FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CTI EXPO'99 BOOTH #937 

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Las Vegas, NV. (December 7, 1999) - Hammer Technologies today announced ON-SITE SLM (tm) services for continuous service level monitoring of production Interactive Voice Response (IVR) applications. The new service places automated test calls every 15 minutes into IVR applications to identify busy or out-of-order trunks, IVR port failures, prompt errors and slowdowns, database and host access issues, and other problems that can impact IVR application availability. If problems are found, the service will generate an immediate page to the appropriate technical support group, identifying the nature of the problem and where it was found. Using this service, companies can avoid undetected IVR outages and significantly reduce IVR application downtime. 

"This new service makes it fast and easy for IVR Support and Call Center Operations groups to implement continuous service level monitoring of IVR applications," said Brian Miller, General Manager of Hammer Technologies' Call Center Division. "Service level monitoring using actual test calls is important because many IVR access and availability problems can be invisible to traditional network-based monitoring tools. But they can be quickly found using Hammer's ON-SITE SLM testing service." 

Unlike network-based system monitoring tools, Hammer's ON-SITE SLM surveillance places actual test calls into IVR applications to determine if customers are encountering any problems. The unique, patented test system used by Hammer interacts with IVR applications just the way a customer would by "listening" to IVR prompts, determining if the right prompt is playing, and entering the appropriate responses to step through a call flow. Throughout a test call, the Hammer service takes timing measurements to check for possible problems. If at any point in the test call Hammer's ON-SITE SLM service does not get the expected response from the IVR or the response time exceeds a pre-established limit, the service can immediately page a technician to correct the problem. The page can indicate which IVR system the problem was encountered in and where in the call flow the problem occurred. This can mean significant timesavings in finding and correcting the source of IVR problems and getting IVR applications quickly back in service. 

Hammer's new ON-SITE SLM service is immediately available in the U.S. and Canada. The service includes a Hammer surveillance system installed on-site at the customer's location, development by a Hammer test engineer of up to five test scripts with up to fifteen points of measurement in each script, maintenance of those scripts by Hammer with up to ten changes per month total, real-time results reporting, problem alert paging to designated customer personnel, hardware and software maintenance, and remote system administration by Hammer. Pricing starts at $5,000 per month plus a $5,000 one time set-up charge. 

About Hammer Technologies 
Hammer Technologies, a Teradyne company (NYSE:TER), is one of the world's leading suppliers of Computer Telephony, Voice over IP, and Enhanced Services test systems to major call centers, telecommunications equipment vendors, and carriers. Hammer Technologies is headquartered in Wilmington, MA with sales offices in the U.S. and United Kingdom. Hammer test systems are widely used by call centers for continuous Quality of Service testing of automated customer service systems in addition to providing load, stress and feature/function testing of call center telecommunications systems and applications prior to deployment.