ASRNews

Market, Investment and Technical News of the Emerging Speech Technology Industry

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

The Emperor is Naked!

SpeechRecoDate on SNL: www.rjauburn.com/files/SpeechRecoDate.wmv Funny and does a great job at illustrating what is wrong with personas: Despite the VUI designers thinking that they are emulating a live agent (and giving it a personality), it's obvious that they are failing. What is apparent from the skit is that: 1) personas do not talk like normal people talk to other people; and 2) this is irritating.

Julie Amtrak Doesn’t work in emergencies: This month my wife was taking an Amtrak train from Metro Park, New Jersey to Boston. She called Amtrak two hours before the train that she was ticketed for was scheduled to leave, and Amtrak’s automated system (Julie) confirmed that the train was leaving on time. She went to the train station and was informed that the train was on time but that, because of flooding in Connecticut, the portion of the trip from NYC to Boston had been cancelled. The agent at the train station was snotty and offered no assistance. My wife then had to scramble to find alternate transportation. That Julie was not able to let my wife know of the cancellation of the train between NYC and Boston was inexcusable. Amtrak should offer a service that calls a passenger with reservations and informs them of a cancellation such as this. When you purchase your ticket, they get you to provide a number where they can reach you, but then they never use it. I guess that Amtrak and ScanSoft thought that it was more important for them to spend lots of money on the Julie persona that adds very little value to the customer experience. The SNL skit showed Julie Amtrak as being irritating to callers. This experience shows that she is also dumb. The Amtrak agents also do not like Julie. When you tell them of a bad experience that you have had, they tell you that Julie is no good and that you should talk to them.

Fonix negative growth despite Deloitte award: The Deloitte Technology growth rankings are calculated by taking the companies reported revenue at a start and a stop year. Since Fonix purchased a telephone company that was approximately four times larger than its speech business, the growth calculated by Deloitte was quite large. Fonix issued a PR that attempted to give the impression that Fonix had grown dramatically in the speech area. Their CEO made the statement that: "The Fonix Speech Group continues to dominate the speech interface software and technology markets in videogames, electronic dictionaries, devices for assistive needs and mobile devices with our speech recognition and text-to-speech solutions." Unless you have a new definition of the word "dominate", this statement is just flat out wrong. In actuality, the Fonix Speech business went from over $3 million in 2002 to $1.2 million in 2004. The only growth in the Fonix Speech business during the last five years was when they acquired DECtalk in 2001 and picked up almost $2.5 million in revenue. I view what Fonix did as fundamentally dishonest and well beyond marketing hyperbole. When I confronted Fonix about this, they felt that what they did was just fine.

Verizon fumbles easy play: This last month I requested that Verizon move my DSL service from one working number that I had to another working number that I had. As a researcher, having a robust Internet connectivity and quality telephony is important to me and I avoid putting these capabilities at risk at all cost. This did seem like a relatively straightforward thing to do and I obtained assurances from Verizon that what I was requesting could be done with virtually no disruption to my service. Despite this, Verizon managed to totally disable my DSL and VoIP service for almost two weeks. Realize that everything (the phone lines, DSL, VoIP service) was from Verizon. No technical problems were involved. The entire problem was caused by incompetence in the Verizon administrative process. I hadn’t used dial-up in almost four years and had almost forgotten how long it took to download a 10 MB file. Just imagine what the future holds. Verizon can offer me a Triple-Play and manage to also take down my cable TV (with my DSL and telephone service) for a couple of weeks. Despite all of the effort on part of the carriers to become Triple-Play providers, the benefit to the customer appears to be non-existant. No technical synergy and the Verizon groups that provide TDM telephone service, DSL and VoIP are completely isolated from each other. The really scary part is that my cable provider (ComCast) is even worse. When you call them they ask you what number you are calling from. Aren’t big monopolies fun?

Speech Industry Horrible VUI Postor Child of the month: This month’s selection for the Horrible VUI Poster Child agreed that their VUI was pretty bad and agreed to repair it. Based on them promising to fix it, we will not identify who they are. Worth describing what made their VUI bad enough to be nominated, though. Most VUIs suffer from diarrhea of the mouth. They drone on endlessly, often talking about things that the caller has no interest in at all. The purpose of the greeting is simple – it should identify the organization that the caller has reached. This can be accomplished with a just a few words (the name of the organization). A simple "good morning" or "good afternoon" is okay but not needed. The downside of doing it is that as often as not it gets screwed up and you have "Good Morning" being spoken in the PM. Listen to the greeting provided by live agents - you will find a total consistency from one agent to the next. The say the name of the company and occasionally will say "Good Morning". Our Horrible VUI for this month greeted the caller with an 85 word monologue that described what the company did, hyped most of the companies products, and told them what the companies web site url was. A caller wants a quick & easy experience and these folks insist on forcing the caller to listen to their spiel. This is stealing time from caller. Worse than broadcast TV ads since the viewer can decide to get a beer or go to the pot during a commercial. Viewers also recognize that the ad revenue is paying for the show that they are watching. With the phone, the only escape is hanging up. Imagine the impact that this has on repeat callers that have to listen to this same hype over-&-over. Probably not an issue though, since an organization that treats their customers with so little respect, probably does not get many repeat callers. The instructions are a classical "for accounting, please press one". Four of the choices are for different types of sales. Imagine that – callers that want to purchase something and the Horrible VUI company jerks them around with self-service! The instructions say that you can have the instructions repeated by hitting the star (*) key but when you press it, you get the same response as when you press the one key. You get transferred to a speech-enabled automated attendant (sounded like Parlance NameConnector) that has a different male voice and the instructions to the caller are truncated. I’m looking forward to these people cleaning this mess up soon.

Table E1

Latest Speech Industry Mafia Awards

Telephone – IVR Applications

Sky High Speed Selects Angel.com’s Virtual Call Center: Sky High Speed has deployed Angel.com’s Virtual Call Center solution. Sky High Speed chose the Angel.com solution to replace its Siebel CRM OnDemand solution, and will use the Virtual Call Center to handle automated information delivery, call screening, and routing for the company’s technical support and sales call centers. Angel.com’s Virtual Call Center is a hosted call center solution that combines the call distribution capabilities of an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system with the data collection capabilities of a speech-enabled IVR system, all in one Web interface. Sky High Speed is a provider of Wi-Fi solutions and support to multiple industries including the hospitality industry, where it services over 25,000 rooms at over 300 locations. Angel.com’s Virtual Call Center handles requirements, including remote and at-home agent accessibility, the ability to integrate with Sky High Speed’s customer database and the ability to make changes to call flows and routing patterns. "Overall, the product has performed exceptionally well, improving our technicians’ efficiency ten-fold and making the customer experience far smoother," said John Schnipkoweit, chief technology officer at Sky High Speed. "We’re also taking advantage of the flexibility of Angel.com by integrating the Virtual Call Center with our CRM software. Angel.com is easy to try, easy to use, and reasonably priced." www.skyhighspeed.com

Contact Solutions Outsourcing works when hurricanes come: Contract Solutions provided call automation services to government agencies of states such as Missisippi and Louisiana that were hard hit by the recent Katrina and Rita hurricanes. A primary application after the hurricanes was to issue debit cards to displaced residents so that they could purchase emergency supplies such as water, food and shelter. Call volumes during and after the hurricanes were 7-8 times normal and Contact Solutions had the capacity to readily handle this increased call volume. The location of the Contact Solutions facilities in a secure facility that was located out of the geographic region where the hurricane struck, assured that telephone information services were available when people needed them most. www.contactsolutions.com 703-480-1620, Paul Logan, CEO

Fortis Investments, multi-center, multi-product asset management company, has chosen Acapela text to speech to voice-enable its Information System management tool, OpalisRobot. OpalisRobot is a powerful administration and supervision tool for Microsoft networks. It allows supervision and interaction with all services and applications running on the servers, 24/7 and easy automation of any recurrent task to simplify maintenance operations and optimize system efficiency. The main benefit of this solution is flexibility. The administrator can easily define supervision or automation tasks, through graphs. Empowered by speech capability, with Acapela text to speech, Opalis can vocalize any kind of information in real time, to deliver a message with a highly natural voice. "The implementation of Acapela text to speech allows us to cover a wider time slot, and to let opalis run with wider autonomy too. Opalis can contact us in real time to provide us with precise data with a highly natural and intelligible voice. The 'on-call' correspondent can react very quickly and solve incidents online, thus avoiding on site interventions when it happens outside office worktime" explains Franck Driancourt, I.T. Operation and support specialist from Fortis Investments. Opalis uses Virtual Speaker, the virtual recording studio solution developed by Acapela to vocalize any content, with no development or hardware investment issues. Virtual Speaker reads aloud any text, with the quality and naturalness of Acapela voices. Deployed at Fortis Investments, OpalisRobot is distributed in France by Erellis. www.erellis.com/Opalis/Opalisrobot.html As the asset manager of Fortis, Fortis Investments has EUR 95.6 billion of assets under management. The company has a global presence with both sales offices and some 15 key investment centers in Europe, the USA and Asia. Employees number 730 of whom some 200 are dedicated investment specialists. www.fortisinvestments.com

Banco Rió Selects Genesys to Transform Its Call Center: This investment will enable Banco Rió to offer current and potential customers more service options, including customer self-service. Banco Rió sought a solution that would allow them to route customer calls based on statistics and customer information, and extend self-service capabilities. Banco Rió will implement the Genesys Voice Platform (GVP) and Genesys Inbound Voice. GVP leverages open standards, such as Voice XML, to make Web-based information available to customers over any telephone. It will extend Banco Rió’s customer service capabilities to handle a range of queries in self-service. "At Banco Rió, we know our customers very well, and this has been key to becoming the industry leader in customer attention and service," stated Pablo Vispo, CIO of Banco Rió. "The Genesys platform is significant in our differentiation efforts which, in our view, is an ongoing and steady process." In addition, Banco Rió will leverage GVP’s graphic development tools, enabling the contact center technology team to create new services and customize existing ones without the need for third party intervention. The implementation, which involves 650 contact center agents and 480 ports of Genesys Voice Platform, will be headed by Interaxa, a Genesys partner. Implementation is underway by the Interaxa team and will be completed by the end of 2005. www.genesyslab.com Contact: David Radoff, Genesys, 650.466.1078, dradoff@genesyslab.com

