AT&T PILOTS BBN SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE FOR NETWORKED CUSTOMER TELEPHONY APPLICATIONS.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 17, 1995--BBN today announced that AT&T will pilot its speech recognition software in several call center applications. The software will allow callers to complete entire business transactions such as making travel reservations or shopping by catalog, by speaking to network prompts in everyday English. The software will be provided by BBN HARK Systems Corporation, a BBN subsidiary.

According to Julie Donahue, CEO of BBN HARK Systems, the combination of speech recognition and networked call center applications enables the creation of a new customer service called the "virtual call center." "A virtual call center exists beyond the boundaries of time and space because it is a networked, interactive, 24-hour-a-day service, as opposed to being physically located in one or more sites. The lack of physical overhead can dramatically reduce capital and operating costs." Donahue added, "a virtual call center significantly increases customer satisfaction because it moves beyond the barriers of the traditional 9-to-5 call center, which is typically staffed by operators, and where heavy call volumes during peak calling times can slow the handling of consumer requests."

For example, in a virtual call center for a car rental company, the BBN HARK speech recognition application would understand and respond to an initial consumer request, "I'd like to rent a car to drive from Boston to New York." Using speech technology, the virtual call center operator would prompt the consumer to answer specific questions on the desired date, time, car model, price, etc. of the rental. The system would then confirm the reservation by fax.

"We believe that speech recognition will be a key customer interface technology of the 21st century," said Sally Muscarella, AT&T vice president for marketing. "When speech recognition is truly integrated with advanced call processing, businesses can serve their customers on the customer's timetable."

Julie Donahue added, "AT&T and BBN HARK recognize that the increasingly competitive business climate demands finding ways to use existing infrastructures and emerging technology to offer smart, flexible services that capture and keep customers."

Bart Stanco, vice president, Networking Technologies at the Gartner Group, Stamford, Connecticut, said, "Through this agreement, AT&T and BBN can help redefine customer service. It moves beyond premise-based solutions, to networking existing distributed call centers to incorporate enhanced speech recognition. "This development program is a model for companies looking to take advantage of the combined power of sophisticated networks and commercial speech recognition to meet the growing consumer demand for immediate, flexible access to goods and services."

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, BBN HARK Systems Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BBN (Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.), is a leading vendor of robust state-of-the-art speech recognition software. Working with its partners and resellers in the telephony market, BBN HARK Systems combines more than 20 years of speech recognition research, quality software products, and total customer commitment to provide customer services solutions for enterprise telephony applications. The company is a member of Dialogic Corporation's Signal Computing System Architecture(TM) (SCSA) Automated Speech Recognition Working Group, and Microsoft Corporation's Speech API (SAPI) Committee. -0-

HARK is a trademark of Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. All other company names and products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Barbara Marx, VP of Marketing

BBN HARK Systems Corporation

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Internet: [e-mail]

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Brenda Nashawaty

Lois Paul & Partners

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Internet: [e-mail]