Report Services software on a timely basis; the Company’s ability to recognize deferred revenue through delivery of products or satisfactory performance of services; continued acceptance of the Company’s products in the marketplace; the timing of significant orders; delays in the Company’s ability to develop or ship new products; market acceptance of new products; competitive factors; general economic conditions; currency fluctuations; and other risks detailed in the Company’s registration statements and periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By making these forward-looking statements, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release.
MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform, MicroStrategy Report Services, MicroStrategy 7, Angel.com, MicroStrategy 7i, Site Builder 2005, Virtual Call Center, Enterprise Voice Sites are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Source: MicroStrategy