T-Mobile Implements Genesys Platform as Part of Customer Service Strategy:: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc, an Alcatel company (NYSE: ALA, Paris: CGEP.PA) announced that T-Mobile will implement Genesys solutions as part of the T-Mobile customer service strategy. T-Mobile is one of the largest global suppliers of mobile communication tools and will use Genesys solutions in the Dutch T-Mobile Customer Service offices in The Hague and Breda. Undergoing explosive growth, T-Mobile was finding that its current contact center solution lacked amenities to keep up with its expansion. For one, the contact center needed to increase operational efficiency. T-Mobile also needed to update its routing capabilities and workforce management system - the current planning and reporting system limited the number of applications that could be running in tandem. "Due to T-Mobile's rapid growth and our customer service strategy that emphasizes a high degree of customer satisfaction, we needed a new contact center platform and workforce management system," said Joop Evers, director of T-Mobile Customer Service. "Because of our solid international experiences with Genesys routing software, and the fact that we are facing a large scale European implementation, we have chosen the Genesys 7 suite, including Genesys Workforce Management," Evers commented. The Dutch T-Mobile Customer Service offices will use Genesys software to manage the routing of all incoming calls and e-mail messages. The Genesys solution provides new benefits for T-Mobile contact center agents, including call identification and routing features that recognize the customer based on phone numbers, segments the call based on customer type (i.e. consumer or business, subscription or prepaid), and transfers the call to the appropriate agent. The Genesys Workforce Management module provides insight into all incoming and outbound e-mail and phone communication. It also allows the Customer Service unit to deploy the appropriate contact center agents at the right moment to the correct location to manage call loads. As a result, T-Mobile's Customer Service office can manage heavy volumes of incoming calls without having to add additional staff; significantly improving efficiency and customer satisfaction. Genesys developed a customized platform for T-Mobile that combines information across different T-Mobile departments to provide agents with all available customer information. During quiet moments, agents are able to work on administrative tasks such as replying to letters, faxes and e-mail messages. During peak hours, T-Mobile's administrative employees can be deployed to answer phone calls in order to keep service at a consistent level. "Our relationship with T-Mobile is very important to us and we are excited that T-Mobile in the Netherlands - and in the whole of Europe - has chosen to expand their existing Genesys solution," said Michel van Roon, vice president of Genesys Northern Europe. "Beside the quality of products and services, the quality of customer service is one of the most important differentiators among telecom providers. T-Mobile chose a scalable, open solution from Genesys, one that perfectly fits with T-Mobile's worldwide strategy to optimize service levels." Joop Evers, director of T-Mobile Customer Service, switches over to Genesys platform

Jacent Automates 1,000,000th Phone Order With Flagship Voice-Ordering Platform: Jacent Technologies announced its flagship product, Jacent Voice Center, has automated its 1,000,000th phone order. Jacent Voice Center significantly improves the performance of the telephone order process with a customizable ordering framework using the most advanced speech recognition technology. Jacent’s innovative phone ordering solution is currently used by a number of large pizza chain franchises, and due to its ability to increase efficiency and decrease costs, is quickly moving into general restaurant, casual dining and catalog sales marketplaces. "Since Jacent Voice Center is consistently taking around fifteen to twenty percent of our orders, it's been less hectic for our staff and easier for them to take every call that comes through, provide better customer service and consistently up sell," said Imran Sayeed, director of operations for the 50-unit Pizza Hut franchisee, Kurani Pizza, of Georgia. "This new efficiency also allows them to do more around the store." "Jacent Voice Center fills a real need for pizza franchise owners by helping improve operations, increase revenues, and improve customer satisfaction leading to more repeat business," stated Trevor Stout, president and CEO of Jacent. "Because of this, we’ve made huge gains in penetrating the pizza phone order business with our Voice Center product over the past few months. We are now up and running in a number of major chains across the nation including Dominos, Pizza Hut and Round Table. As a result, we have quickly hit the 1,000,000 mark for automated order numbers, and expect this number to continue to grow rapidly." Jacent Voice Center is a complete call business management system designed to be both expandable and inexpensive to deploy. The system allows managers to take complete control over their phone sales operations and minimize costly lost calls. Voice Center handles all of the call business needs and expands to add powerful additional modules that enhance and improve the entire scope of phone sales operations. Jacent Voice Center was developed exclusively for this purpose, and is currently empowering businesses to increase revenue and customer satisfaction through the speech automation of takeout and delivery orders in the restaurant industry. Current customers include a large percentage of Pizza Hut, Dominos and Round Table restaurants. www.jacent.com or call 408-327-9100.

Loquendo text to speech finds home in real estate industry: Loquendo and Showcase Technologies, the developer of real estate marketing products, announced that Showcase Technologies (Girardeau, MO) has selected Loquendo TTS text-to-speech technology to enhance the company's online real estate viewing experience. The internet has become the real estate agent's best friend, allowing properties to be displayed around the world with a single click. Showcase Technologies has taken real estate home shopping to a new level, offering agents a way to build narrated tours of listings in a matter of minutes. Scott Slinkard of Showcase Technologies says, "Real estate agents wanted a way to create an online marketing experience for their properties, instead of just displaying photographs. They wanted a fast way to deliver an immersive online presentation, and Loquendo's lifelike text to speech engine allows us to add incredible voice narration, without human intervention." The narrated tours can be viewed by visiting www.realtourlive.com. A friendly synthetic voice will instantly explain the technology and visitors can experience the narrated tour interface. The tours also incorporate maps and satellite imagery, along with several other useful tools for prospective home buyers. Showcase Technologies is a provider of Real Estate Marketing solutions and is based in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA. www.loquendo.com/en

Persay’s Biometric Speaker Verification to Assist in Monitoring ‘Hooligans’ Banned from Attending Soccer Games: Holland’s Ministry of Justice has recently passed a new law encouraging the deployment of biometric speaker verification technology, provided by Persay Ltd., to monitor ‘hooligans’ banned from attending soccer games. Persay’s system will be deployed in a number of European nations through Elmo-Tech (a subsidiary of Dmatek Ltd.) and operated by ADT Monitoring Services. The monitoring system assists the police in ensuring that hooligans, convicted of initiating and participating in violent acts and banned from attending soccer games, will comply with their detention period and will be remotely monitored from their homes during the games. The Dutch police force, notorious for its widespread use of unconventional means to tackle the ever growing violence at soccer games, chose this monitoring system following a competitive analysis. The significance of this new monitoring scheme is that fans that are banned from attending soccer games no longer need to notify the police in person during a game. Persay’s technology provides the cutting edge to ElmoTech’s electronic monitoring system presently operating in Holland, designed to deal with the criminal population. The system is programmed to randomly call the banned fans at home during the soccer games and to verify them by their voiceprint. The speaker verification system is designed to work on various telephone networks, independent of language and accent, taking into consideration various environmental scenarios such as background noise and changes in a person’s natural voice patterns. Calls cannot be redirected via "follow-me" to mobile phones and the system is able to successfully detect recording/playback attempts. Persay’s technology is designed to monitor inmates and teenagers under house arrest in additional countries such as the U.S.A., United Kingdom, Spain, and New Zealand. Persay’s technology has recently been deployed in additional applications of remote time and attendance. One of Persay’s systems is presently used by the Department of Homeland Security in the United States and replaces physical attendance with remote attendance in immigration offices for immigrants possessing temporary visas. Contact: Persay Ltd., Elinor Betesh, Marcom Manager, Tel: +972-3-767-8666 elinor.betesh@persay.com www.persay.com

Independence Blue Cross Selects WebForPhone: Independence Blue Cross selected NetXentry LLC's WebforPhone, a provider of speech recognition for accessing the Internet via any phone, to deploy its Physician Referral using speech/phone self-service. WebForPhone’s speech-based self services for Health Insurance include Eligibility, Claims, Provider-Directory-Assistance and Customer-Surveys. Providers and members can dial the WebForPhone platform. They can interact in speech, communicate needs and data, and the platform logs on to the respective Web site and executes its functions. Founded in 2000 by a group from University of Pennsylvania who recognized the enormous emerging market for innovative telephone speech recognition based browsing of the Internet. WebforPhone is a finalist for the Ben Franklin Emerging Business Award for Innovative Service. WebforPhone builds, manages and hosts services, for over 20 large enterprises, mainly in the Healthcare, Retail, Financial, and Insurance industry verticals. Clients benefit by having more satisfied customers, more productive staff, low cost of entry, fast installation and rapid ROI. www.webforphone.com Contact for WebForPhone: John Wood, Vice President Health Care Sales (215) 854-0555 x222

Telephone - IVR Products/Services/Partnerships/Financials

Angel.com and MScript launch voice-enabled CRM and transcription sollutions: Angel.com it has entered into a strategic alliance with MScript to offer three voice-enabled CRM and transcription solutions. Angel.com and MScript customers will now be able to utilize Angel.com's on-demand phone solutions to collect data from callers, transcribe pieces of information from the call, and communicate key pieces of data into existing CRM or ERP applications. Angel.com and MScript will offer the following solutions: SalesScript is MScript's phone interface into a company's powerful CRM application, which allows individuals to use voice to enter real-time data into existing CRM applications. Customers can integrate SalesScript with existing CRM applications such as Salesforce.com, Siebel and Netsuite, as well as any ERP application. SalesScript can minimize inaccurate and disparate data, increase employee productivity and increase the quantity of data entered by allowing access to the system at any time and from any location. MCare is a voice-enabled name and address capture solution offered by Angel.com, MScript and 411XML. Customers use MCare to capture lead data for high volume applications, such as direct response campaigns, class action lawsuits or surveys. The solution can be deployed immediately and offers a low-cost alternative to using live agents to capture data. Based on Angel.com and MScript's Microsoft .NET platform, IN-Voice is a billing and time-tracking solution for the mobile workforce. Callers simply phone in hours worked or completed tasks and the voice files can be converted to text and delivered to the appropriate audience. IN-Voice can be integrated with any corporate time and billing system using web services and XML. Founded in 2000, MScript is a leader in document creation and management with the ability to accept and integrate data from IVR phone systems, faxes, email, Web-based forms, scanned images, mobile devices and more. In addition to the ability to convert handwritten and voice files to text, MScript's suite of tools can also pull or push data from customer corporate databases, CRM, ERP and supply chain applications into the company's online forms using web services and XML. www.mscript.com www.microstrategy.com Mark Golino, President of MScript

