Nuance Voice Platform 3.0 Addresses Key Speech Market Need by Simplifying the Design, Deployment and Maintenance of Voice Automation Solutions.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 2004

Hundreds of Leading Companies Worldwide Already

Benefiting from Nuance's VoiceXML Platform Products

Nuance (Nasdaq:NUAN), the voice automation expert, today announced the availability of Nuance Voice Platform(TM) 3.0. The industry's first open, standards-based platform optimized for speech now features a new application design and deployment environment. It also offers integration with Nuance's latest speech technologies, as well as broadened support for a range of standards and operating systems. These capabilities will reduce up-front capital investment, cut development and ongoing maintenance costs, simplify system integration, accelerate the time-to-market for voice applications of all types and enable corporations to extend the benefits of voice automation across the enterprise.

"In 2000, Nuance was one of the first companies in the industry to ship a VoiceXML software platform. Since then, hundreds of businesses have come to depend on Nuance's platform products for their mission-critical voice automation solutions," said John Shea, vice president, product marketing and management of Nuance. "Nuance Voice Platform 3.0 builds on the success of our previous offerings and dramatically simplifies the process of voice application design and deployment. It can also drive down development costs by 30% or more."

The Nuance Voice Platform is the fastest-selling product in Nuance history. Hundreds of companies throughout the world have used Nuance's VoiceXML platforms to deliver touch-tone and speech solutions aimed at maximizing cost savings and customer satisfaction. These include Bell Canada, China Unicom, Countrywide Financial Corporation, Digital DataVoice, GE Polymerland, HTI Voice Solutions, Japan Telecom, National Express, NTT Software Corporation, PB Farradyne, Swisscom IT Services, Tennessee Valley Authority, United Utilities, USAN, Valero Energy Corporation and Wells Fargo & Company.

Nuance Application Environment Streamlines Development and

Facilitates Success with Speech

A key, new component of the Nuance Voice Platform is the Nuance Application Environment(TM), which helps businesses overcome common barriers to implementing speech solutions from design through post-deployment. The Nuance Application Environment is comprised of two components: Nuance V-Builder(TM) and Nuance V-Server(TM). V-Builder is a graphical, drag-and-drop application design and development tool that can readily be used by either Web programmers or individuals generally familiar with IVR development environments. V-Server is a runtime environment used for the deployment of voice applications, and for accessing back-end systems such as CRM applications and CTI infrastructure.

Nuance is the only speech vendor to bring its vast expertise -- more than 600 man-years of design experience gathered through a myriad of client engagements -- to market in an application design/development environment and platform. Integrated best practices enable customers and partners to create speech applications that maximize the automation rates and caller satisfaction rates provided by the end application.

Other capabilities of the Nuance Application Environment include:

-- Simplified design: Applications can be quickly and easily

created and modified with V-Builder. In addition, by simply

clicking a button, the unique Nuance Design Check(TM) feature

automatically applies key design principles that have been

tried and tested across scores of successful, commercially

deployed applications. It can also point out potential

application problem areas and offer suggestions for

improvement.

-- One-click VoiceXML code generation: After the designer creates

the call flow, the corresponding code can be automatically

generated by the simple push of a button, which can accelerate

time to market by 20%. This enables the voice system to

automate calls much sooner, potentially resulting in hundreds

of thousands of dollars in additional cost savings.

-- Use of pre-built applications and components: Entire

applications or components of an application can be packaged

for, and reused within, the Nuance Application Environment.

This approach makes it possible for customers to leverage the

work of third-party application developers and for development

teams to easily reuse prior work and quickly build quality

applications. Nuance has also included many commonly used

application components within the tool.

-- Streamlined deployment and integration: The "Connection

Wizard" and "Publishing Wizard" walk developers step-by-step

through the deployment process. Through an intuitive graphical

interface and by leveraging the Web Services standard,

developers can easily integrate to different CTI offerings and

back-end systems without in-depth system integration

knowledge. The Nuance CTI Gateway also facilitates this

integration through a range of packaged interfaces to computer

telephony environments from vendors such as Aspect, Cisco and

Genesys.

-- 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(TM), which enables call

center managers to track task completion rates, as well as

system cost-savings or revenue-generating performance, against

specific success metrics.

-- Simplified application maintenance: Nuance's Professional

Services organization and a growing group of Nuance channel

partners use the Nuance Application Environment and Nuance

Voice Platform for the development and deployment of speech

applications. This eases the transition of the ongoing

application maintenance to the customer, because they can use

the exact same tool as was used to originally create the

application. Nuance also offers extensive training on the

Nuance Application Environment, through its Speech University,

to facilitate this transition.

