New business demonstrates quick start
from investment in ART…

TORONTO, and SALT LAKE CITY – Feb. 7, 2005 – Avotus® Corporation (TSX Venture: AVS), the leading provider of communications spend management solutions, today announced that its 49% owned affiliate, Applied Research Technologies (ART), has added several e-Procurement clients over the last quarter. The contracts representing over $30.2 million of communications spend are with leading airline, insurance, manufacturing, retail and technology companies. It is projected that the companies will collectively save 47% or $14.2 million on their communications spend by using e-Procurement auction.

Avotus, through the use of ARTools® WebAuction™, offers a proprietary e-Procurement model that brings voice, data and wireless domain expertise to the automation and implementation of online communications Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and service provider auctions. The approach is so effective that ART can predict, within one-half of one percent, what the savings will be, and the result is that companies have substantially reduced their communications spend.

Other advantages of Avotus’ ARTools e-Procurement is that companies can avoid “lost savings.” Lost savings occur when companies go through the laborious six to 18 month process of constructing and distributing a RFP, analyzing the responses, then negotiating the outcome – time in which they continue to pay higher rates under old contracts. An ARTools RFP process and resulting auction typically take only five to ten weeks so companies gain the benefit of highly negotiated final contracts more quickly and realize savings much earlier.

Another advantage is the close integration of e-Procurement with the rest of Avotus’ Intelligent Communications Management™ (ICM) components. By tightly coupling with ICM Expense Management and ICM Usage Management, companies are able to closely manage their communications spend throughout the business cycle, from contract negotiation and provisioning through usage monitoring, invoice audit and reconciliation, and approval for payment.

“These new e-Procurement contracts demonstrate how quickly ART’s e-Procurement capabilities have been integrated into our sales, marketing and customer service operations,” commented Alan Gold, Avotus senior vice president, marketing and corporate strategy. “We are the only company that can help customers manage their communications costs starting with the purchasing process and taking them through the entire communications spend cycle. In addition to driving down costs initially, we help our customers implement new processes based on best practices to ensure continued savings and cost avoidance.”