Apptera Rolls out Business Intelligence for v-Business Platform: Apptera released a business intelligence solution for the company’s v-Business platform. Apptera Business Intelligence is a reporting tool that generates a summary for CIOs and business line users that provides insight into callers’ goals and behavior, with an ability to drill-down into the usage and performance of specific business transactions. Apptera Business Intelligence generates a summary or executive dashboard for highlighting the top line metrics used to illustrate the success of caller interactions. This helps business users to access useful data on caller requests, preferences and intent. Apptera enables companies to track program, product and service efficiencies, identifying new insight for how callers engage with the system and pinpointing their transaction success. www.apptera.com

Concerto Software and Aspect Communications Complete Merger and Form Aspect Software: Concerto Software and AspectCommunications announced completion of their merger. The transaction was approved by a majority of Aspect Communications' shareholders on 21 September 2005 . The new entity, privately held by Golden Gate Capital, Oak Investment Partners, company management and others, will now operate as Aspect Software. The newly formed Aspect Software brings together more than 30 years of contact center expertise and innovation with a robust, market-leading product portfolio that includes predictive dialers, automatic call distributors (ACD), unified contact center systems, self-service interactive voice response (IVR) systems, workforce management applications and performance analytics solutions, enabling the company to meet customer demand for increased functionality and reduced complexity. Aspect Software will continue to evolve and support all of its major product lines, build tighter integrations among its products and provide evolutionary methods for customers to adopt new and emerging technologies. Aspect Software anticipates in excess of $600 million in annual revenue, with more than 5,000 customers and a global presence in over 50 countries. The company also expects to maintain its strong record of profitability, demonstrating long-term viability and enabling significant investment in research and development. The executive team of the new company, led by CEO Jim Foy, includes individuals from both companies' management teams. Gary Barnett, former CEO of Aspect Communications, now serves as chief technology officer (CTO) and executive vice president of worldwide support services for Aspect Software. Other members of the new management team include: *Ralph Breslauer - executive vice president of global sales and marketing ; *Mike Provenzano - executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO); *Alex Tellez - executive vice president of engineering. Aspect Software, the founder of the contact center industry, is the largest company 100 percent focused on providing proven, innovative products and services that enable key business processes including customer service, collections, and sales and telemarketing for in-house and outsourced contact centers. Each day, companies around the globe conduct more than 125 million customer interactions using Aspect's flexible, reliable solutions for automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, workforce management, analytics, IVR and multi-channel contact. Headquartered in Westford, Mass., Aspect has operations across the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. www.aspect.com.

Cognitronics to Acquire ThinkEngine Networks: Cognitronics Corporation (Amex: CGN) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held ThinkEngine Networks, Inc.( Marlborough, Massachusetts). ThinkEngine's VSR1000, an advanced call processing platform provides TDM to IP gateway, conferencing, media server and voice recognition functionality into one platform. The VSR1000 platform together with Cognitronics' CX Network Media Servers creates a leadership position in the Advanced Intelligent Network to Voice over Internet Protocol (AIN to VoIP) voice processing market. Cognitronics is acquiring ThinkEngine Networks in a stock, cash and note transaction aggregating approximately $4.7 million. www.cognitronics.com. Founded in 2000, ThinkEngine Networks is a leading provider of TDM and IP capable conferencing bridges and media servers. The VSR1000C includes both TDM and IP interfaces as standard equipment and is capable of processing 1000 simultaneous sessions in a compact 1U platform. The NEBS 3 certified platform has been deployed by customers to implement Reservation-less Conferencing, Prepaid Calling, and IVR applications. Michael Mitchell, chief executive officer of ThinkEngine Networks.

Convergys SpeechPort Open Hosting Environment Delivers Unique Platform for Speech Solutions
Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG), announces the addition of the Convergys SpeechPort Open Hosting Environment (OHE) to its portfolio of speech and multi-channel technology solutions. With this open hosting platform, Convergys clients can take as much control as they want over the development and management of their speech recognition applications to automate customer interactions, while still enjoying the many benefits associated with a hosted services environment. Convergys Speechport OHE is a VoiceXML 2.0-based, speech recognition hosting platform designed to bridge the gap between hosting and premise-based solutions by distributing system components without compromising security or performance. It provides Convergys clients with maximum flexibility in the development and management of their speech applications. Using SpeechPort OHE, Convergys clients can determine the degree to which they use in-house programming resources and maintain control of the hardware and software elements of the hosting environment, while enjoying the low total cost of ownership, scalability, security, and redundancy protection of a hosted solutions environment. Convergys SpeechPort OHE will be particularly attractive to premise-based speech vendors and packaged application providers seeking to quickly establish their brand, deploy their products and services, and expand their market presence with a hosted solution. www.convergys.com Contacts: John Pratt, Convergys +1 513 723 3333 or +1 888 284 9900 or john.pratt@convergys.com

Datria Named One of Fastest Growing Technology Companies in Deloitte's Colorado Technology Fast 50 Program for Third Year in a Row: Datria has been named to Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Program for Colorado, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the state by Deloitte & Touche USA LLP. Rankings are based on the percentage revenue over five years, from 2000 –2004. To qualify for the Technology Fast 50, companies must have had operating revenues of at least $50,000 in 2000 and $1,000,000 in 2004, be headquartered in North America, and be a "technology company," defined as a company that owns proprietary technology that contributes to a significant portion of the company's operating revenues; or devotes a significant proportion of revenues to the research and development of technology. Using other companies' technology in a unique way does not qualify. Winners of the 15 regional Technology Fast 50 programs in the United States and Canada are automatically entered in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 program, which ranks North America’s top 500 fastest growing technology companies.

Fluency Voice Technology Secures a Second Round of Funding: Fluency Voice Technology has raised a further £3 million in equity investment underwritten by UK and European technology investors Favonius Ventures and Kennet Venture Partners. Favonius and Kennet originally injected £4 million into the business in March of 2004. Fluency's client list includes companies such as Barclays, Chelsea Building Society, Lloyds TSB, National Express, Powergen and JD Williams.

Genesys and IBM Expand Speech Solution Offering: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. and IBM entered a new technology and reseller agreement in which the Genesys Voice Platform (GVP) technology offering has expanded to include the addition of IBM WebSphere Voice Server (WVS) speech solutions. The IBM WebSphere Voice Server functionality provides automated speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) resources that enable speech-based interaction. IBM WVS is now available with GVP: Network Edition (GVP: NE) and GVP: Enterprise Edition (GVP: EE). GVP: NE is an IP-enabled software-only solution that offers standards-based development, deployment options, and integration for voice applications. GVP: EE for the enterprise is an IP-enabled, software-only solution that runs on off-the-shelf hardware. Additional benefits of the solution integration include the fact that GVP is media resource control protocol (MRCP) compatible, operating on a multitude of speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies. The IBM WVS allows for transition from proprietary application program interfaces to making MRCP interface the speech technology industry standard. In addition, the joint solution supports automatic speech recognition technology, matching spoken input to the expected grammar in a speech application. WVS currently offers eight languages, including English, Australian English, UK English, German, Canadian French, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. This agreement builds upon the IBM and Genesys strategic alliance that delivers call center solutions and consulting services to customers since 1999. IBM runs Genesys solutions in all of its worldwide call centers, including ibm.com and IBM’s Strategic Outsourcing Delivery Service Centers.

Siemens and Genesys Integrate SIP-Based Solutions to Provide Large-Scale Enterprises with Contact Center Virtualization from a Single Platform: Siemens Communications, Inc., and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. announced a new integration of technologies - using open next-generation session initiation protocol (SIP) standards - to bring a single, centralized platform of rich contact center and communication solutions to large enterprises. The integration includes the SIP-based Siemens HiPath 8000 Real-Time IP System and the SIP-based Genesys 7 portfolio of contact center management applications. This new approach is designed to enable enterprises using the HiPath 8000 and Genesys 7 platforms to build on existing communication infrastructure investments. The combined solution is also designed to allow the migration to SIP one business unit at a time, with continued interoperability with legacy systems to extend the reach of next-generation SIP solutions throughout an enterprise's IP network infrastructure. The two companies are building on a longstanding partnership to integrate technologies to create a complete IP contact center solution based around the HiPath 8000 voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) solution, one of the industry's first unified communication softswitches to be built from the ground-up with native SIP architecture. The HiPath 8000 communications system is also designed to provide carrier-grade reliability and with scalability to support the data, telephony and multimedia needs of as many as 100,000 users. Building upon a 10-year reseller relationship, Siemens and Genesys recently completed interoperability testing for the combined solution at the Siemens Labs in San Jose, Calif. Genesys is now completing certification tests prior to making the combined solution market available for proof-of-concept projects today and for production environments in early 2006. www.genesyslab.com http://www.alcatel.com : www.usa.siemens.com www.usa.siemens.com/communications holders. Contacts: Barry Lawrence, 703-262-2020 barry.lawrence@siemens.com David Radoff 650-466-1078 dradoff@genesyslab.com Mark Straton, senior vice president of marketing for Siemens Communications, Inc.

