Contact Information: Company Contact: Allegiance, Inc. Russ Losee VP Marketing (801) 617-8003 Email Contact PR Contact: Kevin Wilson (513) 898-1008 Email Contact
Allegiance Acquires National Hotline Services to Create Ethics Reporting Powerhouse
Allegiance Continues Rapid Growth; Unites SilentWhistle With Industry's Leading Phone-Based Ethics Hotline to Deliver Unmatched Ethics Reporting Suite
| Source: Allegiance, Inc.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT and WASHINGTON, DC -- (MARKET WIRE) -- November 14, 2006 -- Allegiance, Inc. and
National Hotline Services, Inc. have joined forces to create the strongest
ethics reporting company in the industry. The acquisition brings together
the leading web-based ethics reporting and case management solution, SilentWhistle, with the industry's
foremost phone-based ethics hotline services provider. Allegiance will now
serve a growing customer base of more than 1,500 businesses, government
agencies and educational institutions, as well as more than 20 percent of
U.S. hospitals.
In addition to SilentWhistle,
customers of National Hotline Services will benefit from a much broader set
of enterprise feedback management solutions offered by Allegiance. The
Allegiance Active Listening System is a suite of enterprise feedback
management tools that help organizations to collect, manage, analyze and
respond to customer, employee and partner feedback. National Hotline
Services' phone service and operations center will be integrated into the
Allegiance suite of products and services, and will continue to be led by
Carrie Kusserow and Michael Newchok who have managed day-to-day operations
for National Hotline Services since
1999. Richard Kusserow, former owner and chief executive officer of
National Hotline Services, will continue as an executive consultant to the
company.
"For the past several years, we have worked closely with National Hotline
Services supporting mutual customers and cross-selling our product
offerings," said Adam Edmunds, president and chief executive officer of Allegiance, Inc. "Because of our
complementary solutions, Allegiance and National Hotline Services
determined that it would be ideal for our current and prospective customers
to be able to leverage a more comprehensive ethics reporting solution in a
cohesive package. Together, we provide organizations with a complete suite
of hotline and feedback tools that protect their businesses, improve
communications inside and outside the organization, and meet industry and
government compliance standards, including SOX 301. Our recent partnership
with Thomson Financial and now the acquisition of National Hotline Services
clearly positions Allegiance as the leading provider of corporate
governance hotlines, ethics reporting and whistle-blowing solutions."
"The combination of National Hotline Services' phone hotlines, and the
advanced Web-based tools from Allegiance, surpass anything that is
available on the market today," added Richard Kusserow. "As a result of the
merger, we can offer organizations a much broader and more powerful
collection of tools that will help them capitalize on the power of
feedback. We look forward to working with the Allegiance team to continue
to protect our clients from fraud and mismanagement with first-class
service and solutions."
Current customers of Allegiance and National Hotline Services, as well as
organizations interested in enterprise feedback management and/or
whistle-blowing and ethics reporting solutions, can find additional
information at www.allegiance.com and www.hotlines.com.
About National Hotline Services
National Hotline Services is the leading phone-based ethics hotline
services provider. Since 1992, the company has helped clients in meeting
regulatory, legal and corporate objectives through customized Compliance,
Human Resources, Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA hotlines. National Hotline
Services has extensive experience providing prompt responses to ethics
violations that have prevented potentially adverse economic consequences.
Based in Fredericksburg, Va., National Hotline Services operates 24 hours a
day, 365 days a year and offers services in more than 150 languages.
About Allegiance, Inc.
Allegiance is a leading provider of enterprise feedback management
solutions. The company's Active Listening System operates as a CRM
accelerator, providing a suite of centrally managed feedback tools proven
to help organizations capture, manage, analyze and respond to real-time
feedback from multiple sources, ultimately impacting growth, profits and
lasting value. The suite includes StudentVoice, EmployeeVoice,
CustomerVoice and PartnerVoice, advanced Web-based feedback solutions
proven to help organizations better understand and react to the needs of
employees, customers and partners; and SilentWhistle, an anonymous ethics
reporting and whistle-blower solution proven to mitigate risk and fulfill
compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley section 301. The Allegiance solutions help
organizations establish an ethical culture, build loyal relationships, and
make more informed business decisions. For more information, please visit
http://www.allegiance.com.