SpeechWorks Introduces T-S.T.E.P., A Suite of Technical Information and Programs Designed for Technology Professionals.

Business/Technology Editors

Speech Technology Evaluation Process for Technology

Professionals Accelerates Time-to-Results

SpeechWorks International, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPWX), the global leader in speech recognition and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies and services, today unveiled a new, technology-focused customer program to accelerate an organization's time-to-results with speech services. Based on the success of SpeechWorks B-S.T.E.P.(TM) (Speech Technology Evaluation Process for Business Professionals) program, the T-S.T.E.P.(TM) (Speech Technology Evaluation Program for Technology Professionals) program offers the same custom, consultative approach as SpeechWorks' landmark customer program, but is designed exclusively for an organization's technology professionals.

"The S.T.E.P. program was extremely valuable to us when we were mapping out our speech strategy," said Bill Strickland, technology director at Thrifty Car Rental. "By optimizing this value-add program for technology evaluators, an organization's business and technical decision makers can now influence their speech systems from the start, accelerating time-to-results. We applaud SpeechWorks for their focus on and commitment to customer results." Thrifty participated in the SpeechWorks Here Guarantee(TM) and the Market Accelerator Program(TM), two programs offered in the B-S.T.E.P. program to help SpeechWorks' customers achieve the highest levels of success with their speech services.

SpeechWorks created the T-S.T.E.P. program to answer the demand from technology professionals tasked with evaluating the benefits and integration profiles of new technologies like speech. T-S.T.E.P. provides technologists with essential knowledge of speech technologies, user interface (UI) design, industry standards (e.g. VoiceXML, SALT, MRCP and others), technology benchmarking, platform integrations, and the technical integration process. With T-S.T.E.P., technology professionals have the information they need to make expert recommendations on specific speech applications, underlying technologies, deployment strategies and a clear technology integration plan. T-S.T.E.P. ensures that a company's ultimate decision on a speech application will be thorough, well informed and in lock-step with its overall IT strategy.

Do You Have a Speech Strategy?

Both T-S.T.E.P. and B-S.T.E.P. programs begin with a simple guideline titled, "Defining Your Company's Speech Strategy". A speech strategy is a company-wide blueprint for applying speech throughout an organization. Extending beyond point speech applications, the enterprise-wide speech strategy aims to achieve maximum benefits of cost-reduction, customer satisfaction, automated cross-and-up sells and brand congruity.

"We've successfully delivered B-S.T.E.P. to over 150 leading companies worldwide," said Steve Chambers, chief marketing officer at SpeechWorks. "In the process, companies consistently expressed a need for a similar program for the technical side of the house. T-S.T.E.P. provides technology professionals with tools and knowledge to inform their decisions and more importantly, the tools and knowledge that will help them achieve target results in the shortest timeframe."

Introducing T-S.T.E.P.

The T-S.T.E.P. program is a simple, 5-step process that offers technology professionals the necessary tools and knowledge to make expert decisions on the right speech applications and deployment strategies for their business. SpeechWorks' application engineers guide the T-S.T.E.P. process through the following 5 steps:

T-S.T.E.P. #1: SpeechWorks Here Foundation(TM) provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamental speech technologies: automated speech recognition, text-to-speech and speaker verification. Foundation provides technical professionals with a solid foundation of information to quickly understand and evaluate speech technologies. SpeechWorks presents participants with an industry resource guide, a technical glossary, relevant white papers, and a suite of customized presentations, facilitated in an interactive forum.

T-S.T.E.P. #2: SpeechWorks Here Evaluation(TM) presents a more in-depth, advanced suite of information that spans service deployment options, technology roadmaps, technology evaluation criteria, industry standards, multimodal applications and other customer-relevant technical topics. Evaluation delivers technology professionals the tools and knowledge to optimize time to deployment, R.O.I. and ease of integration. Evaluation participants can receive a Technical Evaluation Kit including an independent, third-party report which details an appropriate methodology for evaluating and benchmarking speech technologies. SpeechWorks presents Evaluation participants a suite of custom presentations, the Evaluation Kit, white papers, technical product profiles, an interactive presentation and more.

