InterCall Expands Its Streaming Services Portfolio with Acquisition of Unisfair

OMAHA, Neb., March 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- InterCall, a subsidiary of West Corporation and the world's largest conferencing and collaboration services provider, today announced the acquisition of Unisfair, a leading global provider of virtual events and business environments.

Unisfair enables companies to create branded and interactive virtual environments that are engaging and help boost their pipeline with qualified leads.  Since 2000, industry leaders across all geographies have leveraged Unisfair's platform to support their virtual strategies and as a result, experienced improvements in lead generation, customer engagement, training and recruiting, including:

• Companies in the high-tech and pharmaceutical industries leveraging the Unisfair Virtual Classroom have reported up to a 95 percent reduction in training costs.  By replacing traditional training with a virtual classroom, companies are able to save millions of dollars without sacrificing effectiveness.
• Digital advertising agencies can extend their client's brand through the creation of custom virtual experiences that allow consumers to experience the brand in a whole new, interactive way.
• Marketing organizations are able to tailor their content to target new vertical audiences and cost effectively generate qualified sales leads.  A software manufacturer reported a significant decrease in its cost per lead, now well below the cost of traditional lead generation methods.

"Unisfair and InterCall have a shared vision to offer industry-leading technology to improve virtual communication and collaboration for companies around the world," said Hoang Vuong, CEO of Unisfair.  "Together we can leverage Unisfair's known and trusted offerings and InterCall's industry-leading collaboration services suite, global infrastructure and client base to provide to provide state-of-the-art, specialized solutions to a broader range of customers."

InterCall acquired Stream57 in December 2009 and the addition of Unisfair to InterCall Streaming Services emphasizes InterCall's continued commitment to delivering innovative, best-in-breed technology and support to businesses around the world.  

"With the acquisition of Unisfair, InterCall can now offer complete end-to-end virtual event solutions – from simple webcasts to comprehensive, immersive virtual shows – on a proprietary platform," said Scott Etzler, president of InterCall.  "Until recently, the ability to host virtual events and environments were nice-to-haves for companies but have evolved into the next must-have technology.  By expanding our offerings in this area, InterCall is truly keeping in-step with the constantly evolving face of domestic and global business communication needs."

About InterCall  

InterCall, a subsidiary of West Corporation, is the largest service provider in the world specializing in collaboration and conference communications. Founded in 1991, InterCall helps people and companies be more productive by providing advanced audio, event, Web and video conferencing solutions that are easy-to-use and save them time and money. Along with a team of over 500 Meeting Consultants, the company employs more than 1,500 operators, customer service representatives, call supervisors, accounting, marketing and IT professionals. InterCall's strong U.S. presence, which includes four call centers and 26 sales offices, is bolstered by a global reach that extends to Canada, Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, China, India, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. For more information, please visit www.intercall.com.

About West Corporation

West Corporation is a leading provider of technology-driven, voice and data solutions.  West offers its clients a broad range of communications and network infrastructure solutions that help them manage or support critical communications.  West's customer contact solutions and conferencing services are designed to improve its clients' cost structure and provide reliable, high-quality services.  West also provides mission-critical services, such as public safety and emergency communications.

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, West serves Fortune 1000 companies and other clients in a variety of industries, including telecommunications, banking, retail, financial, technology and healthcare.  West has sales and operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America.  For more information on West Corporation, please call 1-800-841-9000 or visit www.west.com.

About Unisfair

Unisfair provides cloud applications for the world's most innovative companies to create branded and interactive virtual environments. Unisfair's Virtual Engagement Center is a new channel to connect with customers, prospects and employees anytime and anywhere. Industry leaders like ADP, Cisco, Genentech, Intuit, Novartis, IBM, and KPMG leverage Unisfair's platform for lead generation, customer engagement, training, recruiting and more.

Unisfair's virtual environments are easy to use and offer a highly interactive experience through speaking sessions, exhibition floors and networking areas. By tracking the activities of each individual attendee, Unisfair delivers exceptional marketing intelligence.  Backed by Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners, Unisfair is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has led the virtual events space since 2000. For more information visit www.unisfair.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements.  Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "intends," "continue" or similar terminology.  These statements reflect only West's current expectations and are not guarantees of future performance or results.  These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.  These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, competition in West's highly competitive industries; West's ability to keep pace with its clients' needs for rapid technological change and systems availability; the loss, financial difficulties or bankruptcy of any key clients; the effects of global economic trends on the businesses of West's clients; the non-exclusive nature of West's client contracts and the absence of revenue commitments; the cost of pending and future litigation; extensive regulation affecting many of West's businesses; security and privacy breaches of the systems West uses to protect personal data; the cost of defending West against intellectual property infringement claims; West's ability to protect its proprietary information or technology; service interruptions to West's data and operation centers; West's ability to retain key personnel and attract a sufficient number of qualified employees; increases in labor costs and turnover rates; increases in the cost of voice and data services or significant interruptions in these services; the political, economic and other conditions in the countries where West operates; changes in foreign exchange rates; West's ability to complete future acquisitions and integrate or achieve the objectives of its recent and future acquisitions; future impairments of our substantial goodwill, intangible assets, or other long-lived assets; and West's ability to recover consumer receivables on behalf of its clients.  In addition, West is subject to risks related to its level of indebtedness.  Such risks include West's ability to generate sufficient cash to service its indebtedness and fund its other liquidity needs; West's ability to comply with covenants contained in its debt instruments; the incurrence of significant additional indebtedness by West and its subsidiaries and the ability of West's lenders to fulfill their lending commitments.  West is also subject to other risk factors described in documents filed by the company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.  

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which the statements were made.  West undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law.

SOURCE InterCall