Home Depot Selects Avaya for Multi-Channel Customer Relationship Management Solutions

CHICAGO/ATLANTA, June 26-- Avaya Inc. a global leader in corporate networking solutions and services, today announced that it has been selected as the strategic supplier of multi-channel customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for Home Depot`s new customer contact centers.

Using Avaya`s Interaction Management solutions, the world`s largest home improvement retailer plans to link to multiple, existing databases in local stores, deliver the information to agent desktops in regional customer suppor tcenters and enable agents to seamlessly respond to customers using any communication medium.

By handling all contacts on a regional level, HomeDepot frees store associates to spend more time with in-store customers.Customers contacting the company through other channels, including phone ande-mail, will also receive more efficient and accurate service, with little or no time spent on hold or waiting for a response. "For us, contact center technology is more than getting a call to an agent," said Ed Buter, Senior Manager -- Information Services, Home Depot."We have approximately a million products in more than 1,200 stores, with numerous databases kept at the stores for things like product orders, delivery and installation schedules, tool rentals or promotional events. Our challenge is to get this information to the agents while quickly and effectively integrating all channels of communication into a system that supports the business. Avaya`s contact center solution has the open architecture we require and will also be able to grow in scale to match our customer support plans to expand into additional areas." Home Depot`s first new customer contact center is scheduled to open in September in Tampa, Fla., and will employ up to 1,000 agents. All calls tolocal Home Depot stores in the company`s Southern Division (Fla. and southernAla.) will be answered by agents in the Tampa center, who will be able to access specific, detailed information relative to each individual location. "Getting information to the right person at the right time is a critical part of customer support and can turn a service experience into a sales opportunity," said Jim Smith, vice president CRM Solutions, Avaya. "But accessing and delivering the information across channels can be a major challenge.

With Avaya`s Interaction Management solutions, Home Depot can provide customers in any setting with a seamless experience that not only answers their questions, but reinforces buying behavior." Avaya`s Interaction Management solutions will allow Home Depot to effectively handle customer support through a variety of channels, such as web chat, email, voice-over IP and phone. Using an open platform that easily integrates with existing systems and communications equipment from multiple vendors, Interaction Management solutions will enable Home Depot agents in regional support centers to quickly access information from databases at local stores. Avaya Professional Services will be providing design and integrationsupport to deliver solution integrity.

In addition to Interaction Management, Avaya`s CRM Solutions include Commitment Management solutions that manage and distribute work from the front desk through fulfillment, and Business Intelligence solutions to help better understand customer buying patterns and preferences to improve the effectiveness of each encounter between a company and a customer.

Avaya, headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., is a leading global provider of communications solutions and services that help businesses, government agencies and other institutions -- including more than 75 percent of the Fortune 500 -- excel in the customer economy. Avaya offers Customer Relationship Management Solutions, Unified Communication Solutions, Hosted Solutions, MultiService Networking Infrastructure, and Converged Voice andD ata Networks -- including the company`s no-compromise Enterprise-Class IPSolutions (ECLIPS) -- all supported by Avaya Services and Avaya Labs. Avaya is the worldwide leader in unified messaging, messaging systems, call centers and structured cabling systems. It is the U.S. leader in voice communications systems. For more information about Avaya, visit its Web site athttp://www.avaya.com.

Founded in 1978, Home Depot has 1,220 stores in the United States, PuertoRico, Canada, Chile and Argentina. In February, Fortune magazine named HomeDepot the sixth Most Admired Company in America. The company`s stock is publicly traded (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor`s 500 Index.

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