industry unified communications software founded september 2003 headquarters foothill ranch california key people hardy myers president & ceo products unified communications solutions website www.avst.com applied voice & speech technologies inc. avst is a privately held software company headquartered in orange county california . it specializes in developing business communications solutions focusing on medium to large enterprise government higher education healthcare and hospitality markets . 1 2 3 4 the company is known for its primary product a speech enabled unified communications platform called cx e formerly callxpress . cx e applications include call processing voicemail unified messaging personal assistant mobile client automated attendant uniform call distribution ucd fax speech notification and other business process capabilities . avst is one of the few switch independent developers of unified messaging unified communications solutions . 5 contents 1 corporate history 1.1 early years 1982 2009 1.2 2010 present 2 products and solutions 3 corporate information 4 competition 5 see also 6 references 7 external links corporate history edit early years 1982 2009 edit the company s history goes back to the 1980s when the first versions of intel server based voice messaging and call processing systems were released . 6 the callxpress product originated from applied voice technology avt nasdaq avtc which later became captaris inc. in 2003 sound advantage purchased the callxpress voicemail and unified messaging solution from captaris and this merger of technologies became a new entity called applied voice & speech technologies inc. avst . the acquisition included the retention of key products and technology as well as the entire product engineering support and sales teams . avst was established in september 2003 by the merger of sound advantage established in 1997 and the avt division established in 1982 of captaris inc. nasdaq capa . 7 8 the first avst release callxpress 7.0 was in april 2004 . frost & sullivan recognized avst with the 2004 entrepreneurial company award for its sound marketing strategy and identification of a new and exceptional product solution . 9 in september 2004 avst announced further validation of its strength in the market by procuring 10 million in new funding from ignition partners and dolphin equity partners . 10 shortly after in november 2004 avst introduced callxpress 7.5 which provided the centigram telephone user interface emulation . callxpress 7.5 also offered user administration via microsoft active directory and smtp message notification . 11 in 2005 avst expanded worldwide by adding 30 new resellers to its list of channel partners . some of the significant partnerships included shared technologies and netversant . 12 13 in may 2005 the company released another version of its product callxpress 7.7 which emulated the octel serenade vmx telephone user interface . callxpress 7.7 received the frost & sullivan 2005 product differentiation innovation award for the north american enterprise voice and unified messaging solutions market . 14 in 2006 varbusiness awarded avst with five star partner program winner for its innovative marketing in a box mib program which enables resellers to brand their avst business through effective communication with customers and prospects . 15 16 version 7.8 of callxpress was released on june 2006 . it emulated the avaya intuity audix user interface . 17 in early 2007 avst expanded its global presence by adding teltronics inc. otcbb telt to its reseller partners . in february 2007 avst made a contribution to market awareness with the launch of a unified messaging educational website . this website is an information portal containing white papers industry research videos case studies and recent industry news on unified messaging and unified communications . the site hosted by itworld.com included avst as its sponsor . 18 in june 2007 the company unveils callxpress 7.9 that offered four types called the four flavors of unified messaging server based ; client based ; secure and simplified . 19 to assist the easy acquisition of complete solutions for businesses of any size in august 2007 avst introduced the callxpress speed bundles . the solution was designed to support the small to medium business smb marketplace . 20 in 2008 avst was named the top unified messaging provider according to commfusion report . the company was identified as having the most complete um solution . 21 22 at the end of 2008 the company s product was enhanced with the speech to text feature stt . 23 in march 2009 avst shipped callxpress 8.0 to provide a fault tolerant system through its multi server architecture . the solution also delivered neverfail continuous availability and disaster recovery deployment options . 24 2010 present edit in 2010 avst acquired active voice a division of nec corporation of america . nec became avst s oem partner integrating callxpress 8.0 unified communications platform with nec s ip telephony and unified communications solutions . 25 26 with the active voice acquisition avst also acquired active voice product lines including the repartee lx unified communications solution designed for the hospitality industry . 4 also in 2010 avst introduced ucconnect an open development environment for applications . in summer 2010 avst announced it had entered into a letter of intent to purchase certain assets of british columbia based voice mobility international inc. as part of the transaction avst acquired voice mobility ucn250 software as a service saas platform and all related technology and customers . in february 2011 avst completed an agreement for the exclusive use of voice mobility s unified communications cloud technology including all intellectual property related to the ucn250 unified communications as a service ucaas platform . 27 in late 2010 avst selected united kingdom based oak as a distribution partner in that country . 