TELEPHONE "TRAVEL SHOPPING" SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM DEPLOYED.

Periphonics Corporation (Nasdaq: PERI), and Nuance have announced that Cheap Tickets, Inc., one of the country's leading travel discount travel sellers, has deployed a voice- driven automated fare shopping system. The innovative system is based on interactive voice response (IVR) software and hardware from Periphonics and highly accurate and scaleable natural language speech recognition software from Nuance. Cheap Tickets' new system will enable the company to bring the power and convenience of a V-Commerce, or voice-driven e-commerce, application to more than 46,000 customers every day.

"Our new voice-driven airfare-booking system will enable us to enhance our customers' shopping experience," said Michael Hartley, founder and chief executive officer of Cheap Tickets, Inc. "We expect the system will also help us realize significant efficiencies in managing our call center resources."

V-Commerce System Extends Self-Service to All Cheap Tickets Customers With the new V-Commerce system, callers to the company's 800 number are able to speak their travel plans in a natural conversational manner. The system prompts callers to speak information such as departure city, arrival city, departure date, departure time, return date and return time. Based on this information, the system returns fare options. If the customer wants to proceed with the reservation, he or she is transferred to an agent who sees the selected fare on their computer screen.

By offering a voice interface for travel reservations, Cheap Tickets is able to better serve the needs of its customers, by giving them a broader choice of booking options. The speech recognition system will help the company meet the needs of an increasingly mobile population without placing an extra burden on its call center staff. Cheap Tickets' customers not only save time, but their call center staff can be employed more efficiently to service customers who have already found an itinerary and are prepared to make a purchase.

In 1997, Cheap Tickets became one of the first travel agents to leverage the emerging growth of the Internet and electronic commerce by introducing a travel reservations Web site to complement its highly successful call center operation. By turning to Nuance and Periphonics, the company has been able to create a powerful new option for its telephone customers. With its new voice-driven fare shopping application, Cheap Tickets customers who are away from their computers can quickly get price quotes for almost any destination in the world without incurring long waits to speak to live agents.

"By turning to a speech recognition system from Periphonics and Nuance, Cheap Tickets gets the best of both worlds -- happy customers and lower costs," said Richard Rosinski, executive director of speech products at Periphonics Corporation. "With deployments and projects underway at more than a half dozen leading travel companies, the Periphonics-Nuance combination is rapidly becoming a standard."

"Cheap Tickets is a great example of how the power and convenience of electronic commerce can be extended to the telephone," said Dan Enthoven, director of call center partners and channels for Nuance. "It also serves as a prime example of how we work closely with Periphonics, one of the platinum members of the Nuance Partner Alliance, to deliver a complete, high-quality solution to market."

Cheap Tickets' innovative system was developed by Periphonics and includes an application designed and optimized by Periphonics Speech Solutions Group as well as Periphonics IVR software and hardware and their scalable speech platform integrated with Nuance's market-leading speech recognition software.

About Cheap Tickets

Founded in 1986, Cheap Tickets is one of the leading retail sellers of discount tickets for domestic leisure air travel. Offering more than 400,000 non-published airfares on more than 35 major airlines, Cheap Tickets sells directly to consumers through its Internet site, located at www.cheaptickets.com; through its toll-free number, 800-OKCHEAP; and at its 12 retail stores. During the first six months of 1999, Cheap Tickets sold more than 840,000 airline tickets, primarily through its call centers and its Internet site.

About Periphonics

Periphonics Corporation is a global leader in the development, marketing and support of products and professional services for Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) and Telecom Enhanced Network Services. The company's products and services utilize such technologies as interactive voice response (IVR), advanced speech processing with large vocabulary recognition, natural language processing and text-to-speech, as well as interactive processing via Web browsers, messaging, and fax. Periphonics also provides comprehensive professional services including project management, software application development, call center integration and script and grammar development. The company's products and professional services help its customers enhance their customer service offerings, increase caller satisfaction, reduce operating costs and often create new revenue opportunities by automating call and transaction processing. Periphonics is an ISO 9001/TickIT registered company with systems installed in more than 50 countries. For further information, visit Periphonics' web site on the World Wide Web at www.peri.com

About Nuance

Nuance is the leader in natural voice interface software that makes access to information, transactions, and services over the telephone convenient and secure. Every day, millions of people place calls, make travel reservations, trade stocks, and interact with other telecommunications, enterprise and web-based systems running Nuance's speech recognition, language understanding, and voice authentication software. American Airlines, Bell Atlantic, Charles Schwab and Co., The Home Shopping Network, Lloyds TSB, Sears, UPS, and many other leading companies, use Nuance software to provide better customer service while dramatically lowering costs. Nuance is a founding member of the V-Commerce Alliance and has led the industry in the creation of open standards for speech application development. Nuance is headquartered in Menlo Park, California with global sales offices and partners supporting multilingual solutions around the world. To experience Nuance's state-of-the-art speech technology, call +1 888-NUANCE-8 or visit the company's web site at http://www.nuance.com.

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