Retail Giant Selects Asentinel to Manage Telecom Expenses Amid Rapid Expansion

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, March 10, 2005 - One the country's largest networks of company-owned retail outlets has selected Asentinel's patent-pending software to automate its telecom expense management (TEM) processes David C. Perdue, Asentinel CEO, announced today.

From just over 3,000 stores in 1998, the retailer has grown to more than 7,000 stores in 30 states across the country and is adding more than 500 stores a year. The rapidly expanding company will take advantage of Asentinel's web-based system to create a centralized repository that delivers the continuous visibility necessary to make informed decisions about telecom contracts, usage levels, consolidation and more.

"This retailer's incredible growth was making it difficult for employees to keep up with the never-ending stream of invoices and the services associated with those invoices," said Perdue. "With our scalable application, every aspect of the TEM process will be automated and reconciled in real-time across the enterprise, increasing both employee efficiency and company profit."

Asentinel's telecom expense management software merges invoices from world-wide voice, data and cellular carriers into a central asset management system. Business rules are customized for the enterprise in accordance with company standards and policies. In addition to contract compliance and billing verification, the Oracle-backed system facilitates budget forecasting, cost center allocation, dispute resolution and numerous other telecom business functions.

Real-time data is available through customized reports, generating analysis of every invoice against vendor contracts, hidden costs, active inventory with every exception flagged. All of the system's capabilities are accessible via a web interface according to the permissions designated by the system administrator. Asentinel's software is available as an ASP solution for companies who prefer IT outsourcing or it may be purchased for deployment on the customer's own internal servers.

After nearly tripling its sales in 2004, Asentinel expects equal or better increases in 2005 as it grows its list of Fortune 1000 companies and government entities that realize the power of automated telecom expense management. For more information, visit Asentinel at www.asentinel.com.