June 25th, 2001 - The Bureau of Collection Recovery (BCR) becomes Minnesota’s Largest Employer of the Blind

Advanced predictive dialing technology enables the blind to participate on equal footing with their sighted co-workers in outbound call centers

June 25th 2001, Minneapolis, MN -- UniversalSystems® today announced that the Bureau of Collection Recovery (BCR), a 3rd Party agency specializing in telephone collections, has become the state of Minnesota’s largest employer of visually impaired staff within a commercial competitive job environment. BCR now employs seven blind agents within their outbound call center.

BCR uses Avaya’s Mosaix Predictive Dialing System combined with the UniversalSystems® Accelerator to provide a highly efficient outbound call center environment. The UniversalSystems® Accelerator uses a unique and patent pending two tier organizational structure within the call center, to first screen calls for right party contacts and then hand the call off to a collections expert. The visually impaired employees screen the calls using data from the UniversalSystems® Accelerator presented through text to speech headsets and other technologies, including Braille terminals.

“BCR has taken existing call center technologies and put them to work to provide benefits for company and staff alike”, states Dr. Marc Maurer President of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). “A key point here is that business interests and employment of the visually impaired coincide, leading to a sustainable career for the blind and a competitive advantage for the company”.

“We realized that the UniversalSystems® Accelerator could be used to drive the types of devices needed for visually impaired staff to become effective and resolved to develop the idea,” states Blake Rice, CEO of UniversalSystems® and BCR. “What came as a surprise was just how successful from a business perspective it could be to employ visually impaired staff. The call center industry has a real challenge in finding, training, and most of all, retaining good staff”.

Adds Mr. Rice, “The UniversalSystems® Accelerator certainly helps with the finding and training components as it considerably simplifies the tasks required of a new agent in an outbound call center. We find that our visually impaired employees like the fact that they can succeed in a highly competitive work environment, and, as a result, they stay with us as valued members of our team. This initiative has turned out to be a real win/win for all concerned”.

Rice continues “As a result of our experiences with the blind we have become more aware of the societal problems the visually impaired face. We will continue to offer no cost licenses of the UniversalSystems® Accelerator for visually impaired agents. Additionally, we are working closely with the Mosaix User Group to encourage the employment of visually impaired staff, and are sponsoring a golf day benefiting The National Federation of the Blind at the next Mosaix User Group conference, taking place on October 8-10th, at the Lancaster Host Resort, Lancaster, PA”.



About UniversalSystems®
UniversalSystems® develops, markets, and supports software solutions for call centers. Created in 1995, it has developed the UniversalSystems® Accelerator and the UniversalSystems® Accelerator/ASP from concepts first born at BCR, a 3rd party collections agency. UniversalSystems® has partnership agreements with Avaya Inc. (AV), and other predictive dialer manufacturers, and is a major sponsor of the Mosaix User Group. UniversalSystems® is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN and on the World Wide Web at www.universalsystems.net. For additional information call (888)-293-8573 or email paulmac@universalsystems.net



About the Bureau of Collection Recovery (BCR)
BCR is a 3rd Party Collections Agency based in Minneapolis, MN. This 150 FTE agency is one of the U.S.’ most successful privately owned bureaus, providing a variety of early and late stage accounts receivable solutions to companies nationwide. BCR currently operates top of the line Mosaix and IAT predictive dialers. For additional information call (800)-831 7311 or email dwinters@bureauofcollection.com.



About The Mosaix User Group
The Mosaix User Group (www.mosaixusergroup.com) is an independent non-profit users organization that holds conferences twice a year and is now in its 11th year of operation. Its next conference, which includes the golf day benefiting the NFB, takes place October 8-10th 2001 at the Lancaster Host Resort, Lancaster, PA. For additional information call the User Group Co-Chairman, Alex Demczak, (412) 234 7163, email Demczak.ag@mellon.com or Bill Schmiedecke, (800) 642 6323 x 25651, email Stanley.schmiedecke@pncbank.com



About the National Federation of the Blind
The National Federation of the Blind (www.nfb.org), a membership organization of blind and visually impaired individuals, parents of blind children, and interested others, has maintained its National Headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, since 1978. With a membership of over 50,000, from over 700 local and state affiliates, the NFB has become the leader in innovations that result in improvements in self-determination, employment, and self-respect among the blind. Improvements in access to technology remains a high priority of the National Federation of the Blind. Along with supporting the development of access technology the NFB has developed and does operate Newsline for the blind and America's Jobline, two text to synthetic telephone based information delivery systems for the blind. The National Federation of the Blind is strategically positioned for growth and is in the process of establishing the first National Research and Training Institute for the Blind t o be constructed starting this fall adjacent to the present NFB headquarter building in Baltimore.