Office Depot and NetByTel Announce One-Year Extension of Telephone Sel

Office Depot and NetByTel Announce One-Year Extension of Telephone Self-Service Agreement

    Business Editors

    BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 11, 2005--

NetByTel is Answering More than One Million Calls a Year for Office Depot
    Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE:ODP), one of the world's leading resellers of office products and services, today announced that it has signed a one-year extension of its agreement with NetByTel(R), an industry leader in telephone self-service solutions. The original operating agreement between the two South Florida-based companies was launched in July 2000, and NetByTel currently answers more than one million telephone calls a year for Office Depot's 1-800-GO-DEPOT.
    "Office Depot wants to provide a shopping alternative that lets our customers take care of business anytime from anywhere by phone," says Tim McGrath, vice president of customer service of Office Depot. "NetByTel provides Office Depot with voice self-service solutions that let customers call a toll free number to order products, request a catalog, check on the status of their order, locate a nearby store, or find the price and availability of a specific product and where to get it. As an added advantage, NetByTel's voice solutions are integrated directly into Office Depot's back-end ordering and fulfillment databases so that customers get their answers in real-time."
    "NetByTel is pleased to move into our fifth year of helping Office Depot's contact centers provide superior customer service. From the beginning, our goal has been to exceed Office Depot's expectations," says Ken Jackowitz, NetByTel's executive vice president and chief customer officer. "We have recently enhanced the quick order line to include up-selling required items, cross-selling service plans, and even offering a nearest-priced alternative in the rare instance of any out-of-stock item.
    "Office Depot is committed to 'Taking Care of Business' for millions of busy professionals from large corporations to the small home offices. By taking advantage of NetByTel's award-winning voice self-solutions, Office Depot is offering its customers one more, user-friendly, cost-effective and very efficient channel in today's multi-channel business environment," says Jackowitz.

    About Office Depot:

    With annual sales of more than $12 billion, no one sells more office supplies to more customers in more countries than Office Depot. Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Delray Beach, Fla., the company conducts business in 23 countries and employs nearly 50,000 people worldwide. Office Depot is a leader in every distribution channel - from retail stores and contract delivery to catalogs and e-commerce. The company is the world's number three online retailer - on track to generate $3B in sales for FY'04. In North America, Office Depot has 923 retail stores in addition to a national business-to-business delivery network supported by 22 delivery centers, more than 60 local sales offices and 13 regional call centers. The company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index.

    About NetByTel:

    NetByTel(R) delivers the best telephone self-service experience for callers. NetByTel solutions use speech recognition to answer calls that are currently handled by a live agent, providing its clients increased revenue opportunities, reduced operating expense, 24 x 7 service availability, and increased gross margins. As an industry leader in speech recognition call center software, NetByTel provides a true multi-channel leverage point for its wide variety of retail, catalog, direct response, publishing, travel/hospitality, finance and manufacturing clients. For more information, visit the Company Web site at http://www.NetByTel.com.

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CONTACT: Office Depot, Inc., Delray Beach, Fla. Brian Levine, 561-438-2895 blevine@officedepot.com or NetByTel, Boca Raton Gary Schweikhart, 561-756-4298 gary.schweikhart@netbytel.com

KEYWORD: FLORIDA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: CONSUMER/HOUSEHOLD RETAIL TELECOMMUNICATIONS INTERNET E-COMMERCE MARKETING AGREEMENTS SOURCE: NetByTel

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