Sports Scores and News By Voice - By Phone From ifbyphone: Sports fans are just a phone call away from the latest scores and sports news. ifbyphone's Content on Command service is available anytime, anywhere. A special toll-free number, 866 350-9836, is now in operation. Call and you're connected to ifbyphone. ifbyphone provides custom web-like access from your telephone. You navigate by voice command without ever needing to touch the keypad or straining to read a tiny screen. By integrating sophisticated voice recognition and state of the art text to speech technologies, ifbyphone empowers your cell phone, home phone, or business phone to be your personalized play-by-play source. -- ifbyphone now provides the tools to set your preferences for your favorite teams and sports. Anytime you dial in, ifbyphone's proprietary technology recognizes a registered user and begins reporting: -- Real time scores -- Game Previews and Game Recaps -- Betting Lines including odds, spreads and total points -- BCS Rankings and Coaches Polls -- ifbyphone's league data aggregation includes: NFL, NCAA Football (I-A), NCAA Basketball (Men's and Women's), NBA, NHL, and MLB. Coming soon is NASCAR, Golf, NCAA Football(Other Divisions) FIFA Soccer and Tennis. ifbyphone's proprietary technology provides its community of registered users with not just sports but the latest news, weather, stocks, RSS feeds, Blogs plus interactive games and fiction -- all personalized. This new release (Beta 2) also includes: -- E-mail Keyword Scan and Notification: Registered users can enter any keyword. ifbyphone scans all incoming messages and will call the designated phone number to alert them when an e-mail with the keyword arrives. ifbyphone's text to speech tool can then be commanded to read the message. -- Dynamic Chat: Questions on "water-cooler" topics are available to any registered ifbyphone user. Users can share opinions and listen to what others have said anytime from anywhere. Free registration and customization is now available at www.ifbyphone.com . ifbyphone is a new media company focused on the distribution of recorded and text based information and family friendly entertainment via voice. The customizable features of the ifbyphone voice-based service are available directly to individual customers and to corporations. Use any phone anywhere to access the latest news, sports or weather, listen to your e-mail, search thousands of RSS feeds, access hundreds of Blogs, monitor your portfolio, play fun games or enjoy interactive fiction. Funding for http://www.ifbyphone.com is provided by Cogitations, Inc., a software technology incubator headquartered in Skokie, Illinois.

Intervoice Achieves VoiceXML 2.0 Industry Certification: Intervoice, Inc. (Nasdaq:INTV) announced its Omvia Media Server, a component of its Omvia Solutions Framework, has achieved VoiceXML 2.0 Certification through the VoiceXML Forum's Platform Certification Program. The Omvia Media Server passed more than 580 independently tested assertions in the VoiceXML Forum's VoiceXML 2.0 test suite. With VoiceXML 2.0 Certification, the Omvia Media Server provides a standards-based environment for the creation, deployment and hosting of speech-enabled services from a single platform. The Omvia Media Server is a modular and scalable platform that integrates Web- and enterprise-based data systems into speech-enabled automated solutions and allows enterprises to develop and deploy voice applications efficiently. The Omvia Media Server provides a standard Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) interface for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Text To Speech (TTS) integration. The Omvia Media Server is the first VoiceXML browser to achieve VoiceXML 2.0 certification using MRCP for ASR and TTS integration. The Omvia Media Server is available in both TDM and VoIP configurations and also supports SALT. VoiceXML 2.0 Certification through the VoiceXML Forum's Platform Certification Program confirms that a solution is compatible with the VoiceXML standard, saving customers and partners from the ongoing burden of making and maintaining proprietary markups. The certification requirements are based on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) VoiceXML 2.0 Recommendation and the W3C VoiceXML 2.0 Implementation Report test suite. The certification program is managed and developed by VoiceXML Forum members and utilizes independent third-party test laboratories to ensure impartiality. www.intervoice.com/solutions/technology/ Ken Goldberg, 972-454-8407 Ken.goldberg@intervoice.com

Jacent broadens phone-order lineup with Voice Center: Jacent Technologies announced the release of its new Jacent Voice Center. According to a news release, Voice Center is a comprehensive call management platform that offers two new modules, CallWise and QuickStart. Both work with Jacent’s current module, OrderStream. Voice Center significantly improves the performance of the telephone order process with a customizable ordering framework using the most advanced speech-recognition technology. The CallWise module records each phone call and delivers comprehensive reporting and analytics so that businesses can better understand all aspects of the ordering process. The OrderStream module prevents abandoned calls by giving customers the option of placing orders automatically without waiting for staff to answer. * QuickStart speeds call times by providing staff with pre-screened customer order information before they even pick up the phone. www.jacent.com

Loquendo and CreaLog Sign Partnership Agreement: Loquendo and CreaLog (Munich, Germany) have signed an agreement whereby CreaLog will integrate Loquendo's multilingual speech technologies into its flagship product CreaVoice Voice Portal. The CreaLog Voice Portal Platform is powered by Loquendo Technologies - including Loquendo TTS, Loquendo ASR and Loquendo Speaker Verification - and is the basis for application-specific and individual solutions. CreaVoice manages the caller dialogue and is responsible for coordinating all activities, including speech recognition, synthetic speech, speaker verification, voice-logging and conferencing. Loquendo offers a high quality, multi-lingual portfolio of speech technologies, including Loquendo TTS and Loquendo ASR, which enable systems integrators to provide simple, intuitive voice interaction with information. Loquendo currently supports 16 languages from around the world with additional language technologies under development. Leveraging the VoiceXML and web-controlled CreaVoice Platform, CreaLog offers advanced Solutions for "Customer-Self-Service by phone" to a wide variety of sectors, including Phone-Banking and Brokerage, Intelligent Call Center Support and Automation, Mass Calling Platforms for Carriers, Interactive TV-Auction Solutions for Media and Entertainment, Voice Portal Solutions for Retail, Industry and Travel, Voice Government and Utilities. CreaLog is the leading provider of Voice Portal solutions in Europe, with references in 15 countries. CreaLog's VoiceXML-based and web-controlled Voice Portals are running at more than 280 leading customers across 30 sectors. They use natural-language speech recognition and next generation Text-to-Speech. CreaLog's Voice Portals, Unified Messaging and CTI-Solutions for Enterprises and Carriers with more than 26.000 installed Lines, achieved the "Best of CeBit 2005 Award". CreaLog's customer Sparda Bank received the "Bankmarketingpreis 2005"-Award for their best-in-class Phonebanking Solution "CreaVoice Banking". www.Crealog.com With over 30 years R&D experience, global speech-technologies leader Loquendo provides all the technologies required for creating the ultimate speech-interaction solutions. Loquendo's best-in-breed technologies - Loquendo TTS, Loquendo ASR, Loquendo Speaker Verification - and the VoxNauta Platform enable integrators to rapidly and easily create best-in-breed solutions in 16 languages. Currently available languages include U.S. and U.K. English, Castilian, Catalan, Mexican, Chilean and Argentinean Spanish, Italian, German, French, Greek, Mandarin Chinese, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese and Swedish - in both male and female voices. Loquendo is a Telecom Italia company headquartered in Turin, Italy and is a leading technological partner for integrators in the speech solutions field throughout Europe, the U.S. & Latin America. www.loquendo.com

Loquendo and Dutchear Announce a Strategic Partnership to Deliver Speech-Driven Telephony Applications: Loquendo and Dutchear (Delft, Netherlands) are joining forces to implement speech driven telephony applications. Through this agreement, Dutchear will integrate Loquendo's multilingual Synthetic Speech, Automatic Speech Recognition and Speaker Verification technologies in a wide range of speech technology applications for call routing, corporate and personal directory assistance and telephony self-service aimed at the Dutch speech market. Dutchear has extensive experience with developing and implementing speech driven applications for multi-nationals, mid market and small sized companies. The Dutchear solutions are aimed at short time-to-market and high ROI. Loquendo offers a high quality, multi-lingual portfolio of speech technologies, including Loquendo TTS and Loquendo ASR which enable systems integrators to provide simple, intuitive voice interaction with information. Loquendo currently supports 16 languages from around the world with additional language technologies under development.. Dutchear develops speech technology applications for call routing, call logging, corporate and personal directory assistance and telephony self-service. Dutchear offers tailor made solutions as well as pay-per-call services. In order to design and implement speech driven applications quickly and with high quality, Dutchear incorporates ready-to-use ASR/Synthesis modules (e.g.: Dutch addresses, Dutch first and last names) and ready-to-use Speaker Verification modules in her solutions. Dutchear is a spin-off of TNO, the largest R&D organisation in The Netherlands. Since 2005 Dutchear exists as a separate company, in which TNO has a 100% equity stake. With over 30 years cutting-edge R&D experience, global speech-technologies leader Loquendo provides all the technologies required for creating the ultimate speech-interaction solutions. www.loquendo.com Victor Huisman, Managing Director of Dutchear

Loquendo and Comlet Sign Partnership Agreement: Loquendo and ComLet (Munich, Germany) announced that they have entered into an agreement which enables ComLet to integrate Loquendo’s multilingual Text-to-Speech (TTS) and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) engines into its flagship CallPro® Voice Portal solution. The CallPro® Voice Portal solution is universally applicable and will provide Comlet customers with greater speech quality for all their automated systems requirements. ComLet has a rich portfolio of integration success stories in the man-machine-dialogue systems field of the automotive-industry. Their "Embedded-Systems" division creates high-end applications in the infotainment field for leading German automotive manufacturers. ComLet uses its automotive expertise to support customers in a variety of areas, including consulting, project management and implementation. Loquendo offers a high quality, multi-lingual portfolio of speech technologies, including Loquendo TTS and Loquendo ASR which enable systems integrators to provide simple, intuitive voice interaction with information. Loquendo currently supports 16 languages from around the world with additional language technologies under development. ComLet is currently developing a range of services for customers in the E-government and Banking sectors. These services were demonstrated at the Voice Day 2005 Conference, which was held in Bonn on October 20th and 21st. www.loquendo.com ComLet GmbH was founded in 2001 by professors and alumni of the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern computer science department. Prof. Dr. Manuel Duque-Antòn and Prof. Dr. Manh Tien Tran are the managing directors of the company, which currently numbers 25 employees. As a typical university's spin-off ComLet is closely involved in research and development activities. Using an ongoing know-how transfer, the company has the ability to identify current trends and possibilities in the IT-environment at an early stage and transform them into innovative solutions and services. ComLet is a qualified partner in the man-machine-dialogue field and has a rich track record of successful business activity in the automotive-industry www.comlet.de Steffen Fromm, Marketing & Sales Manager at ComLet