Broad Open Standards Support Provides Flexibility and Portability

Nuance Voice Platform 3.0's open, standards-based architecture enables businesses to run their voice solutions on a range of operating systems, telephony hardware and application servers. It also enables easy migration of applications between hosted or customer-premise deployments and can support both touch-tone and speech recognition-based systems. Such support ensures that companies will be able to leverage existing IT infrastructure and skills, while maintaining maximum flexibility to change hardware, software, and deployment approaches as needed.

-- The power of VoiceXML 2.0: The Nuance Voice Platform leverages

the World Wide Web Consortium's VoiceXML 2.0 standard; the

only recognized speech application standard in the industry.

Because the Nuance Application Environment uses VoiceXML,

applications developed within it can be ported to other

VoiceXML platforms and toolsets, if needed. Moreover, tools

from third-party vendors such as Audium and VoiceObjects can

also be used with the Nuance Voice Platform.

-- Broad Operating System and Telephony Support: The platform can

run on Microsoft Windows and SPARC Solaris, with Linux coming

soon. It supports telephony hardware from Intel, NMS 

Communications and Aculab. As companies increasingly look to

Voice-over-IP (VoIP), instead of traditional

telecommunications networks, the Nuance Voice Platform offers

a reliable and proven solution. Thousands of ports of the

Nuance Voice Platform are currently deployed across a number

of businesses that have already made the switch to VoIP.

-- Leveraging J2EE and .NET application servers: The platform

also takes advantage of the power of the J2EE and .NET

application servers to facilitate cost-effective integration

with a broad range of back-end systems. Packaged interfaces

are available to numerous applications and technologies,

ranging from Siebel to legacy mainframe systems.

-- Easy migration between hosted and on-premise deployments:

Applications developed for the Nuance Voice Platform can be

readily migrated between on-premise and hosted environments to

adapt to changing corporate budgetary constraints. This

enables businesses to either minimize operational costs over

the life of the system, with an on-premise implementation, or

to reduce the up-front capital expenditures and quickly trial

a speech system working with one of Nuance's many hosting

partners. Many major enterprises use Nuance VoiceXML platforms

via hosting companies today, including United Airlines hosted

by CenterPost Communications, Inc.

-- Transition from touch-tone to voice automation: Nuance Voice

Platform 3.0 enables a company to transition their automation

strategy from touch-tone to speech overtime, leveraging a

single platform. Doing so allows businesses to take a

scheduled approach to voice automation.

Support for Broad Array of Packaged Applications and the Latest

Speech Technologies

Nuance Voice Platform 3.0 offers businesses a range of packaged applications available through Nuance and Nuance's application partner community, including Apptera, Datria, Fluency Voice Technology, TuVox, UnVeil, Versay Solutions, WorkForce Technologies and XTEND Communications.

Nuance Voice Platform 3.0 also provides access to the most advanced speech technologies available in order to maximize the automation and caller satisfaction rates that these applications can achieve. This includes support for the market-leading speech recognition engine, Nuance 8.5; Nuance's award-winning voice authentication software, Nuance Verifier 3.5; and the Nuance Vocalizer 3.0 human-sounding text-to-speech software.

Pricing and Availability

Nuance Voice Platform 3.0 is generally available now for Microsoft Windows and SPARC Solaris. Nuance Voice Platform 3.0 for Linux is planned for release late in the second quarter of 2004. The platform is available directly from Nuance and its world-class community of partners and systems integrators. Pricing is available upon request.

About Nuance

In markets around the world, leading enterprises and telecommunications carriers -- including Avon, British Airways, Expedia, Nomura Securities, OnStar, Sprint PCS, United Parcel Service, Vodafone and Wells Fargo -- work with Nuance to ensure the best possible results from their investment in voice. Nuance is the global leader in voice automation, providing software and solutions to more than 1,000 companies worldwide. Nuance (Nasdaq:NUAN) is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif. and has offices around the world. For more information, visit www.nuance.com or call 888-NUANCE-8.

This press release contains forward-looking statements with respect to Nuance, including, for example, those relating to the business and customer benefits attainable by using Nuance speech products. There is no assurance that the results contemplated by any such forward-looking statements will be realized. The following factors, risks and uncertainties, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements: the risk that Nuance products will not achieve anticipated or projected customer adoption, user satisfaction, design benefits, performance levels, caller satisfaction, cost savings, automation rates or other benefits in some or all circumstances; and other factors described in Nuance's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to Nuance's last-filed Form 10-K. Nuance does not undertake to update any oral or written forward-looking statements that may be made by or on behalf of Nuance.

Nuance, Nuance Voice Platform, Nuance Application Environment, Nuance Design Check, Nuance ROI Tracker, V-Builder and V-Server are registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.