BELLSYSTEM24 Holdings (Representative Director, President, CEO: Tsuge Ichiro; Headquarters: Chuo Ward, Tokyo; Referred to below as "BELLSYSTEM24") and ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (HQ: Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo; President and CEO: Satoshi Kikuchi; Abbreviation: "CTC"), have begun working on"Smart-IVR" (temporary name), a new call center solution that automatically breaks down what consumers say in their phone inquiries, then automatically provides an answer or tranfers the call to the appropriate human responder.

Normally, call centers use "IVR*¹" to automatically answer phone calls as the first layer of response to more efficiently handle consumer inquiries. However, consumers sometimes say that "there is too much time that has to be spent waiting," and companies sometimes that "frequent inquiries don't go away."

With those needs in mind, the goals of "Smart-IVR" (temporary name) include providing a natural back and forth conversation for inquiries as soon as the calls are received, breaking down questions and answering the questions if they are a frequently asked ones, or transferring the call to the appropriate human responder if the questions are difficult. The goals of this process are to improve customer satisfaction based on shorter wait times and increase efficiency due to automatic answers to frequent questions.

(*2) The "Interactive Voice Response" system that connects calls to the proper agent when the consumer selects options from a verbal menu.
BELLSYSTEM24 has the largest footprint of call centers in the country, using its operational footprint to provide CRM services that combine the latest technologies with a proven track record and accumulated know-how in a variety of industries and a variety of contact center sizes. BELLSYSTEM24 will continue to develop and provide services with CTC that offer new value in the area where client companies and customers interact.

All names of corporations and products in this document are the trademark or registered trademark of their respective owner.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Inquiries Relating to this Press Release]

Public and Investor Relations Division, BELLSYSTEM24 Holdings, Inc.
Email：pr@bell24.co.jp / TEL：03-6893-9828

Asano, PR Division, ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation

E-mail：press@ctc-g.co.jp / TEL：03-6203-4100