President Sales & Services Employment Letter

EXHIBIT 10.97

April 15, 2003

Jim J. Flatley

Jim,

[ASPECT LOGO]

We are pleased to offer you employment at Aspect Communications Corporation as President, Sales and Services, reporting to me, with an anticipated start date of as soon as possible.

Your starting salary will be $29,166.66 per month, which will be paid bi-weekly. This base salary is equivalent to approximately $350,000 per year. You will be eligible to receive incentive bonuses targeted at $262,000 annually, to be paid as follows:

a. $50,000 guaranteed annual bonus, paid in equal quarterly amounts of $12,500, for your first two (2) years of employment. b. Aspect Executive Incentive Plan. Under this plan you may be eligible to receive an annual cash bonus targeted at $212,000. The amount of your bonus will be based on the Company's performance and your completion of, or contribution to, performance milestones on your annual goals. c. In your first year $106,000 of the $212,000 incentive will be guaranteed, such that $53,000 will be payable after 6 months of employment and the remaining $53,000 payable at your one-year anniversary. d. Therefore, your annual target compensation will be $612,000.

We will recommend to the Plan Administrator of the Company's Stock Option Plan that you be granted options to purchase 350,000 shares of Aspect Communications Corporation Common Stock. These options are granted on your start date. The grant price will be the closing price on your start date as quoted in the Wall Street Journal. In addition, you will be granted an additional 200,000 shares one year from your hire date assuming mutually agreed upon objectives are met. The strike price for the additional 200,000 shares shall be the Wall Street Journal market closing price on your one-year anniversary. All options will vest over four years: twenty-five percent (25%) will become exercisable on the first anniversary of the initial grant date, and the balance will vest in equal increments monthly over the remaining three-year period. Should your employment terminate for any reason, your options will cease to continue to vest as of your termination. Complete details of the s ...