Convergys Offers Outsourced Automated Verification Solution to Telecommunications Providers Using SpeechWorks Technology.

Business Editors

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 8, 2002

Convergys Corporation (NYSE:CVG)

-- Speech-enabled solution enhances customer experience

and provides significant cost savings --

Convergys Corporation (NYSE:CVG), the global leader in integrated billing, employee care, and customer care services, announced today an outsourced, automated verification solution for telecommunications providers. The speech-enabled solution, powered by SpeechWorks International Inc. (Nasdaq:SPWX), the global leader in speech technologies and services, enables telecommunications providers to verify that customers agreed to switch their local or long distance telephone carrier, eliminating U.S. and state government-imposed fines for "slamming."

To prevent slamming, the illegal practice of changing a consumer's telephone service provider without permission, the Federal Communications Commission and state public utility and service commissions mandate that all carriers offer verification procedures. Penalties for each slamming infraction can reach tens of thousands of dollars.

FCC rules acknowledged in August 2000 that automated verification both meets FCC requirements and provides regulatory advantages over live operator verification. With the Convergys and SpeechWorks solution, carriers can now provide immediate verification to consumers while automating existing processes, reducing errors, and omissions caused by human operators and managing heavy call volume. Cost savings are estimated at 50 percent to 60 percent vs. live agent verification.

"Speech recognition solutions are being adopted by telecommunications providers to solve industry challenges through technical innovation," said Steve Chambers, chief marketing officer at SpeechWorks. "Our collaborative efforts with Convergys and the resulting ROI reiterate the long term value of investing in speech solutions."

"Our clients attest to the power of outsourced, speech-enabled automated verification to drive significant savings and meet FCC requirements," said Randy Mysliviec, Convergys Senior Vice President of Marketing. "To address specific customer requirements, we leveraged the advanced speech recognition capabilities from SpeechWorks on our SpeechPort platform to reduce costs and eliminate abandoned calls. At the same time, we maintain the quality and reliability customers expect from a live operator."

This automated solution simplifies the complexity of the critical post-sales process with an automated dialogue. Advanced speech recognition creates a spontaneous interaction with callers that is tailored to affirm their unique purchase decision. This configuration enables carriers to support variable pricing plans and meet local and national regulatory requirements. This flexibility, combined with Convergys' ability to handle significant call volume on SpeechPort and to help close sales in a reliable, real-time fashion, is unique in the marketplace.

Convergys' customer care solutions offer a "high-tech, human-touch" approach that combines well-trained customer care specialists in Convergys' integrated contact centers with advanced information management technologies and high-tech communication channels like the Web and integrated voice response systems with advanced speech recognition. No other company has the expertise, capabilities, and record of accomplishment that Convergys brings to designing, implementing, and managing effective customer care solutions for its clients.

About SpeechWorks

Organizations around the world trust SpeechWorks to manage their customer conversations. As the leading provider of speech technologies and services, SpeechWorks helps companies create and implement unique Speech Strategies that ensure maximum financial return and the highest levels of caller satisfaction. The Company provides speech recognition, text-to-speech (TTS), and speaker verification for network and embedded environments including new multimodal devices with both an audio interface and visual display. SpeechWorks' customers include carriers, corporations, and government organizations, such as America Online, Bell South Chile, Citibank Europe, Microsoft, and Yahoo! For more information, please call 617.428.4444 or visit www.speechworks.com.

About Convergys

Convergys Corporation (NYSE:CVG), a member of the S&P 500 and the Forbes' Platinum 400, is the global leader in integrated billing, employee care, and customer care services provided through outsourcing or licensing. We serve top companies in telecommunications, Internet, cable and broadband services, technology, financial services, and other industries in more than 40 countries. We also provide integrated, outsourced, human resource services to leading companies across a broad range of industries.

We bring together world-class resources, software, and expertise to help create valuable relationships between our clients and their customers and their employees. This commitment is validated by the more than 1.5 million individual bills our software produces each day to support more than 120 million subscribers, and by the more than 1.7 million separate customer and employee contacts we manage each day, both live and via electronic interaction.

Convergys(TM) employs more than 44,000 people in 46 customer contact centers and in our data centers and other offices in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Convergys is on the net at www.convergys.com, and has world headquarters in Cincinnati.

(Convergys and the Convergys logo are trademarks of Convergys Corporation.)