Nexidia Launches Management Consulting Practice: Nexidia launched a Management Consulting Practice designed to help customers maximize the impact of implementing Nexidia’s speech analytics solution. The Nexidia Management Consulting team will be led by Suzy Weaver, Mike Hutchison and M.J. Lichtenberg. The group has over 60 years of experience in managing and evaluating contact center performance and implementing solutions. Weaver most recently managed Telvista’s contact center operations in Mexico and the United States. Hutchison brings 15 years of experience in customer service. Lichtenberg spent over 20 years working with American Airlines and its subsidiary where she led a multi-million dollar account spread over four call center sites. She is also trained in Six Sigma methodology. www.nexidia.com

Pronexus Inc. and Mobilio Inc. Sign LOI for Data Sharing Between Field Service Personnel and Office Using a Cell Phone: Pronexus Inc. and Mobilio Inc., a provider of Web-based service management and wireless solutions, signed a Letter of Intent (LOI). The LOI lays out the framework for the companies to enhance and extend Mobilio's existing wireless field service software, MobilioLINK, with voice capabilities via the Pronexus veoMobile platform. MobilioLINK Web-based and wireless field service management solution is a service management solution that connects a mobile and/or remote workforce with the office for sharing of information. Field service personnel and the office can now communicate mission critical information and data in via any wireless device. MobilioLINK eliminates the need for manual and paper-based systems for processing information such as work orders. MobilioLINK also transfers information electronically to the organization's existing back-office accounting or scheduling system. Pronexus veoMobile provides a voice interface to enterprise applications such as MobilioLINK for data capture and retrieval over voice networks. Organizations using MobilioLINK can deploy the solution enhanced with Pronexus veoMobile speech technology using their existing cell phones. Field service personnel will be able to access and update work-related information, such as work orders, by placing a telephone call. Pronexus veoMobile is built on the Microsoft Speech Server and integrates with existing IT infrastructure for a mobile solution. By voice-enabling MobilioLINK with Pronexus veoMobile: * Field service technicians can now update their work orders in using their existing cell phones *Dispatchers can obtain scheduling and status updates of their mobile technicians through the MobilioLINK voice-enabled system. Dispatchers will have a view of field service activity to provide information, such as expected arrival time to customers. This agreement not only provides the companies with a frame work with which to integrate Pronexus veoMobile solution with Mobilio's MobilioLINK, but it also details how the companies will conduct product demonstrations and market trials to validate customer acceptance, and to obtain technical and commercial feedback. Following market trials initiated mid Q4, it is expected that Mobilio will enter into a Value-Added Reseller agreement with Pronexus, allowing Mobilio to resell the Pronexus veoMobile solution. www.myMobilio.com Jamie Opalchuk, jamie@myMobilio.com 905-465-0933 Jennifer McDonald, Pronexus Inc. jennifer.mcdonald@pronexus.com (613) 271 8989 www.pronexus.com

Skype opens marketplace for voice services: Skype Launches Its Voice Services Program, Creating New Revenue Opportunities for Content Providers Worldwide– Skype (Luxembourg), the pioneering Global Internet Communications Company, which offers free high-quality phone calls to anyone with an Internet connection, announced the further development of its strategy, creating business opportunities for its thriving community of developers and partners by launching its Voice Services Program for third party content providers. The Skype Voice Services Program developed in partnership with industry leaders like Tellme Networks enables any content provider, large or small, to become a part of Skype’s new marketplace for either free or chargeable voice services. Content providers will join Skype’s ecosystem of more than 400 Skype developers worldwide who are already offering hardware and software products to Skype’s 53 million members. "Skype has driven a revolution in personal communications by popularizing free Internet phone calls. We are committed to opening the endless possibilities for voice by creating a marketplace for our thriving ecosystem of partners and developers to make it easy for their innovative services to be available to our millions of callers worldwide," said Niklas Zennström, CEO and Co-founder of Skype. "We challenge the world’s most creative content providers to work with us and our partners at Tellme, Voxeo and Voxpilot to develop these new and exciting forms of Internet voice services." Examples of voice services Skype callers could benefit from include live traffic reports, horoscope of the day, language learning tools, or international delivery tracking systems, available for free or for a charge to the caller. Tellme Networks, the company bringing Internet services to the telephone, is a key partner for Skype’s new program alongside Voxpilot and Voxeo. These partners will work with Skype to provide market-leading platforms and development resources with which content providers can build and charge for innovative voice services. Skype callers will pay for chargeable voice services from their Skype Credit account with a percentage of the fee going to the content provider who created the service. Content providers’ voice services will be reviewed and the most popular will be deployed and listed on the Skype website. Details about how to submit applications and the fee structure will be announced later this month. Interested content providers can access more information on Skype’s Voice Services Program at www.skype.com/partners/voice/ where they will also find links to its partner platforms: Tellme Studio (studio.tellme.com); Voxpilot (www.voxbuilder.com) and Voxeo (www.voxeo.com) to build and submit applications for deployment on Skype. Skype, the Global Internet Communications Company, allows people everywhere to make free, unlimited, superior quality voice calls via its award-winning innovative peer-to-peer software for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Pocket PC platforms. Skype is available in 27 languages and is the fastest growing voice communications offering worldwide. Since its launch in August 2003, Skype has been downloaded more than 161 million times in 225 countries and territories. Over 53 million people registered to use Skype’s free services, with over 3 million simultaneous users. Skype has more than 2 million premium customers, with over 12 billion minutes served. Skype Technologies S.A. is headquartered in Luxembourg and is growing its offices in London and Tallinn. Skype Technologies is privately held and backed by top tier international venture capital firms, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Index Ventures, and Mangrove Capital Partners.

Telephony Fraud Prevention for Web Hosts: VariLogiX (Dearborn Heights, MI) has expanded its telephone fraud verification service for its flagship FraudCall product, with the addition of a speech recognition verification system. The service, which allows online merchants to verify their customers’ orders before their credit card is processed, saves merchants processing fees and chargeback fees if the order is fraudulent. VariLogix telephony solutions with IVR capabilities has been integrated in the past into web hosting billing software such as WHM Auto Pilot, ModernBill, and SW-Soft’s HSPComplete. VariLogix will offer the new speech recognition service for all service packages, and will allow its clients to approve roughly 45% more orders from countries whose telephones do not support touch-tone dialing. FraudCall, which online merchants use to verify orders via phone confirmation, is a scalable product that was developed in March of 2004 by VariLogix that reduces fraud orders by roughly 99 percent. To date, it has prevented over 35,000 fraudulent orders. "What we are offering is revolutionary in terms of price and scalability," said VariLogiX President James Ryan. "In our industry, fraud can make or break a company. Finally, we have a way to prevent it." VariLogix is a privately held IVR and anti-fraud solutions provider specializing in Fraud Prevention services. With a capacity to place over 2,400 calls an hour to over 200 countries, it has quickly become the leading provider of telephony solutions for hosting companies. Developed by VariLogiX, FraudCall allows e-commerce companies to place verification calls to customers via an automated system. Available in one of three packages, the system is an economical way to substantially reduce or even eliminate fraudulent orders. Contact: Dan Garon, Publicist VariLogiX / Press Advance 612-501-1586

Vocal Laboratories Report on Customer Care Among Financial Institutions Shows Washington Mutual on Top: Vocal Laboratories Inc. (www.vocalabs.com) announced the results of its SectorPulse study on the quality of customer service among three financial services companies. This study focused on Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and the Internet funds transfer company PayPal, a subsidiary of e-Bay (NASDAQ:EBAY). Washington Mutual showed substantial improvement from an earlier study published in April 2005, earning an "A" grade in Caller Satisfaction, up from a "C". But the company earned a "D" in Call Completion, which measures the percentage of customers who were able to complete their business with just a single phone call. Bank of America was also evaluated in the previous report, and showed no significant change earning a "C" in Caller Satisfaction, and a "D" in Call Completion, just as before. While not a direct competitor to the other two companies, PayPal processes millions of online financial transactions each year. We did not collect data on PayPal in our prior study, but for this report the company earned a "C" in Customer Satisfaction and a "D" in Call Completion. VocaLabs CEO Peter Leppik comments: "The poor grades for Call Completion are especially troubling in this industry. Repeat calls to complete a single piece of business frustrates customers and negatively impacts the financial performance of a customer service operation. Across all the financial services companies for which we have data, about one customer in four must call more than once, an unnecessary burden on both the customer and the company." www.vocalabs.com An Executive Summary and complete SectorPulse-Financial data reports are available by subscription. VocaLabs' SectorPulse reports compare the customer service quality for different companies in the same industry, using data and call recordings from the companies' customers. VocaLabs has recruited over 92,000 individuals to provide feedback on customer service experiences, from which we drew the participants for this study. VocaLabs panelists who are customers of one of the companies included in this study were asked to participate by having their customer service calls tracked and completing surveys before and after the call. Vocal Laboratories delivers statistically reliable feedback on the user friendliness of telephone based customer service whether delivered via traditional call centers or self-serve technology. Clients are end user enterprises, call center consultants, application providers and equipment vendors. Contacts: Vocal Laboratories, Inc., Rick Rappe', 952-941-6580 X 205, rrappe@vocalabs.com

