Financial Institutions Turn to Asentinel for Telecom Expense Management

Sarbanes-Oxley and Mergers Help Drive Need for Software Solution

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, March 29, 2005 - In the strictly-regulated, acquisition-intensive financial industry, telecom professionals are under more pressure than ever to improve internal controls and financial reporting. Mergers, Sarbanes-Oxley, the FDIC and other financial oversight entities are heightening the need for automated telecom expense management.

Fortunately, one company has developed a solution that is ideal for the unique demands of the banking business environment. Asentinel's telecom expense management software is gaining recognition in the financial services community as a dynamic tool for resolving telecom infrastructure and regulatory compliance issues that magnify with growth and integration. The software's capability to transform a time-intensive process into an enterprise-wide automated system has proven successful for financial institutions such as Independence Bank of New York, M & T Bank, Compass Bank, Regions Bank, Arvest Bank, and Morgan Keegan.

"Asentinel's patent-pending solution allows financial institutions to gain internal control and visibility of telecom assets across all carriers, tracking allocation of expenses down to the penny across the entire organization and all its locations," says Asentinel CEO David Perdue. "The benefits of this real-time system are realized on many levels ? saving money, improving productivity, lightening administrative loads, facilitating regulatory compliance and sharpening negotiation skills - just to name a few."

The most immediate benefits are the elimination of billing errors and decreased processing time, which provide substantial savings considering that telecommunications is typically one of the five largest expense items for a business. Telecom industry research indicates billing errors average about 7 - 12 percent of total telecom expenses.

Asentinel's scalability is also a key feature in the financial services market. During deployment, the software is customized for each customer's business rules, with financial industry standards maintained as part of the core programming. The result is an internal control for telecom data management designed to meet organization-specific reporting needs. Asentinel provides financial institutions with the detailed knowledge necessary to make informed decisions about their specific contracts, usage levels, hardware requirements and other management functions. This capability is lost if the financial institution opts for outsourcing telecom expensive management.

"Ultimately, no one outside a company knows its plans, needs or finances as well as its own employees," Perdue says. "Many telecom analysts agree, indicating that substantial savings in terms of time, personnel and money for large enterprises can only be solved with a solution that provides internal control."

A long-time proponent of outsourcing, Regions Bank adopted Asentinel's expense management solution when they merged with Union Planters, which had been successfully using the system for more than four years.

"When Regions initially approached Union Planters to discuss telecom expense management, they were convinced that their outsourcing process was the best way to go," says Perdue. "But after seeing the results, they had to agree that in-house data management with Asentinel builds expertise and increases the ongoing savings realized.

When the business case for deploying Asentinel in the financial industry is prepared, justification may include:

• Mergers and acquisitions creating the need for consolidated telecom inventories,
• Large network of branches geographically dispersed make cost allocation and usage levels difficult to track,
• A single platform is needed for invoices from all carriers,
• Automated reporting is needed to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory requirements,
• Better forecasting and planning will tighten telecom budgets, and
• Maintain position as technology innovator, fast technology adaptation.

Written in Java, Asentinel's telecom expense management software is designed for an Oracle backend and deployment on a Web server. 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 managed services 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.