AVST

About AVST

Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) was a software company specializing in unified communications (UC) solutions before a series of mergers and acquisitions integrated its technologies into the portfolio of OpenText. The company was established in September 2003 through the merger of Sound Advantage and the AVT division of Captaris, Inc., headquartered in Orange County, California. This strategic union combined key technologies and personnel, including engineering, support, and sales teams. Over the years, AVST secured significant funding, including a $10 million investment in 2004 from Ignition Partners and Dolphin Equity Partners, which fueled its market expansion. A pivotal moment in its history occurred in November 2017, when AVST was acquired by investment firm StoneCalibre and subsequently merged with XMedius, a Montreal-based provider of secure file exchange solutions. This merger created a comprehensive enterprise communications entity, which continued to operate under the XMedius name. The journey culminated in March 2020, when OpenText acquired XMedius for approximately $75 million, incorporating its entire suite of products, including the former AVST technologies, into the OpenText Experience Cloud.

AVST developed and marketed business communications solutions tailored for medium to large enterprises, as well as the government, healthcare, education, and hospitality sectors. The company's business model focused on providing software-based, switch-independent UC platforms that could integrate with existing telephony and data infrastructure from major vendors like Cisco, Microsoft, and Avaya. This approach allowed clients to modernize their communications capabilities without completely overhauling their current systems. Revenue was generated through the sale of software licenses and support services, distributed via a broad network of resellers and OEM partners.

The flagship product of AVST was CX-E, a unified communications platform formerly known as CallXpress. This software offered a comprehensive set of features, including call processing, voicemail, unified messaging, a speech-enabled personal assistant, mobile clients, and automated attendant services. CX-E was designed to be highly interoperable and scalable, providing tools to enhance individual and enterprise productivity. Following the merger with XMedius, the CX-E platform was rebranded as XM Connect. After the final acquisition by OpenText, the product lines were integrated once more; for example, XM Connect became OpenText™ CX-E Voice.