Cambridge VoiceTech Releases Complete VoiceXML Solution for Windows NT.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 2, 2001

Cambridge VoiceTech today announced the release of Cambridge Voice Gateway, the world's first fully compliant, fully scalable Windows NT VoiceXML platform for speech recognition and advanced voice automation applications.

"Cambridge Voice Gateway represents a quantum leap into the new world of VoiceXML," said Lou Abbruzzesi, the company's Chief Technology Officer. "This is the first truly complete, truly scalable VoiceXML solution for Windows NT, designed and built to host carrier-class, high-volume commercial telephony applications. We believe it marks the beginning of a new era in speech application development."

As a complete implementation of VoiceXML--the new industry standard language for advanced speech technologies--Cambridge Voice Gateway provides a versatile platform for a wide range of enterprise applications utilizing today's speech recognition, text-to-speech, and voice authentication engines, Abbruzzesi said.

"Our Windows NT gateway will put these powerful, money-saving voice automation technologies within reach of many, many more firms than are using them now," Abbruzzesi said.

"Returns on investment from the new speech technologies can be truly astounding," he said. "But until now, the development and deployment of speech applications was usually a terrible chore.

"Our open-standards VoiceXML gateway tremendously speeds and simplifies the development process," Abbruzzesi added.

Applications that until recently took four to six months to develop can be developed and deployed on Cambridge Voice Gateway in as little as four to six weeks, he said.

"Companies can get complete payback on new systems in a matter of a few months and real returns on investment within the first year," he noted.

"By combining advanced speech recognition technologies with an open standards architecture, we transform the ordinary telephone into a powerful transaction tool every bit as versatile as, and significantly more convenient than, the web," he added. "Our automated voice interface overcomes most of the traditional problems of telephone-driven customer interaction."

Firms deploying the new speech technologies can save up to 90 percent per interaction via speech automation, Abbruzzesi said.

Applications hosted on Cambridge Voice Gateway include:

-- Voice/telephony extensions to existing web infrastructure for product
information, ordering, and customer service.

-- Speech recognition-driven automation solutions for call centers, customer
service, and product ordering.

-- Unified messaging.

-- Voice/telephony access to Sales Force Automation, Customer Relationship
Management, and other enterprise application software and data systems.

-- Automated outbound notification systems for more efficient supply-chain and
workflow management.

"Our VoiceXML architecture permits us to rapidly customize solutions tailored precisely to our customers' needs," said Abbruzzesi. "We also have also built some superior tools of integration to link the VoiceXML presentation layer to web, data, and legacy systems.

"As a member of the XML family, VoiceXML is a powerful integration tool. We can pull together a firm's disparate data resources and customer channels to provide a truly unified solution for customer or supplier contact," he said.

Cambridge Voice Gateway incorporates the industry's most advanced speech processing engines, including SpeechWorks' recently released OSR speech recognition software as well as SpeechWorks' Speechify text-to-speech engine. Using the latest telephony cards from Intel Dialogic, the gateway scales up easily from 24 to 96 ports.

The Gateway comes complete with the firm's integrated development environment, Cambridge Voice Studio, enabling customers to easily maintain and even modify their VoiceXML installations.

"We offer an easy, one-stop, turnkey solution with maximum customizability and flexibility," said Abbruzzesi.

About Cambridge VoiceTech

Founded by engineers and executives with decades of experience developing traditional "touch-tone" customer service applications for major telephone carriers and other firms, Cambridge VoiceTech has been on the cutting edge of the new voice automation technologies and is the first to provide a complete, scalable VoiceXML solution for Windows NT.

The company delivers best-of-breed VoiceXML solutions for voice-enabling web infrastructure, call center voice automation, unified messaging, telephone access for enterprise application and data systems, automated notification systems for supply-chain and workflow management, and numerous other voice-driven telephony applications.

The company's product suite includes Cambridge Voice Gateway, the complete VoiceXML platform for Windows NT, and Cambridge Voice Studio, the convenient Windows-based integrated development environment for VoiceXML.

Cambridge VoiceTech's award-winning VoiceXML implementation shortens development for sophisticated speech recognition and voice automation applications from standard times of four to six months to as little as four to six weeks.

With its powerful VoiceXML platform and development environment, as well as its extensive experience in commercial computer telephony, the company is well positioned to play a dominant role in the rapidly expanding speech technology and application market, expected by analysts to grow to $2.7 billion over the next four years.

www.cambridgevoice.com