Verizon Wireless in the Top Spot in VocaLabs Study of Customer Service Quality: Vocal Laboratories Inc. (www.vocalabs.com) announced the results of its eighth quarterly SectorPulse study on the quality of customer service among the largest wireless phone companies during the three months ending September 30, 2005. Maintaining its lead over T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) earned an "A" in Caller Satisfaction and a "B" in Call Completion, the same grades as last quarter. T-Mobile remained close behind retaining "B"s in both Caller Satisfaction and Call Completion, also unchanged from last quarter. Cingular remained at a "B" for Caller Satisfaction, but improved to a "B" in Call Completion. But legacy AT&T Wireless (NYSE:AWE) customers not yet converted to Cingular reported a "C" in Caller Satisfaction and a "D" in Call Completion. Sprint's grades were unchanged from last quarter with a "C" in Caller Satisfaction and a "D" in Call Completion. "It is interesting how quickly Cingular has improved its service quality and closed the performance gap between itself and the leaders," commented VocaLabs' CEO Peter Leppik. "While the differences remain statistically meaningful, the top three carriers are far more equal in customer care than two years ago when we began SectorPulse to monitor customer service performance." www.vocalabs.com. An Executive Summary and complete SectorPulse Wireless data reports are available by subscription. Contacts: Vocal Laboratories, Inc., Rick Rappe', 952-941-6580 X 205 rrappe@vocalabs.com

Southwest Still at the Top in VocaLabs Study of Airline Customer Service: Vocal Laboratories (www.vocalabs.com) announced the results of its fourth SectorPulse study on the quality of customer service among major US Airlines. Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) with its reputation for quality customer care earns another "A" for Caller Satisfaction, and in fact Southwest's satisfaction scores are among the highest across all industries, not just airlines. Still, the airline dropped from an "A" to a "C" in Call Completion, a measure of the percentage of customers who had to call back more than once to complete their business. Northwest (Nasdaq:NWAC) earned an "A" in Caller Satisfaction, up from a "B" six months ago, and remained at a "B" in Call Completion. Both American (NYSE:AMR) and United (OTCBB:UAL.OB) earned "B" grades in Caller Satisfaction, unchanged from the last report. Both companies also earned "C's" in Call Completion, which was down from a "B" at American, and down from an "A" at United. Delta (NYSE:DAL) remains at a "C" in Caller Satisfaction, but improved to a "B" in Call Completion, up from a "C". VocaLabs CEO Peter Leppik comments: "The most striking industry trend in this report is the drop in Call Completion scores. Repeat calls to complete a single transaction are costly to the carriers and frustrating to consumers. Much of the data was collected before the recent hurricanes, which suggests that those natural disasters are not the cause of this shift. More likely, continuing financial pressures on airlines are resulting in staffing cutbacks that cause longer times on hold, prompting customers to hang up and call again later. Both Northwest and Delta filed for chapter 11 reorganization, after our data collection was essentially complete, and it will be interesting to see if they will be able to sustain their gains in service quality." An Executive Summary and complete SectorPulse data reports are available by subscription. Contacts: Vocal Laboratories, Inc., Rick Rappe', 952-941-6580 X 205 rrappe@vocalabs.com

VoiceObjects Establishes Worldwide Headquarters in Silicon Valley: VoiceObjects has completed the legal formalities necessary to become a U.S. company, and has established its worldwide headquarters in Silicon Valley. VoiceObjects, Inc. will become the parent organization, and Germany based VoiceObjects AG will become a wholly owned subsidiary. VoiceObjects also closed a combined equity and debt financing of U.S. $11.5 million from TeleSoft Partners, Wellington Partners, SAP Ventures, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Venture, Enjoyventure and Comerica Bank. VoiceObjects founder Karl-Heinz Land will serve as executive vice president on the company’s strategic sales and business development efforts, primarily in the United States and Europe. In addition, Kent Bridges has joined VoiceObjects as senior vice president of sales, North America. Bridges will manage the company’s enterprise, OEM and channel sales efforts in the U.S. Bridges has held senior executive sales positions at DigitalPersona, Gadzook Networks, ZeitNet, Retix and Novell. In conjunction with the company’s move to the United States, Steve West has become the interim CEO, and will serve until the company’s permanent CEO search is completed. VoiceObjects will continue to operate with its existing team in Germany supporting its customers and partners in Europe and the United Kingdom. VoiceObjects engineering personnel will continue to deliver and support the company’s voice application management system platform VoiceObjects X5 from Germany, and will expand to other locations in the future as required by the growing needs of the business.

VoiceRite announced that it will resell the IBM WebSphere® Voice Server and Applications Server in an OEM agreement between the two companies. VoiceRite will bundle the WebSphere Voice and Application Server with its SpeechSuite applications, to offer a complete, easy to order suite of speech solutions. By bundling the speech technology and applications server with the application, VoiceRite is able to deliver a turnkey product. This contrasts with other speech application vendors who have to burden customers with evaluating, purchasing and integrating speech technology from one vendor and applications servers from another vendor, and integrate these to provide a platform upon which the speech application can run. www.voicerite.com

Voxeo Launches VoipCenter 6.0 SIP Application, SIP Media and SIP Fusion Products for Voice over IP Application Delivery: Voxeo Corporation announced its VoipCenter 6.0 SIP platform, delivering standards-based Voice over IP (VOIP) application creation, integration and deployment capabilities to any enterprise or service provider. Unlike VOIP application platforms that combine open SIP telephony with proprietary application development interfaces, the VoipCenter SIP platform enables rapid, open SIP application delivery via the Call Control XML (CCXML) and VoiceXML standards. To date, Voxeo's CCXML and VoiceXML engines have been used by more than 14,000 companies to deliver over 25,000 feature-rich, highly-reliable, future-proof SIP-based telephony applications. Voxeo's CCXML and VoiceXML-based SIP product family includes: The VoipCenter SIP Application Server software is built on Voxeo's proven Call Control XML (CCXML) engine and has routed over one billion calls since its first production deployment in early 2002. CCXML lets any company create intelligent, dynamic SIP applications that can screen, route, transfer, and initiate SIP VOIP calls - including SIP redirect, proxy, and Back-to-Back User Agent (B2BUA) applications. The VoipCenter SIP Application Server also supports least-cost and multi-network call routing with the ENUM route directory standard. The VoipCenter SIP Media Server software delivers a resume even more impressive than that of its SIP call control sibling. Built on Voxeo's carrier-grade Host Media Processing (HMP) engine, the VoipCenter SIP Media Server has played, recorded and conferenced its way through over three trillion VOIP packets since 1999. The VoipCenter SIP Media Server is driven by Voxeo's certified-compliant VoiceXML IVR and speech media application engine. VoiceXML delivers features to play prompts and speak synthesized text, record audio, and receive input via touch-tone entry or comfortable speech recognition. Voxeo extensions add everything developers need to record calls and to connect callers in high-quality multi-party audio conferences. The VoipCenter SIP Media Server also bundles highly intelligent English-language speech recognition and speech synthesis engines at no additional charge, and supports a wide variety of additional speech engines via support for the IETF Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) standard. In fact, the VoipCenter Media Server is itself a powerful MRCP compliant media server and media proxy. VoipCenter Fusion Servers integrate both Voxeo's SIP Application and Media software into a single 1U or 3U rack-mount server. Voxeo's SIP Fusion Server is the first turnkey telephony platform to offer VoiceXML IVR, CCXML call control, speech recognition, speech synthesis, call conferencing, call recording and an optional built-in PSTN-to-SIP VOIP gateway in one integrated, rack-mount device. The VoipCenter Fusion Server integrates with both existing and new PSTN, PBX, and VOIP deployments, and is available in both 120/240 volt AC or -48 volt DC telecom power models. VoipCenter SIP products are available immediately from Voxeo as either a hosted service, software install or turnkey server. VoipCenter SIP is compatible with a wide variety of SIP vendors, devices and services, including Avaya, BroadVoice, Cisco/Linksys, Delta3, Digium/Asterisk, Global Crossing, Level(3), Lucent, Nortel, SIP Express Router (SER), Sipura, Sonus, Televolution and more. www.voxeo.com, or call +1 (407) 418-1800.

WebForPhone Becomes a Strategic Partner with Salesforce.com: NetXentry LLC's WebforPhone, announces it has become a strategic partner of Salesforce.com. WebForPhone provides a new way to access CRM via speech, easily and naturally, at any time and from any place for executives, customers and suppliers. The WebforPhone platform translates between a telephone user’s speech and the Internet, acting as a speech browser for the Internet. An executive on the move can request by speech to find or update SalesForce.com CRM data – contacts, events, products, etc. Users can register at www.WebForPhone.com/salesforce, and then dial the WebforPhone automatic operator-like Platform to execute their requirements. Also, WebForPhone allows for a fully automated contact center by providing self-service by telephone speech to customers and suppliers. Users can perform speech enabled self-service functions on a website. SalesForce.com CRM can now be automatically emulated to provide speech-based phone customer self-service. Salesforce.com is the market and technology leader in on-demand customer relationship management (CRM). The company's Salesforce family of on-demand applications enables customers to manage and share all of their sales, support, marketing and partner information on demand. Appforce, Salesforce.com's on-demand platform, allows customers to customize and integrate the Salesforce family to meet their unique business needs, and build whole new powerful applications quickly and easily. Appforce applications are available via AppExchange, salesforce.com's on-demand application sharing service. www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

West Corporation Awarded VoiceXML 2.0 Certification: West Corporation (Nasdaq: WSTC) announced that the West VoiceXML Platform has been awarded 2.0 certification by the VoiceXML Forum. West Corporation joins an elite group of companies whose platforms have been recognized as 2.0-compliant by the Forum. www.west.com +1-402-963-1324

Telephone Messaging – Applications/Products/Partnerships/Financials

AVST Launches CallXpress 7.71 Unified Communications: Applied Voice & Speech Technologies' CallXpress 7.71 features a 30% increase in port capacity, now supporting up to 20,000 users on a single site configuration. "Our goal for CallXpress is to continue in our tradition of offering the best of UC for businesses of all sizes," said Tom Minifie, AVST Vice President of Product Management. "There is a distinct trend toward the replacement of first generation voicemail systems for UC solutions that integrate with other applications like Instant Messaging, Presence and future VoIP and wireless technologies. We are at the early stages of that trend and through this new release can support the largest installations on a single site configuration and provide users with a solution that gives second generation features supported through an interface they already know." As a UC solution, CallXpress lets users access voice, fax and e-mail messages in a single e-mail inbox.

