Asentinel Technology Selected as Finalist for Innovation of the Year

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (December 5, 2008) – The latest innovation from Memphis-based Asentinel, OIR™, has been selected as a finalist for the Innovation of the Year award in the AOTMP Industry Excellence Awards.

OIR (Optical Invoice Recognition) technology, developed by Asentinel for use in its patented Asentinel 5.0 Telecom Expense Management (TEM) software, is a one-of-a-kind technology that can read 100 percent of service level detail in paper telecom invoices with nearly 100 percent accuracy, automatically and immediately.

"We are honored to be a finalist in such a respected competition as the AOTMP Industry Excellence Awards, especially in the esteemed category of Innovation of the year," said David C. Perdue, Asentinel CEO. "Our company is built on innovation, and to receive recognition such as this is exciting for our entire team."

OIR intelligently reads paper invoices from telecom vendors around the world, allowing the -Asentinel system to capture the same level of minute detail from paper invoices that it does from electronic invoices.

"It is not unusual for one of our large customers to receive a paper invoice that is nearly 7,000 pages long," said Perdue. "It is impossible for human eyes to capture all of the necessary information from that invoice to ensure that the company is not being erroneously charged. Since our customers were receiving nearly 10 percent of their bills on paper, we wanted to do something to eliminate that pain point."

Asentinel's Chief Software Architect, Jason Fisher, worked with a team of Asentinel programmers for several years perfecting the OIR technology. The technology has been slowly rolled out to customers over the last six months, and reaction has been positive.

"With OIR, no matter what type of invoice the customer receives, they can rest easy knowing that Asentinel 5.0 will capture detail down to the lowest level," said Fisher. "It doesn't matter how big the invoice – there is now no stone left unturned when the software scans for overcharges and errors in a customers' telecom bills."

The OIR technology has become the platform for Asentinel's TouchFree TEM™ offering. The service allows customers to have their telecom invoices sent directly to Asentinel, where Asentinel experts will scan in paper invoices using the OIR technology. The customer is then free to focus employees on more strategic-minded tasks, while still being able to oversee their complete telecom picture from the Asentinel 5.0 real-time interface.

OIR is the latest in a long line of innovations for Asentinel. The Asentinel 5.0 TEM software itself was recently awarded the industry's only A to Z patent for Telecom Expense Management, a recognition that heralded Asentinel as the innovator behind the rapidly growing industry.

"Since we introduced TEM to the marketplace in 2002, our goal has been to create the world's best TEM software," said Perdue. "We will continue to innovate in order to always meet that goal for our customers."

About Asentinel
Recognizing its leadership in the industry, Asentinel holds the only A to Z United States patent (#7340422) for telecom expense management. Its groundbreaking software, Asentinel 5.0, has saved its customers millions of dollars since its inception in 2002. Asentinel continues to grow its list of Fortune 1000 companies and government entities that realize the power of telecom expense management. For more information, please visit www.asentinel.com