T-S.T.E.P. #3: SpeechWorks Here Connections(TM) begins with a consultative workshop to discover the functional requirements of the speech application(s), evaluate platform options and determine key integration points to backend databases and CTI systems. SpeechWorks presents technologists with platform and UI TIPs (Technical Implementation Profiles) that describe partner technology integrations and UI design profiles. Following the Connections Workshop, SpeechWorks convenes business and technical S.T.E.P. participants for a Speech Summit, where SpeechWorks presents a summary technical specification document and Vision Clip that demonstrates how the speech service will sound in a real-life deployment.

T-S.T.E.P. #4: SpeechWorks Here Guarantee(TM) is the industry's first money-back, results assurance commitment to customers. Through this program, SpeechWorks ensures a successful implementation and caller experience that meets time-to-market requirements and caller satisfaction goals. Here, technologists will learn about the technical requirements needed to achieve agreed-upon transaction completion rates (TCR). TCR is the percentage of calls that are completed successfully using speech recognition, without agent intervention. To date, SpeechWorks has achieved over 100 percent satisfaction from its Guarantee customers.

T-S.T.E.P. #5: SpeechWorks Here Technical Achievement Plan (TAP)(TM) provides proven development guidelines and maintenance and tuning advice to help customers achieve the greatest benefits from their speech system. TAP is a formal, customized transfer of information to ensure technologists have all the tools, training and information they need to maintain, tune and update their speech service going forward. Customer applications will benefit from SpeechWorks' tools and programs such as OpenSpeech Insight(TM) reporting and analysis tool and the SADL(TM) (Speech Application Development Lifecycle) process, both of which will aid in the speech application's continued performance. A SpeechWorks Institute courseware review will profile hands-on training and lab-based courses on a variety of topics so customers can further develop, maintain and support their speech applications. A SpeechWorks Learning Module(TM) review will profile customized, intensive, on-site training session options as well.

It's About the Caller

Following the customized TAP session, SpeechWorks will evaluate the application's "Speech IQ", a measurement of five Critical Speech Factors that can help companies achieve the highest return from their investment and optimum results. The five Critical Speech Factors include Caller Monetization, Caller Motivation, Caller Performance, Caller Affiliation and Caller Behavior. SpeechWorks will work with each customer to ensure that their speech application achieves the highest Speech IQ possible.

For additional information

For information on participating in T-S.T.E.P., visit: www.speechworks.com/customers/programs/step.cfm, or contact your local SpeechWorks representative. For information on B-S.T.E.P., see today's release "SpeechWorks' S.T.E.P. Program Delivers Results for Over 150 Companies Worldwide".

About SpeechWorks

Through the power of SpeechWorks technologies, the human voice is all a person needs to access instant information and conduct transactions from a phone or communications device. Around the world, customer service innovators such as Amtrak, America Online, CIBC Bank, Microsoft and United Airlines are realizing returns on SpeechWorks applications that consistently delight and serve customers 24 hours a day. With over 170 partners, SpeechWorks (Nasdaq: SPWX) delivers natural language speech recognition, speaker verification and text-to-speech (TTS) solutions to leading corporations, telecommunications providers, device manufacturers and government organizations worldwide. For a description of our products, services and unique customer programs such as the SpeechWorks Here S.T.E.P.(TM) (Speech Technology Evaluation Process) program call 617.428.4444 or visit www.speechworks.com.

SpeechWorks, SpeechWorks B-S.T.E.P., T-S.T.E.P., SpeechWorks Here Guarantee, Market Accelerator Program, SpeechWorks Here Foundation, SpeechWorks Here Evaluation, SpeechWorks Here Connections, SpeechWorks Here Technical Achievement Plan (TAP), OpenSpeech Insight, SADL and SpeechWorks Learning Module are trademarks or registered trademarks of SpeechWorks International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.