Ascendent Systems Wins Stevie® Award for Best New Telecommunications Product or Service at the 4th Annual American Business Awards
San Jose, CA – June 5, 2006 – Ascendent Systems, a subsidiary of Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) and a leading provider of enterprise voice mobility solutions, today announced that its Acendent® Voice Mobility Suite won the Stevie Award for Best New Product or Service, Telecommunications, at the 2006 American Business Awards.
The Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite enables users to make any phone operate as a work desk phone, by extending a comprehensive set of corporate desk phone features to any land-line or mobile device, including four or five digit transfer, conferencing, consolidated voicemail, and single number reachability.
In an increasingly mobile business world, enterprises are looking for ways to gain more control over mobile phones. A recent report by IDC found that enterprise telecom managers believe that 28% of their employees are using their mobile phone as their primary work phone and mobile phones rank second to desktop phones (41%) as the most commonly used work phone. With Ascendent, users gain a competitive edge with real-time communications that are fully tied into the enterprise telephony infrastructure and the opportunity to build stronger and more profitable relationships. Ascendent announced last month, the first in a series of technology integrations that will bring complete enterprise voice mobility to BlackBerry® users.
“As organizations continue to become more mobile and competition continues to intensify, enterprise voice mobility solutions are a natural way for mobile workers to remain responsive, accessible and productive when they are away from their desks,” said Debbie Miller, Vice President, Ascendent Systems. “It is truly an honor to be recognized in view of the strong competition we faced in the category. This award validates our belief that voice is becoming more strategic and that Ascendent enables organizations to be more profitable by delivering greater levels of customer satisfaction and responsiveness without having to give up IT control.”
Members of the Awards' Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors and their staffs selected Stevie winners from among the Finalists. Finalists were chosen by business professionals nationwide during preliminary judging earlier this year. The elegant Stevie trophy was designed by R. S. Owens, the same company that makes the Oscar® and the Emmy®.
Details about The American Business Awards and the list of Finalists and Stevie Award winners are available at www.stevieawards.com/aba.
Ascendent Systems, a subsidiary of Research In Motion, is the premier provider of enterprise voice mobility solutions that allow companies to be more responsive to customers and crises by giving them the power to reach anyone, anywhere, immediately. Partnered with major mobile carrier and infrastructure providers, Ascendent has solutions deployed in Fortune 500 corporations across many industry verticals including manufacturing, finance, healthcare, government, hospitality, and education. For more information: http://www.ascendentsystems.com
Research in Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications. RIM technology also enables a broad array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services with wireless connectivity to data. RIM’s portfolio of award-winning products, services and embedded technologies are used by thousands of organizations around the world and include the BlackBerry® wireless platform, the RIM Wireless Handheld™ product line, software development tools, radio-modems and software/hardware licensing agreements. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, RIM operates offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. RIM is listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq: RIMM) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RIM). For more information, visit http://www.rim.com or http://www.blackberry.com.
Hailed as “the business world’s own Oscars” by the New York Post (April 27, 2005), Stevie Awards are conferred in three programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, and The Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneurs. Honoring companies of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.
Premier Sponsors of The 2006 American Business Awards included The City of Toronto, Pitney Bowes, ValueVision Associates, RealLife HR, and the Professional Society for Sales & Marketing Training. Media sponsors include CIO Decisions, CRMAdvocate, Human Resource Executive, ProductionHub.com, and Selling Power. The live videocast of the ceremonies was provided by HB Group. The Business TalkRadio Network hosted the radio broadcasts of the ceremonies.
Forward-looking statements in this news release are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Canadian securities laws. When used herein, the words "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "should", "intend," "believe", and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by RIM in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that RIM believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Many factors could cause RIM's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including those described in the "Risk Factors" section of RIM's Annual Information Form, which is included in its Annual Report on Form 40-F (copies of which filing s may be obtained at www.sedar.com or www.sec.gov). These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on RIM's forward-looking statements. RIM has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited. RIM, Research In Motion and BlackBerry are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be pending or registered in other countries. Ascendent is a registered trademark of Ascendent Systems. All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners.
