New Nuance

Nuance Communications, Inc., speech and imaging solutions provider, today announced that its software solutions are put to good use in powering an innovative speech portal handling over 30,000 customer enquiries daily for Telekom Austria. The project was implemented by CreaLog, a solution house for voice portals, CTI solutions and unified messaging for telecommunications call centers, banks, insurance companies, and utility companies.

Through the Nuance-powered service, Telekom Austria customers now receive the information with everything delivered through the caller’s voice commands and dynamic, computer-generated responses. The system, after testing, was then implemented by CreaLog in three different locations, all controllable by the caller’s voice. Each portal uses Nuance’s text-to-speech and speech recognition software.

The new Nuance voice portal solution is called upon to deliver flexibility and malleability in configuration and dialog design; integration of CTI with the extant networked Aspect ACD solution; and high accuracy in text-to-speech or speech synthesis. At present, Telekom Austria customer care regional manager Alois Miedl said that the Nuance application “means that we can handle volumes of around 30,000 customers [on our hotlines] every day…”

Added Peter Hauser, Nuance Communications general manager / senior vice president, International, “we are very pleased to be part of such a high-profile and integral project.” Nuance’s previous big claim to headlines prior to this week was the firm’s implementation of Europe’s largest mass-calling platform for the Vodafone company ARCOR, the second largest fixed-line telco provider in Germany, in April. Telekom Austria is the largest telecommunications company in Austria and also one of the country’s top five leading corporations.

Telekom Austria managed revenues for financial year 2005 were approximately €4.4 billion (US $5.6 billion) and employed around 15,600 employees. CreaLog is the leading provider of Voice Portal solutions in Europe, with references in 16 countries. CreaLog’s voice XML-based and web-controlled voice portals are currently employed at 320 firms in thirty sectors.