10-31-2005
Citrix Delivers Smart Agent Technology to Integrate Business Applications and IP Telephones; Innovative New Software Agent Simplifies Outbound Calling for Knowledge Workers
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oct. 31, 2005–Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS), the global leader in access infrastructure solutions, today announced the availability of its new Smart Agent technology with release 6.0 of the Citrix Application Gateway(TM). The Citrix Application Gateway, which provides converged business applications for delivery to screens and speakers of IP telephones, is extending its footprint with Smart Agent to provide productivity applications to users’ personal computers in addition to IP telephones. The first Citrix application to use Smart Agent technology is Click-to-Call which enables telephone users to dial their desk telephone by simply clicking on linked telephone numbers in e-mail or Web applications, delivering the best user experience in computer-telephone interaction.
Over the past decade, countless efforts have been made to develop a straightforward way to integrate computers and telephones. While this interaction has been successful in customer contact centers, there has been limited success with knowledge workers. User experience with these applications was one of the limiting factors driving slowness in adoption, but the primary reason why this effort was unsuccessful lay in the complexity of systems integration. Until now, an IT administrator needed to install a Telephony Application Program Interface (TAPI) service provider on each personal computer and update this desktop software with each and every change to the PBX software or application software. Citrix’s Smart Agent technology provides the simplest, most intuitive access experience for both end-users and IT administrators by using a small Web distributed, auto-updating client that alleviates complex deployment and upgrade issues.
How Smart Agent with Click-to-Call Works
— Users download a small, auto-updating client from an internal
website and logs in using their regular Windows credentials.
— Telephone numbers in e-mail and Web applications are turned to
click-able hot links.
— Users can now click on a telephone number link and their phone
automatically dials that number.
“Many organizations are still laying the foundation of their VoIP networks, and have yet to deploy advanced VoIP applications,” said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst at Infonetics Research. “However, organizations will eventually want to take their VoIP deployment to the next level. Citrix’s suite of VoIP applications gives them a choice in application vendors, while interoperability - usually a big concern among buyers - won’t be an issue because Citrix already has relationships with the major IP PBX vendors.”
“We’ve all experienced frustrations with telephone numbers embedded everywhere - in our cell phones, on websites and in Microsoft Outlook. This inefficient process of flipping back and forth between your PC and telephone often leads to misdialed numbers and users relying on their cell phones more than their desk phones,” said Murli Thirumale, group vice president and general manager, Gateways Group, Citrix. “Smart Agent simplifies the user interaction with telephony-enabled applications, but also the deployment model that has historically stymied the success of these types of applications.”
Smart Agent with Click-to-Call supports any Web application that can be accessed with Microsoft Internet Explorer including Sales Force Automation (SFA), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and other applications that are used to manage customer, partner, or employee data. Initial e-mail application support includes Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express as well as Eudora and any web-based e-mail system.
About the Citrix Application Gateway
Citrix Application Gateway is an appliance for organizations with IP telephony systems that delivers converged voice and data applications to the screens and speakers of their IP telephones. The Application Gateway also can transform existing Web-based applications for the screens of IP phones and any wireless device. It enables organizations to leverage and extend the use of their business applications and their IP telephony system. As a standalone solution of the Citrix Access Platform or bundled into a telephony access package with Citrix(R) Voice Office, Application Gateway delivers the best access experience for everyone: rapidly expanded on-demand access for the business, simple access for users, and high-performance, secure access for IT.
Pricing and Availability
The Smart Agent feature will be available as part of the Application Gateway release 6.0 which will be generally available in Q4′05. The Citrix Application Gateway has an initial list price of $3,995 and a license charge of $40 per Voice Office user.
About Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS) is the global leader and most trusted name in on-demand access. More than 160,000 organizations around the world use the Citrix Access Platform to provide the best possible access experience to any application for any user. Citrix customers include 100% of the Fortune 100 companies and 98% of the Fortune Global 500, as well as hundreds of thousands of small businesses and individuals. Citrix has approximately 6,200 channel and alliance partners in more than 100 countries. Citrix annual revenues in 2004 were $741 million. Learn more at www.citrix.com.
For Citrix Investors
This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Those statements involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks associated with revenue growth and recognition of revenue, products, their development and distribution, product demand and pipeline, economic and competitive factors, the Company’s key strategic relationships, acquisition and related integration risks as well as other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Citrix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.
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