Network SANDi From Sound Advantage Offers Carriers Voice-Enabled Unified Communications Capabilities

Business Wire, May 8, 2001

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2001

This is the First Speech Software to be Approved by Lucent's LiveNet

Facility for Carrier-Grade Central Office Application

Network SANDi(TM), the Sound Advantage Unified Communications Solution, is a carrier-grade voice-enabled natural-language unified messaging system that replaces, or works with, the separate messaging systems that many carriers have in place.

Network SANDi has successfully completed acceptance testing, with a 5ESS central office switch, at Lucent's LiveNet facility. It is the first speech software to be accepted by LiveNet.

Network SANDi routes phone calls, returns calls, retrieves and responds to voicemail, provides voice Web access, maintains internal phone extension lists, voice-activates e-mail, handles faxes and manages CRM databases -- all by voice, with one simple phone call.

It provides a solid revenue stream for carriers by offering a new end-user service, while providing the carrier with the cost savings that accrue from only maintaining and supporting a single unified system.

Network SANDi is competitively priced at $1500-$2000 per port, and is available now.

Complete Access Flexibility

Carriers have complete access flexibility with Network SANDi. Wireless and landline phones, as well as Web browsers can be used to access a Network SANDi account from anywhere in the world. Network SANDi is a service that is so useful that customers of the carriers will want and use it on a daily basis.

Network SANDi Means Profits For Carriers and Service Providers

"Network SANDi is the profit-producing edge needed by the top industry players (ISPs, telecom, telephone companies, Web-hosting and other service providers) to compete and win in this market," said Sound Advantage Director of Product Management Peter J. Lee. "You have to create new revenue streams, retain your customers and continually improve and expand your offerings. If you don't, someone else will. As a result, you'll lose customers and profits ... or both."

Network SANDi Runs on the NEBS-Compliant Lucent Speech Server

The flexibility and ease-of-use of SANDi(TM) has been combined with the power and reliability of the Lucent Speech Server: a high-density, fully redundant, NEBS-compliant, carrier-class platform in a very small footprint designed to connect directly to the Central Office with digital integration. The equipment is installed and maintained by Lucent Direct. Lucent Technologies' Worldwide Remote Technical Services organization provides 24/7, 365-day support.

Lucent Speech Servers provide seamless interconnection between PSTN, cellular, Internet, Intranet and cable networks. They also host a customizable suite of data and voice services, using natural-language speech recognition and text-to-speech. All popular Internet protocols are supported, including HTML, HTTP, XML, VoiceXML and Java. In addition, all major e-mail protocols are supported, including SMTP, POP3, IMAP4 and MAPI.

The proprietary speech processing boards of the Lucent Speech Server support a flexible mix of speech processing capabilities, including: high-capacity/high-availability access for up to eight Compact PCI boards; NEBS/ETSI-compliant chassis (suitable for CO/CP deployment); 19" cabinet with AC or 5ESS DC option, hot-swap compliant; high MTBF; Pentium III, 600-MHz host processor; high-density speech with 192 channels of ASR/TTS per server.

The PCI speech processing board for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) allows: natural language; over-the-telephone models; connected digit; barge-in; rejection; keyword spotting; large vocabulary and grammar-based ASR (up to 40,000 words for large vocabulary). Each of the eight speech boards has three G3 Motorola processors. Multiple languages are provided: North American and UK English, Latin Spanish, Canadian French, German and Italian; text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis; speaker verification; and speech compression.

About Sound Advantage

Established in 1997, Sound Advantage is the leading developer of voice-user interface technology for communication, messaging and content. The company's core product is SANDi (Sound Advantage Natural Dialog Interface). The SANDi family of products includes advanced call processing solutions to speech-enable common office technology such as PBX, voice mail, fax, e-mail and CRM, with solutions available for small, midsize and large businesses.

Enterprise and Network solutions support from 3,000 to millions of users per system. Having earned a record-breaking 20 top industry awards within 24 months of its initial release, SANDi(TM) has become America's Favorite Voice Interface(TM).

For additional information, contact Sound Advantage at 5 Park Plaza, 7th Floor, Irvine, Calif. 92614. Phone: 949/476-1400. FAX: 949/476-7676. Access the company's Web site at www.soundadvantage.com.