28 then in 2011 the assets of beacon solutions were acquired by avst . as part of the agreement avst acquired beacon s technology assets ; a set of custom developed vertical cebp applications for healthcare education and government ; technical expertise and the company s existing customer base . 29 in march 2012 avst changed the name of its callxpress platform to cx e. during this same period avst launched the cx s and cx c product lines . the cx e solution focuses on medium to large sized companies and organizations while cx s on smaller companies . cx c represents a cloud based uc platform . 30 in 2013 avst released atom a virtual 24 7 office manager application with location based services federated presence and a multi lingual speech interface for the workplace . also during 2013 avst announced added support of hybrid uc cloud deployments in cx e with more integration to gmail and microsoft office 365 including unified messaging calendaring contacts and message waiting indicator . 31 in summer 2014 avst introduced cx h formerly repartee lx a unified communications solution designed for hospitality industry . in 2015 avst achieved two microsoft gold competencies which ranked the company as a member of the top one percent within the microsoft partner ecosystem . the microsoft gold communications competency was attained for cx e s integration with skype for business and the microsoft gold messaging competency is for its expertise in exchange environments . 32 33 in october 2015 avst released cx e 8.7 . the release provided enhancements to atom the context aware personal assistant which included microsoft hyper v support for virtualization and genband experius integration to enable migration to the cloud . 34 products and solutions edit avst s unified communications solutions service five primary market segments enterprise government healthcare education and hospitality . the company s primary product is its cx e software platform formerly callxpress that supports various voice mobile business process and collaboration applications . corporate information edit a privately owned company avst s two major institutional investors are ignition partners bellevue wa and second alpha partners new york ny . open text corporation bellevue wa nasdaq otex is also a shareholder in avst . 35 since september 2003 avst is under the leadership of the president & ceo hardy myers . the company s board of directors is in charge of supervising the strategic direction business operations and organizational structure of avst . current members of the board of directors of avst are shawn bohnert steve hooper dennis o connell and jonathan roberts . 36 all of avst s sales are realized through indirect channels . company s unified communications solutions are sold and supported by a network of resellers and oem partner including aastra advanced call processing alcatel lucent altura communication solutions arrow s3 black box network services centurylink nec nacr newcastle communications and techmode . 37 competition edit the major competition for avst comes from cisco unity systems microsoft exchange 38 and avaya . avst also competes with siemens and interactive intelligence . 39 see also edit unified communications unified messaging references edit avst unifies communications for higher education market . avst press release . january 12 2009 . retrieved july 26 2014 . case study reseller helps city of phoenix deploy callxpress to support 14 000 users . avst . retrieved july 26 2014 . shrivastava mandira 2014 05 30 . avst introduces cx e at texas dir connect expo . tmc.net . retrieved 2014 07 20 . a b avst announces new version of repartee . market wire . 2010 07 14 . retrieved 2014 10 02 . independent messaging vendors offer greater value for a dynamic marketplace pdf . frost & sullivan . 2007 . retrieved 2009 05 27 . applied voice technology releases major upgrade of phonexpress its voice and call processing system for small to mid sized organizations . business wire . 1996 10 03 . retrieved 2009 06 01 . captaris rallies following asset sale . market watch . 2003 09 30 . retrieved 2009 05 28 . sound advantage takes new name acquires the captaris callxpress product line and readies new speech technology . business wire . 2003 09 30 . retrieved 2014 07 20 . frost & sullivan acknowledges avst s superiority in speech solutions . frost & sullivan . 2004 06 03 . retrieved 2009 05 27 . avst closes 10 million in series b funding ; investors recognize avst s prominence in the evolving enterprise communications market . avst press release . september 28 2004 . retrieved july 26 2014 . avst ships callxpress 7.5 . callcenter magazine . 2004 11 16 . retrieved 2009 05 27 . avst enlists netversant solutions to deliver callxpress unified communications systems to businesses nationwide . avst press release . april 25 2005 . retrieved july 26 2014 . avst adds thirty new resellers to expand global footprint and bolster sales . avst press release . september 14 2005 . retrieved july 26 2014 . frost & sullivan presents applied voice and speech technologies avst with product differentiation innovation award . pr web . 2005 11 30 . retrieved 2009 05 27 . avst wins varbusiness five star partner program award . avst press release . may 16 2006 . retrieved july 26 2014 . best of the midmarket . voice networking . channel web . 2006 07 31 . retrieved 2009 05 27 . callxpress 7.8 new features . cps technology group . 2008 . retrieved 2009 05 28 . unified messaging educational site launched by avst and itworld.com . avst press release . february 28 2007 . retrieved july 26 2014 . greene tim 2007 06 03 . voicecon avst offers four options to deploy unified messaging . network world . retrieved 2009 05 27 . avst unveils callxpress speed bundles for smb market . avst press release . august 14 2007 . retrieved july 26 2014 . report avst named a top unified messaging provider . tmcnet.com . 2008 10 08 . archived from the original on 20 may 2009 . retrieved 2009 05 28 . new study places avst in top spot among unified messaging leaders . market wire . 2008 10 07 . retrieved 2009 05 27 . avst enhances callxpress with speech to text