Akron, OH – 03/23/04 Akron, OH – 03/23/2004 – Virtual Hold Technology® LLC VHT) announced today the allowance of another patent which expands the company’s intellectual property surrounding its Queue Management Solutions. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office allowed the patent on March 9, 2004. The patent should be issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office within the next three months.

VHT’s Queue Management Solutions are designed to seamlessly integrate with the existing queue as stand-alone software that maintains both data and queuing integrity regardless of ACD, CTI, IVR, or CRM platforms. The unique design allows for great flexibility in call flow intelligence and results in a better experience for customers.

There are many decisions made within the call flow that directs a customer call to or from the primary queue for which it was intended. Traditionally, once the decision was made to send a customer to queue, the customer was forced to remain in that queue until the call was answered. If the customer decided to leave the queue in order to return to an IVR or seek other forms of automated assistance, he was then forced to give up his place in line.

VHT’s latest patent addresses this concern by allowing the customer to leave the queue and maintain his current queue position regardless of what he chooses to do after leaving the queue. This innovative solution design allows contact centers to fully leverage the complex capabilities provided by their existing contact center technology, maintain true queue integrity, significantly reduce repeat call attempts, and most importantly provide the customer with choices for managing his time.

“It’s about customer freedom through empowerment,” stated Mark Williams, president and founder of VHT. “Prior to the availability of our Queue Management Solutions, customers were not truly empowered to decide what type of treatment was best for them. In fact, they were penalized by losing their place in line if they decided to leave the queue for any reason, which resulted in a very frustrating experience.”

James Moore of Pearne & Gordon, LLP noted, “The awarding of this patent not only continues to demonstrate VHT’s innovative leadership in the contact center industry, but also greatly strengthens its intellectual property portfolio.” VHT understands the value of its intellectual property and has additional patents on its product solutions and functionality pending.

Pioneered by VHT nine years ago, Queue Management Solutions have recently gained tremendous acceptance in the contact center marketplace. Over the past year, similar products have been introduced by Aspect Communications (Nasdaq: ASPT), Rockwell FirstPoint Contact (a division of Rockwell Automation, NYSE: ROK), Genesys Labs (a division of Alcatel, NYSE: ALA) and Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO). VHT is currently exploring licensing opportunities with these organizations and others.

About Virtual Hold Technology
VHT is the leading provider of intelligent Queue Management Solutions for Fortune 1000 clients. Since its inception in 1995, VHT's patented award-winning Virtual Queuing technology has provided callback solutions focused on enhancing the customer experience for financial services, energy utility, insurance, telecommunications, cable, wireless and retail corporations such as Wells Fargo, Baltimore Gas & Electric, Direct Line, BellSouth, Cox Communications, Bell Mobility, Ticketmaster and Avon. To learn how VHT's queue management solutions can help you increase customer satisfaction and reduce contact center costs, visit www.virtualhold.com.