AVST Offers Communications Solutions for Higher Education Marketplace: Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) demonstrated its commitment to the higher education marketplace by showcasing its product line to communications technology professionals from colleges and universities around the world. AVST exhibit its industry-leading unified communications products at the 2005 ACUTA Fall Seminars conference October 30 through November 2, 2005 at the Marriott City Center in Denver, Colo. ACUTA, which stands for the Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education, is an international non-profit educational association whose core purpose is to support higher education institutions in achieving optimal use of communications technologies. Already having success in the higher education marketplace and boasting a product line that appeals to education campuses of all sizes, AVST’s technology is a natural fit for ACUTA’s audience. At ACUTA, AVST showcased its newest version of CallXpress. Just launched, CallXpress 7.71 has the largest port capacity of any UC solution in its class and enhanced user interfaces. "AVST’s CallXpress provides administrators and faculty members with anytime, anywhere access to messages from any telephone or personal computer," said the company’s Vice President of Marketing, Denny Michael. "The software can be customized for each institution and specially configured to offer innovative solutions such as Homework Hotline, Career Connection, eXpress Registration and Appointment Scheduling & Calendaring." Institutions such as John Carroll University and Seattle Pacific University are using CallXpress to provide administrators and faculty members with the necessary tools to improve time management, giving them greater command of their productivity. In particular, Seattle Pacific has experienced a great degree of success and return on investment with CallXpress. According to Dave Tindall, assistant vice president for technology services at Seattle Pacific, "The ability for our faculty and staff members to maintain, store, listen to, respond to and forward voice mails in the same manner as e-mails quickly caught on. CallXpress smoothes out the process for those that live and breath in Microsoft Outlook—when they see a voice mail, they can deal with it quickly." Having built upon one of the most mature and innovative unified communications solutions in the market, AVST has designed CallXpress to help employees communicate and collaborate more productively and effectively regardless of their physical location. CallXpress enables users to have access to voice, fax and e-mail messages in a single e-mail inbox. In addition, CallXpress supports hundreds of legacy, digital and IP switches and is designed to deliver varying levels of communications functionality on an "ala carte" basis, significantly reducing customer licensing costs while ensuring that users get the best communications technology for their individual requirements today. www.acuta.org/events/seminars/fse05.cfm. ACUTA, the Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education, is an international non-profit educational association serving colleges and universities. ACUTA represents nearly 2000 individuals at 825 institutions of higher education with members ranging from small schools and community colleges to the 50 largest U.S. institutions representing diverse Carnegie classifications in all 50 states, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. ACUTA also has Corporate Affiliate members, representing all categories of communications technology vendors who serve the college/university market. Contact: Denny Michael, VP of Marketing, 949-699-2300 www.avst.com.

Portman Building Society uses AVST'S CallXpress: Portman Building Society, one of the largest building societies and mortgage lenders in the United Kingdom, announced it has deployed CallXpress, by Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) at its headquarters and across a network of 114 branch offices. CallXpress delivers advanced unified messaging and speech-enabled capabilities that are designed to help companies deliver first rate customer service by allowing employees to communicate and collaborate more productively and effectively. Customer service continues to be a top priority for mortgage banking, investment and insurance companies. In such a competitive business sector the challenge is to attract and retain customers. With mergers and acquisitions constantly taking place, a key communications requirement is to ensure consistency through the integration of the different types of systems including PBXs, contact centres and voice mail. In order to stay competitive, Portman decided it needed to upgrade its existing corporate communications system to include a unified messaging application that would combine all of these aspects in an affordable, easy-to-use solution. After discussing these requirements with Avanquest, an expert supplier of leading-edge, best-of-breed corporate solutions and a qualified reseller of AVST products, Portman selected AVST’s CallXpress unified communications solution. David Lincoln, group networks manager at Portman, said, "Key factors in our decision to go with CallXpress were its ability to run in a Microsoft Mail environment with a simple migration path to Microsoft Exchange, and the ability to integrate with our Lucent SDX INDeX switches." Avanquest installed a 20-port CallXpress system with DPNSS integration along with a 12-port RightFax Enterprise system. Portman’s employees now receive immediate notification and access to voice, fax and email messages from their Outlook inbox from any location. CallXpress combines voice, fax and email messages in one inbox and makes them accessible via telephone, wireless device or computer. Users do not have to be in the office or logged onto a computer to access their email. They can receive and respond to messages anywhere, anytime. That means customers aren't left waiting, mobile workers are accessible and urgent messages are available right away. This greatly increases service levels and also provides a consistent corporate interface to the customers. Lincoln continued, "First class messaging is a must-have tool for any client service-driven organisation, and CallXpress enables our team members to respond to client inquires in an efficient manner. The end users have taken to it like a duck to water, and the installation and training time investment was minimal. The installation of CallXpress was an overall success." CallXpress is available in the UK through Avanquest www.avanquest.co.uk 01962 835053, or any AVST established reseller. For more product detail on CallXpress or a list of Resellers please contact AVST UK Regional Director, Paul Donaldson on 01676 531180 or access the company's website at www.avstgroup.com Portman Building Society is the third largest building society and thirteenth largest mortgage lender in the UK. Since 2000, Portman has more than doubled in size. During this period Portman was the fastest growing top ten building society measured by the three key aspects of lending – total assets, mortgage balances and savings under management. The Society’s assets now exceed £16.5 billion and the Society and its subsidiaries employ over 2,000 staff serving 1.8 million members. Currently, Portman has a total network of 146 branches. The Society's Head Office is in Bournemouth, Dorset and it has an administration centre based in the West Midlands. Avanquest UK is an authorised AVST reseller and accredited AVST training centre, is based in Winchester, UK. It has been supplying, implementing and supporting leading-edge, best of breed, Corporate Solutions for almost twenty years. The company has an unparalleled track record in understanding a clients' business plan and providing solutions that accelerate and formalise internal processes. www.avanquest.co.uk 01962 835000.

AVST Supports International Association of Messaging Professionals (IAMP) as Cornerstone Sponsor: Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) announced that it is a cornerstone sponsor of the International Association of Messaging Professionals (IAMP). As a premier sponsor to this professional association, AVST is underscoring its commitment to advancing the enterprise communications market through education and awareness. At the IAMP 2005 Messaging Expo based in Houston, Texas, AVST demonstrated its unified communications (UC) product line and company executives spoke in a series of high-profile panels and breakout sessions. Targeted to professionals that manage and deploy voice messaging and unified messaging as strategic components of their enterprise communications solution set, this year’s IAMP conference is focused on the future of messaging including messaging application evolution and messaging infrastructure convergence. Breakout sessions vary from future visions, regulatory influences and speech recognition as an access technology to message security, disaster recovery and IP PBX integration. Attendees to the conference include some of the largest messaging users in the world including multinational and Fortune 1000 companies. "AVST is a perfect cornerstone sponsor of IAMP because of its innovative and educational focus in the messaging industry," added IAMP President Kyle Honadel. "Along with its market-leading products, AVST understands the needs and demands of today’s enterprise and offers them not only best-of-breed solutions but also a long term technology partner." CallXpress delivers call processing, voice messaging, unified messaging and advanced speech applications to medium and large enterprises and is designed to work with hundreds of legacy, digital and IP switches. Additionally, the platform is designed to deliver varying levels of communications functionality to different segments of the workforce on an "ala carte" basis, significantly reducing company-wide licensing costs while ensuring that employees get the best communications technology for their individual requirements today. IAMP is an independent association of technology professionals that focuses on the evolving world of enterprise communications solutions including voice messaging and unified messaging. IAMP’s primary objective is membership education which is accomplished by gathering and reporting industry news and technical information, sponsoring local member events and discussion groups, and conducting an annual conference. Incorporated as a professional organization in 1990, the International Association of Messaging Professionals (IAMP) is an "education focused" not-for-profit organization comprised of voice and data professionals that manage mission critical, enterprise communications solutions like voice messaging and unified messaging. IAMP’s moremembership includes 350 of the largest messaging users in the world including multinational and Fortune 1000 companies as well as single site and large campus concerns. contact IAMP at (310) 336-0449 or access the IAMP website at www.iampro.org www.avst.com.

Esnatech & My IP Telephone Deliver IP Voice Processing Solution for Socket Communications: Esnatech and My IP Telephone, a provider of IP telephony solutions and applications, have partnered to streamline Socket Communications’ voice network. Socket Communications, Inc. (Newark, California) provides the broadest range of network connection products for Windows-powered handheld computers, including cards with Bluetooth® Wireless Technology, wireless LAN cards, digital phone cards, 56K modem cards, and Ethernet cards. Socket also provides bar code scanning products and peripheral connection serial cards for laptops and other mobile devices. Socket Communications contacted My IP Telephone to explore a converged telecommunications solution to replace their existing, antiquated system. Socket’s corporate headquarters needed a better auto attendant system to answer their increasing call volume seamlessly. All prospective sales inquiries contact the main number for information, so the system had to deliver the finest in customer service and interaction. With the economy experiencing a vigorous surge of recovery, Socket saw the benefits of a new system that directly reflects their commitment to modern communication strategies. My IP Telephone needed a voice platform to satisfy the ambitious demands of Socket Communications to, first, manage all incoming inquiries and, second, to ease the migration out of a legacy voice mail platform. Telephony Office-LinX’s speech-enabled auto attendant delivered the goods! A simple, intuitive way to manage thousands of calls a day and process them appropriately, based on simple speech commands or requests from the caller. No more lost calls, no more frustrated sales prospects, only satisfied callers who are processed quickly and precisely through the Telephony Office-LinX platform. Socket was also not unlike many other organizations, in that it was trapped in a legacy voice mail platform that delivered no network integration, no unified messaging capabilities, and paid a high price to manage service and perform upgrades. Telephony Office-LinX allowed them to seamlessly migrate out of their legacy Octel voice mail platform into a new IP-integrated Unified messaging solution with little or no disruption. Another big issue with their Octel system was the absence of a means to back it up, presenting a major concern in case of disaster or disruption. Socket operated with the fear of losing all their messages should anything untoward happen on the existing Octel voice mail system. With the Office-LinX telephone user interface emulation, Socket could transfer their existing voice mail platform in its entirety, dramatically reducing the amount of user training that would have been required in a move to a new platform. Socket also leverages the Office-LinX solution for access to all their messages from their Microsoft Exchange accounts, including remote access via pocket PCs and cell phones. This enhances employee productivity and eliminates all barriers to easy access and staff response to messages. iA real-time communications solution for enterprise customers. Whether it’s a large campus, distributed offices or a mobile workforce, this all-in-one unified communications platform features unified messaging, wireless connectivity, CTI call control, one-number Find Me functionality, Web access, instant messaging, speech recognition, text-to-speech for e-mail reading – and even enables callers to connect to you live when you’re out of the office! My IP Telephone was developed by Pylon Solutions, an experienced team of consultants who have been working together since 1999, leading businesses into the field of Voice-over-IP and IP-PBX technology,. My IP Telephone carefully scrutinizes IP-PBX products, as well as the companies that develop them. Drawing on lessons learned in the consulting field, My IP Telephone packages solutions to fit most small-to-medium businesses - a variety of products and applications that are perfectly matched and which provide maximum productivity with minimal overhead and cost. www.myiptelephone.com Socket Communications (NASDAQ: SCKT) develops and distributes a broad range of data collection and network connectivity products for mobile devices such as PDA’s, Smartphones, and tablet notebooks. Working collaboratively with leading Strategic Vertical Integrators, world-class 3rd party software developers and OEMs, Socket's Battery Friendly products are proven to drive operational efficiencies, increase mobile workforce productivity, boost corporate performance and improve customer satisfaction. 510-744-2700 www.socketcom.com www.esnatech.com/products/enterprise/.

