Standards-Based Speech Platforms Gain Momentum; Companies Choose Nuance Voice Platform to Reduce Deployment Costs, Improve Performance and Customer Experience

Business Wire, August 31, 2004

MENLO PARK, Calif. -- According to Gartner Group(1), 50 percent of speech applications will be written using standards-based languages and Web architectures by 2005.

This approach is already gaining momentum thanks to the efforts of Nuance (Nasdaq:NUAN), the voice automation expert, and its partners. A growing number of companies around the world have made the decision to go with standards-based, open platform speech implementations to improve the customer experience, and have chosen the Nuance Voice Platform(TM) -- the industry's first open standards-based platform optimized for speech -- to make their systems easier, faster and less expensive to deploy.

Hundreds of leading companies around the world are using Nuance's VoiceXML products. Companies that have chosen the Nuance Voice Platform include, among many, Alaska Airlines, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, Countrywide Financial, GE Appliances, MCI, TELUS Communications, Yell Limited and Z-Tel Communications.

Additionally, Nuance partners are making the Nuance Voice Platform a leading choice for a range of custom and packaged applications. Those partners include Datria Systems, Fluency Voice Technology, HTI Voice Solutions, NTT Software, PhoenixCTI, TELUS Communications, Unveil Technologies, Versay Solutions, Vertex, Viecore, Voice Architects, Waterfield Technologies, WorkForce Technologies and Ydilo.

"Nuance has long been a champion of the open, standards-based approach to speech solutions. We've worked closely with the W3C on VoiceXML, and included this approach in our own platform and applications," said Chuck Berger, president and CEO of Nuance. "Our platform is further optimized for speech with an integrated design and deployment environment, one-click code generation and unified management and reporting. This approach helps simplify the process of delivering the benefits of speech for both our customers and partners."

The Industry's First Standards-Based Platform Optimized for Speech

The Nuance Voice Platform is an open software platform built from the ground up to make the design, development and deployment of speech applications fast and easy, while maximizing the automation and customer satisfaction rates these applications can deliver. Nuance Voice Platform, with an application development and deployment environment, tight integration with Nuance's latest speech engines, and comprehensive speech-centric reporting and system administration capabilities, simplifies integration, reduces up-front capital investment, cuts development and ongoing maintenance costs, and accelerates time to market for voice applications of all types. With Nuance Voice Platform 3.0, companies will find it easier than ever before to fully realize the value of voice automation, and to extend the benefits of these solutions across the enterprise.

Examples of the unique functionality in Nuance Voice Platform 3.0 include the following:

--Nuance Application Environment (NAE) -- For initial design through post-deployment, this application design/development environment offers a graphical, drag-and-drop application design and development tool, as well as a runtime environment, for voice application deployment. NAE also offers a one-click VoiceXML code generation -- "Connection Wizard" -- for step-by-step guidance through the deployment process, and unified management and reporting via the Nuance Management Station, which includes ROI Tracker(TM) for tracking call center task completion rates, system cost savings and more.

--Support for Nuance's suite of packaged speech applications that provides cost-effective, end-to-end automation for the call center, including: Nuance Caller Authentication, a packaged speech application that authenticates callers over the phone before allowing access to private information; Nuance Call Steering, a packaged speech application that routes phone calls to the correct customer care destination; and Nuance Flexible Application Suites, packaged applications designed to speed the delivery and reduce the total cost of ownership for voice automation solutions across a number of industries, including credit card financial services, retail banking, insurance, telecommunications and utilities.

--Access to the industry's most advanced speech technologies, including the market-leading speech recognition engine Nuance 8.5; Nuance's award-winning voice authentication software, Nuance Verifier 3.5; and Nuance Vocalizer 3.0 human-sounding text-to-speech software.

--Powerful unified management and reporting -- Operations, administration, monitoring and reporting of both the platform and speech application is provided by the Nuance Management Station. It provides a number of unique capabilities, including the Nuance ROI Tracker, which enables call center managers to track task completion rates, as well as system cost-savings or revenue-generating performance, against specific success metrics.

--Broad operating system and telephony support -- Nuance Voice Platform can run on Microsoft Windows, SPARC Solaris and Linux. It also supports telephony hardware from Intel, NMS Communications and Aculab, as well as VoIP-based systems.