WITS Witness Systems (MM)

Witness Systems (NASDAQ: WITS), a leading global provider of workforce optimisation software and services, today announced that Sunderland City Council � which manages and holds responsibility for the public services provided for the city�s population � has deployed its Impact 360� Full-time Recording solution. The Council implemented the Impact 360 IP recording software in support of the Government�s Single Non-Emergency Number (SNEN) initiative. Under SNEN, Sunderland City Council uses the new �101� number to receive important, but non-emergency, calls for both Council and police services. The SNEN service was launched in the UK last year as one of the package measures to improve local communities, making them safer places to live and work. Calls to the 101 service � which can include reports of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and community safety issues � focus on eight main event types, such as vandalism, noisy neighbours, threatening and abusive behaviour, abandoned vehicles and fly tipping. Sunderland City Council is using Impact 360 Full-time Recording to capture all calls to its 101 service, providing both the police and the local Council with the ability to immediately record, replay, evaluate, store and retrieve its 101 calls, as well as search and access interactions based on specific call attributes. The solution was sold and implemented by JAM IP, a Witness Systems partner and specialist in the provision of Cisco Unified Contact Centre solutions. Fully tested and certified to work with Cisco�s IP technology, Impact 360 supports full-time recording to all the Council�s 54 IP phones � as well as integration into its Cisco Unified Contact Centre system. The full-time IP recording solution also provides the Council with the ability to search all captured interactions by call type. Each contact centre agent now has a skill group number indicating whether he/she is part of the 101, Benefits or Council Tax team. Additionally, recorded calls can be referenced by agent ID and DNIS, as well as by time and date � information that is important especially in the case of calls associated with crime cases, for example. Neil Scott, senior network engineer at Sunderland City Council commented, �Impact 360 Full-time Recording from Witness Systems has more than met our requirements. Our supervisors can now find, access and review call and voice recordings seamlessly, meeting our compliance requirements and making the task of quality analysis much easier. We�re also benefiting from the software�s ability to capture recorded calls and then e-mail them to relevant Council staff via a simple Web link. This flexibility is a key benefit across Sunderland City Council.� �The solution also has greatly improved the way our assessors listen to and evaluate calls, ensuring appropriate quality standards are maintained. The whole process of call and voice recording with Witness Systems and JAM IP has been easy to set up and is very straightforward to manage,� he continued. �Impact 360 Full-time Recording allows our customers to benefit from a reliable, flexible ease-of-use system. By incorporating JAM IP�s Cisco and IP expertise, we were able to deliver an innovative recording solution that precisely supports Sunderland City Council�s requirement for its 101 initiative,� added Chris Manton-Jones, vice president EMEA at Witness Systems. �Sunderland City Council quickly realised that Witness Systems and JAM IP offered a solution that could meet its compliance criteria in a single server environment. As leaders in the IP recording space, Witness Systems and its partners are ideally placed to help organisations, including local authorities, make full use of their telephone contacts by immediately recording, categorising and storing them � both for compliance and quality purposes. In addition, our Impact 360 solution is �future-proof� in that we can scale the recording system to meet growth requirements the Council may experience moving forward.� About 101 � The New Single Non-Emergency Number (SNEN) The UK Government made the commitment to introduce a Single Non-Emergency Number (SNEN) in its 2005 Election Manifesto, as part of the package of measures to improve community safety set out in the White Paper: �Building Communities, Beating Crime.� Jointly funded by the Home Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government, the 24/7 service provides action, advice and information to the public on ASB and community safety issues, greater coordination between local councils and police, better information about what problems are happening and where, and improved management of resources and services to the public. This year, the �101� non-emergency phone number was launched as the new 24-hour number in five �wave 1� areas across England and Wales. The 101 number is now live in Hampshire, The Isle of Wight, Cardiff, Leicester City and Rutland, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and Sheffield. About Impact 360 Impact 360 Full-time Recording is part of the comprehensive Impact 360 Workforce Optimisation solution from Witness Systems, and provides a flexible, software-only solution for full-time compliance, dispute resolution and sales verification recording, as well as quality assurance. It scales based on customer needs from a single location to a distributed, multi-site enterprise � capturing all interactions and assigning contact attributes for easy identification and reference. The solution also includes a single unified database that enables easy searches for specific interactions and the ability to export contacts and share them with other individuals and/or departments. About Sunderland City Council Sunderland City Council manages and is responsible for the public services provided for the city�s population of just under 300,000. Sunderland is the largest city between Edinburgh and Leeds and is situated on the north east coast of England, with access to some of the most beautiful countryside in England. www.sunderland.gov.uk About JAM IP JAM IP was created on 1st September 2004 following a MBO of the Convergence Solutions Business Unit of OAO Technology Solutions Ltd and was acquired by Kingston Communications (HULL) Plc on 18th December 2006. Combining technical capabilities in Cisco Unified Contact Centre solutions and application integration JAM IP�s aim is to provide a unique proposition that will transform how organisations engage with their customers and citizens. In October 2004 JAM IP was awarded Cisco Advanced Technology Partner status for Unified Contact Centres in recognition of its specialist skills in Unified Contact Centre solutions and its capability to plan, design, and implement complex Cisco solutions, including Unified Contact Centre Express, Unified Contact Centre Enterprise, Unified Intelligent Content Management Enterprise (ICM), ISN/CVP and Hosted Unified Contact Centre. JAM IP works with a select number of partners to deliver IP Contact Centre solutions to public sector organisations and household names within the commercial sector. About Witness Systems Witness Systems (NASDAQ: WITS) is the worldwide leader in software and services that help businesses capture customer intelligence and optimise their workforce performance. The company�s Impact 360� solution features quality monitoring, compliance and IP recording, workforce management, performance management, eLearning and customer feedback. Deployed in contact centres � as well as the remote, branch and back offices of global organisations � the workforce optimisation solution captures, analyses and enables users to share and act on cross-functional information across the enterprise. With Impact 360, organisations can improve interactions and the underlying back-office processes that enhance the customer experience and build customer loyalty. For more information, visit us at www.witness.com. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this release that involves expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. They are identified by words such as "will," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions and statements about present trends and conditions that may extend into the future. These statements are based upon information available to Witness Systems as of the date of this release, and the company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements believed true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control and may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Some of the factors that could cause actual future results to differ materially from current expectations include the company's ability to compete successfully in the future; the risks associated with new product introductions and customer acceptance of those products; fluctuations and changes in customer demand and preferences; the rapid technological change characteristic of the company's markets; the company's ability to manage its growth; the ability of the company to complete and integrate successfully any acquisitions or investments it may make; strategy and execution risks relating to acquisitions and investments; the timing of orders; the risks associated with international sales as the company expands its markets, including the risks associated with foreign currency exchange rates; the successful completion of the acquisition by Verint Systems Inc.; the risk of management distraction and other consequences that might result from the review of certain option grants and option granting practices described in the Current Report on Form 8-K filed by the Company on August 11, 2006 and related developments, as well as other risks identified under the caption "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Witness, Impact 360, Improve Everything and the Witness logo are the trademarks (registered or otherwise) of Witness Systems, Inc. protected by laws of the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.