Fonix Telecom Now Certified in Georgia and Florida to Provide Local Exchange and Long Distance Services: Fonix Telecom, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Fonix® Corporation (OTC BB: FNIX) received its Interexchange Company (IXC) and Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) Certifications from Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) and Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) to provide local exchange and interexchange, specifically intrastate long distance and associated access services. Fonix Telecom will begin providing facilities-based local telephone service and interconnection services in Georgia and Florida. As a facilities-based network provider, Fonix Telecom is able to simultaneously support traditional voice subscribers without the reliance upon the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) switched services such as Unbundled Network Element - Platform (UNE-P). www.fonixtelecom.com (866) 486-4733. www.fonix.com (801) 553-6600 and say "Sales." Fonix Investor Contact: Gino De Jesus (678) 391-4596 gdejesus@fonix.com

Siemens Business Services and Loquendo Partner: Loquendo and Siemens Business Services (SBS) signed a strategic partnership establishing Siemens Business Services as a worldwide value added reseller of Loquendo Voice Technologies. Loquendo's technologies will integrate with SBS's voice applications platform. Thus customers will be able to leverage both Loquendo's TTS and ASR capabilities and SBS's voice solutions and enterprise architecture integration.

SpeechSwitch Deploying Speech Enabled Auto Attendant at Camtronics Medical Systems: SpeechSwitch, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SSWC) announced that Camtronics Medical Systems has installed a Speech Enabled Auto Attendant. Camtronics, Inc. implemented iVoice Speech-Enabled Auto Attendant installed in conjunction with the Avaya, Definity phone systemIntroducing speech technology has led to a significant increase in business efficiency, and it has enhanced their ability to deliver top service to its customers. SpeechSwitch partner, Source, Inc, sold the Auto Attendant. Since 1986, Camtronics Medical Systems has been a leader in Cardiovascular Information Systems. Our VERICIS for cardiac Cath creates a complete digital record of images and reports for the Cath lab patient. Integrating with your Hospital Since 1986, Camtronics Medical Systems has been a leader in Cardiovascular Information System (HIS), VERICIS helps you optimize workflow, improve productivity, overcome staffing shortages, increase referrals, and control costs. Consisting of applications for Cardiac Cath Echocardiography, Nuclear Cardiography, and Vascular Ultrasound VERICIS is a comprehensive cardiology solution for any department. This scalable and expandable solution allows capacity and functionality to be added as required with new data sources and users - both on and off site - integrated seamlessly into the network architecture. 1-800-634-5151, www.camtronics.com www.speechswitch.com

Telephone Tools – Applications/Products/Partnerships/Financials

Aculab and Alliance Systems Extend Strategic Partnership; Aculab and Alliance Systems Anticipate Significant Growth Opportunities with Expanded Partnership: Aculab and Alliance Systems, Ltd., a leading provider of communications and computing infrastructure solutions, are pleased to announce they have entered into a strategic partnership to provide integrated communications solutions that combine Aculab's enabling technology products and Alliance Systems' best-in-class Intel based servers. These completely integrated and fully tested communications solutions create new and expanded market opportunities in both telecom and enterprise environments. Alliance Systems delivers a comprehensive set of outsourced services for independent software vendors (ISVs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and service providers. These services, which include design, manufacturing, logistics and support, help customers optimize their businesses for enhanced profitability and reduced time to market. With this new partnership, customers can leverage Alliance Systems' high-reliability communications systems with Aculab's high-end telephony products to build solutions for contact centers, IVR systems, pre-paid and Short Message Service (SMS) solutions as well as Voice over IP (VoIP), SS7 and other communications applications. Alliance Systems, Ltd. based in Plano, Texas, designs, builds, ships and supports Intel based servers. These systems provide the infrastructure for VoIP, wireless, security and other communications applications. Through its engineering, manufacturing and value-added services, Alliance Systems helps customers optimize their businesses by enhancing profitability and reducing time to market. Aculab, Jo Taylor, +44 1908 273 800 jo.taylor@aculab.com or Alliance Systems Claire Ortega, 972-633-3400 claire.ortega@alliancesystems.com

Aculab Uses CYGCOM's Speed to Market and eSupport Program: Aculab entered an agreement with CYGCOM Integrated Technologies. This agreement enables CYGCOM, through its "Speed to Market" program to integrate, test, distribute, support and co-market Aculab's Prosody PCI card and Telephony Interface Manager (TIM), for use with the Microsoft Speech Server (MSS) 2004 R2, to their extensive VAR and ISV distribution channels. Aculab's TIM allows MSS 2004 R2 based applications to be powered by Aculab's Prosody media processing resource cards and benefit from Aculab's portfolio of protocols for worldwide digital network access. Protocols include T1 and E1 interface connections, allowing prospects to be targeted in North America, Europe and Asia. The integration of the Aculab TIM with the MSS 2004 R2 specification means that all the low-level call control and resource provisioning is managed by the TIM. CYGCOM's 'Speed to Market' program delivers a go-to-market model for ISVs, OEMs and communication resellers through programmatic systems integration of Intel Server platforms, field installation and post installation support. Under this agreement, CYGCOM will develop integration for its "SpeechWatch™" product to incorporate the Aculab cards and TIM. CYGCOM's "SpeechWatch™" console also provides monitoring, alarming and e-notification for the telephony elements in a MSS 2004 R2 environment. www.aculab.com

EAS Group, Inc. Completes Acquisition of Brooktrout, Inc.: EAS Group, Inc., the privately-held parent of Excel Switching Corporation, has completed its acquisition of Brooktrout, Inc.

In Empirix survey, 4 out of 5 Contact Center Pros report that technology problems regularly impact productivity: Empirix Inc., the leading provider of testing and monitoring solutions for VoIP, contact center and Web technologies, announced the results of a survey conducted at the recent Annual Call Center Exhibition (ACCE) conference on call center technology and management. The survey focused on the impact that technology has on contact center Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) metrics commonly used to measure the efficiency and quality of service provided by a contact center. Examples of KPIs include time-to-answer, queue length and first-call resolution rate. Among the survey findings: - When asked how often technology problems negatively impact agents or the caller experience, four out of five answered "Often" or "Sometimes;" - 14 percent of respondents reported that their contact centers miss their KPIs every day, and 32 percent - nearly one in three - reported missing their KPIs at least once a week; 60 percent of respondents believe that technology problems are the primary cause behind failure to meet KPIs; and - 54 percent of respondents are first notified of technology problems by their customers. 68 percent of respondents categorized themselves as "Contact Center Management" and 18 percent categorized themselves as "Information Technology Management/Staff." The balance of respondents were Line-of-Business Management, Customer Service Representatives or Other. "The data clearly show that technology problems have a major impact on overall contact center productivity," said Frank Moreno, Director of Product Marketing at Empirix. "Most contact centers apply substantial resources toward ensuring the quality of live agent interactions, but relatively few have taken the steps to ensure the quality of the automated systems that support those agents and callers. When you consider that in some industries, up to 80 percent of calls are handled entirely within automated systems, it is clear that most quality assurance measures are insufficient to accomplish their objectives." Only 10 percent of survey respondents report using any proactive method for technology quality assurance - four percent test manually and six percent use automated monitoring systems. "Automated testing and monitoring are best practices that should be commonplace in contact centers," said Moreno. "Up-front investments in quality can result in tremendous payoff later, in the form of better service, happier agents, reduced costs and more loyal and profitable customers." For an executive summary of the survey data, including a copy of the survey questions, visit www.empirix.com/acce

Empirix Awarded Patent for Component of End-to-end Testing Solution for CRM Environments: Empirix Inc. (Bedford, MA) has been issued U.S. patent #6,944,799 for its Multimedia Synchronization System, an element of its end-to-end testing service for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology environments involving products from vendors such as Avaya, Cisco, Genesys and Siebel. Empirix's end-to-end testing service for CRM, called Hammer Service Assurance, can test both the voice and Web components of a CRM environment. With this patented technology, the CRM testing solution can emulate both customer and agent activity to verify that the right calls and data arrived successfully at the right agents in the right amount of time. Hammer Service Assurance can evaluate the performance of a CRM ecosystem across the applications themselves, the database, the CTI servers and the ACD, as well as call routing, caller-attached variables and screen pops. Empirix's Multimedia Synchronization System methodology is applied to virtual test systems coupled to a c