SAN CARLOS, CA and TOKYO, JAPAN (July 11, 2006) — California-based on-demand contact center provider Contactual Inc. and Tokyo-based IT solutions provider Infocom Corporation today unveiled the opening of a joint venture. The new entity, White Pajama Japan, will combine the competitive advantages of its parent companies to deliver an innovative on-demand contact center offering to the Japanese market.

Contactual is the leader in on-demand contact center technology that allows organizations of all sizes to establish a world-class contact center in just a few hours without capital investment and maintenance costs. The San Carlos, California-based company has recently released a new version of its product, Contactual 5.0, that tripled the application’s previous capacity and enhanced the platform’s features. Contactual originally entered the Japanese contact center market in mid 2005 through a partnership with Vitstage. Since then many businesses have been successfully using keepa, a Vitstage application that uses the Contactual technology platform. 

Infocom (JASDAQ: 4348) has a solid presence in the Japanese IT services market with significant expertise in premise-based contact center technology, such as interactive voice response technology, knowledge management, and call recording. The growing demand for cost-effective customer service offerings among Japanese businesses and the country’s advanced broadband infrastructure represent a great opportunity for Infocom to move into the on-demand contact center space by leveraging its skills, resources and market presence. 

“We have experienced a strong and growing demand for on-demand contact center services in Japan.” said Mansour Salame, Contactual founder and CEO.  “With the combination of Contactual’s technology and Infocom’s market presence and knowledge, I am confident that White Pajama Japan will rapidly establish itself as the market leader.”

White Pajama Japan will deliver a Contactual technology platform specifically designed for the Japanese market – Contactual 5.0J, and will focus primarily on forging OEM, reseller and technology partnerships. White Pajama Japan will capitalize on Infocom’s sales and technical support expertise and an established client base to aggressively penetrate the market, educate the business community on advantages of on-demand over legacy premise-based approach, and accelerate adoption of the on-demand contact center model in Japan.

 “We believe that the new company will make a significant contribution to the development of the on-demand market in Japan,” said Takashi Yoshino, CEO, Infocom.  “There are compelling cost, flexibility and speed-to-market benefits for on-demand contact centers in general and Contactual’s platform in particular, and we believe that it will catch on quickly.”

White Pajama Japan’s on-demand service is a perfect solution for Voice over IP (VoIP) providers, major Telco organizations that expect to move into the on-demand space, and existing on-demand businesses that desire to integrate contact center technology with their offerings. The new company will deliver the on-demand contact center platform and provide technical support and hosting services to its partners.

Partners will benefit from the adoption of a lean on-demand business model, innovative technology and services offered by White Pajama Japan. Partners will be able to extend the advantages of the on-demand contact center technology to their customers, offering an attractive alternative to the traditional on-premise contact center solutions.

Contactual 5.0J Benefits

Contactual 5.0J, presented by White Pajama Japan, is the only on-demand contact center platform that scales to over 500 agents per tenant, provides enhanced VoIP capabilities, and offers integrated email and chat functionalities. Most notably, Contactual 5.0J has a fully localized Kanji interface and other features that make it a perfect solution for the Japanese business market.

Compared with premise-based technology, Contactual 5.0J contact center solution requires no capital expenditure, is simple to use, minimizes maintenance costs, and offers more features than a traditional installation. Most notably, the rapid deployment methodology allows companies begin using all features of the application in as little as four hours.

White Pajama Japan

The new company can be contacted immediately:

3-11, Kanda-surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0062, Japan
TEL : +81-50-5530-8818  FAX : +81-3-3295-5063
www.whitepajama-japan.com

Press Contact:
Daisuke Uki
TEL: +81-90-2563-7021
E-mail: daisuke.uki@whitepajama-japan.com

About Contactual
Contactual pioneered the use of hosted contact centers that dramatically reduce the costs of outfitting customer service, help desk, technical support and inside sales operations by eliminating the need for premise-based infrastructure. The Contactual OnDemand Contact Center eliminates all upfront hardware and software costs; enables organizations to operate virtual contact centers with agents working from home and/or multiple sites; and unifies customer communications from phone, VoIP, voicemail, email and Web channels into one routing, queuing, tracking and reporting system for maximum efficiency. Contactual has earned the Frost & Sullivan 2005 Global Excellence in Technology Award, TMC Labs' Customer Interaction Magazine 2005 Innovation Award, and a berth in the 2006 Red Herring 100 North America list of the top 100 privately held technology firms. For more information, visit www.contactual.com.

About Infocom
Infocom is a leading Japanese provider of IT products and services ranging from mobile, network, voice solution and knowledge management solutions to bioscience, healthcare and data center services. The company was founded in 1983 as Nissho Iwai Computer Systems, Inc. through a spin-off of the Nissho Iwai data systems division. Since 2002 Infocom has been listed on JASDAQ stock exchange (stock code 4348). For more information, visit www.infocom.co.jp.

About Vitstage
Vitstage Co., Ltd. was founded in 2000 as the information technology solution provider for customer relationship management. The company is a member of Virtualex group that provides a mixed business model of consulting, outsourcing, and information technology. Vitstage provides various software packages and system integration/system management services with the specialty of contact center operation and the state-of-the-art technology. For more information, visit www.vitstage.co.jp.