Drew Knowland 
Hammer Technologies 
(978) 661-1213 
drew.knowland@ham.com 

WILMINGTON, Mass. (December 6, 1999) - Hammer Technologies today announced a new packaged solution for testing Interactive Voice Response (IVR) applications that can reduce test development time for new releases by up to 50% and follow-on releases by up to 70%. The new Hammer Regression Pack (tm) makes it possible for application developers to automatically generate and execute a complete set of feature/function tests for complex IVR applications from a simple call flow diagram. In addition to cutting test development time, the Hammer Regression Pack can dramatically reduce the number of undiscovered bugs in new or modified IVR applications by enabling exhaustive automated tests that duplicate real-world call traffic before applications are released for use. 

"Most IVR applications developers today test their applications by manually placing a small number of test calls and stepping through various call paths to try and find errors," noted Drew Knowland, director of marketing for Hammer's Call Center Business Unit. "Manual testing uncovers only about 50% of the bugs in applications. The tools in Hammer Regression Pack makes it possible to deploy error-free applications." 

The Hammer Regression Pack combines the industry standard Hammer IT (tm) test platform with the new Hammer CallMaster test-generation toolset. 

"With Hammer CallMaster, we now have a way to comprehensively test applications before they are released in production," said Cliff Sentell, senior IVR developer at NewSub Services, Inc., a leading affinity marketing company. "It has taken us to the next level in testing." 

Using Hammer CallMaster, applications developers can generate comprehensive, automated test scripts for IVR applications directly from a call flow diagram. To build the diagram, developers simply click-and-place call flow icons from a palette of standard or custom icons. The toolset's test generation algorithm finds an optimal set of test paths that cover all data and call flow icons in the diagram, and then produces a complete, compiled, ready-to-run set of test scripts on the Hammer system. Tests for new features or enhancements can be created in seconds by modifying the call flow diagram and re-running Hammer CallMaster. Application call flows are documented automatically, as a by-product of the test development process. 

Patented automated prompt recognition capabilities provided by the Hammer IT ensure that the right prompts are playing at every point in an application's call flow without requiring a developer to physically listen to each prompt, conserving valuable development resources. 

By automating test development and test execution, the Hammer Regression Pack enables organizations to reduce the programming skill required for generating high-quality IVR tests and, at the same time, improve the reliability of IVR applications going to market.

The Hammer Regression Pack is available immediately. Prices start at $99,000 for a Hammer IT base system with four ports of prompt recognition, rackmount chassis, T-1 card, single-user Hammer CallMaster license package, Hammer CallMaster QuickStart support package, training, and installation. 

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 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 telecommunications systems and applications prior to deployment. Hammer IT, Hammer CallMaster, and Hammer Regression Pack are trademarks of Hammer Technologies and Teradyne, Inc.