Convergys Corporation Receives the Frost & Sullivan 2005 Award for Competitive Strategy Leadership

Frost & Sullivan, a global leader in growth consulting, announced today that Convergys Corporation is the recipient of its 2005 Award for Competitive Strategy Leadership in CRM and Billing for Communications.

Frost & Sullivan presents the Award each year to a company whose strategy has yielded significant gains in market share during a specific period. To determine the Award’s recipient, Frost & Sullivan conducted extensive research on CRM and Billing software markets in the Communications and Utilities industries, gathering data from leading software vendors, systems integrators, and end-users.

Frost & Sullivan’s research showed that changes in Communication Service Provider (CSP) business strategies and spending habits have significant and varied levels of impact on the three vendor solution models in this market, namely software license, professional service, and outsourcing. Software license and professional service vendor revenue streams rely very much on capital expenditure budgets of CSP’s versus outsourcing vendor revenue streams that depend primarily on operational expenditure budgets.

Convergys was chosen for this year’s Strategic Competitive Leadership Award because its combined product and consulting strategy positioned the company for significant growth during the economic recovery of 2003. During the preceding technology market downturn, Convergys invested in next generation software via acquisitions and in-house development of its flagship Business Support System (BSS) software, Infinys. Further, the company created a Professional and Consulting Services organization and offerings to leverage its unique and relevant experience in both billing and customer care.

“We saw increased demand for software applications that efficiently support converged services such as video, voice, data, and wireless (‘quadruple play’) and customer-centricity, which Infinys delivers. In fact, it’s the only BSS product on the market that offers true convergence,” said Larry Schwartz, Executive Vice President of Operations for Convergys’ Information Management Group. “Infinys’ component architecture is also appealing to providers who want to deploy new capabilities one step at a time through best-of-breed, packaged software rather than replacing their entire systems all at once with custom, end-to-end solutions. The creation of our Professional and Consulting Services organization enabled us to better leverage our ability to perform a trusted advisor role for clients, while increasing the depth and breadth of BSS/CRM solutions Convergys delivers. Together our product and consulting capabilities have proven to be a powerful combination in the marketplace.”

“When the economy recovered, CSP’s were able to increase capital expenditures for software and professional services, which played right into Convergys’ new strengths,” said Frost & Sullivan Analyst Ashwin Iyer. “Convergys’ 2004 software license and other revenues totaled $77.1 Million, a 32% growth over 2003. And, its 2004 professional and consulting revenues totaled $122.5 Million, a 28% growth over 2003. Both demonstrate Convergys’ effective alignment with recent market changes.”

“We’re honored to receive this Award from Frost & Sullivan,” said Mr. Schwartz. “We feel that our proven ability to envision and execute sound market-driven strategies combined with the breadth and depth of our solution portfolio continue to provide strong competitive advantage in this market, as evidenced by our success in key BSS growth areas like wireless, data services, and customer service management. We’re pleased that Frost & Sullivan recognizes this.”