Parsippany, NJ September 3, 2008 -- According to the T3i Group LLC's latest "InfoTrack for Converged Applications" (ICA) research report on the global contact center market, shipments of premises-based agent positions in the U.S. declined 3.6% in 2007. This is the third consecutive year showing decline in the U.S. (Shipments were down 5% in 2005 and 1% in 2006.) Outsourcing, self-service capabilities and hosted contact center solutions all contributed to the decline.

Caribbean-Latin America (CALA) led all regions with growth of more than 50%, while Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) followed, both growing at double-digit rates. InfoTech, the T3i Group division that conducts market research on unified communications, forecasts the U.S. market share of agents will decline steadily through the forecast period (2008-2012), while CALA and APAC will continue to grow significantly during the same time period. EMEA will maintain positive growth but its global share will decline slightly due to the emerging markets' higher growth rates.

Avaya led all manufacturers, with global shipments of more than one million new agents, including significant add-on business in all regions, and revenue of more than $1 billion, followed by Nortel. Shipments from Genesys, the leading provider of telephony system-agnostic contact centers, combined with shipments from parent Alcatel-Lucent, captured third place in agent market share.

"Based on the recent and projected trends, the lessons for manufacturers of contact center systems are clear," commented Ken Dolsky, program director for InfoTech's ICA. "Focus in the U.S. on productivity-enhancing capabilities such as unified communications, self service technologies and workforce management tools which will improve the utilization of existing agents. In the emerging markets outside of the U.S., concentrate on in-country relationships with sales partners, government agencies, educational institutions and other entities to create and leverage relationships and capture as much new growth as possible."

For more information on this report, please contact Susan Hobart, Vice President and Senior Research Director, at shobart@telecomweb.com or at 973/602-0127.

About the InfoTrack for Converged Applications (ICA) Program
InfoTrack for Converged Applications (ICA) is a market research and competitive-intelligence program focused on evolving telephony-based applications using IP (converged) technologies. The major categories of applications tracked include Messaging, Contact Center, Unified Communications, Mobility and Conferencing/Collaboration. InfoTrack reports include global and regional information on shipments, manufacturer revenues, market share, forecasts and differentiating technologies. For more information on the ICA program, please visit www.telecomweb.com/marketresearch/convergedapps/ or contact Mike O'Neill at moneill@telecomweb.com or 973/602-0114.

About T3i Group LLC
T3i Group LLC provides market research, data, analysis, and consulting and advisory services to the telecommunications industry. It conducts its business through four operating units: InfoTech, which publishes reports that analyze shipment, revenue, market share and other pertinent data of importance to telecommunications equipment manufacturers; TelecomTactics, which maintains a database of the features and functionality of major telephony systems; Tarifica, which maintains a database of pricing-related information covering 400 telecommunications carriers operating in 130 countries; and TelecomWeb (www.telecomweb.com), which is a content provider with an editorial staff that authors and posts telecommunications-industry news stories every business day. The site also serves as T3i Group's primary delivery mechanism for distributing its reports, analyses and data to subscribers.

T3i Group LLC is headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, with additional offices in New York City, London, England and Cherry Hill, NJ.