Press Releases

SpeechCycle and Tellme Power Next Generation Enterprise Speech Self-Service

SpeechCycle standardizes on future-proof Tellme platform for on-demand speech applications

Houston, TX, — July 8, 2008 —SpeechCycle® and Tellme®, a Microsoft® subsidiary and pioneer of voice services, today announced a partnership where SpeechCycle will deliver its Rich Phone Applications (RPAs) on Tellme's voice platform - the largest hosted IVR platforms in the world - to improve customer self-service for enterprises nationwide. This partnership will make it simple for SpeechCycle to build and deploy voice-driven phone applications that allow callers to simply say what they need and quickly access the information or services that fulfill their service request, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction.

"The combination of SpeechCycle's Rich Phone Applications with the Tellme voice hosting platform connects speech with enterprise web services to provide compelling new customer care capabilities that can improve the overall caller experience," said Zor Gorelov, CEO of SpeechCycle. "With Tellme, we are able to take call center automation to an entirely new level, enabling customer care executives to deliver strategic value that speaks for itself."

"SpeechCycle delivers impressive customer care solutions for some of the most demanding enterprises. By opening Tellme's platform to SpeechCycle customers, together we can deliver an end-to-end self-service solution with the most advanced thinking in self-service design, Web data integration and speech technologies," said Jamie Bertasi, Senior Director of Business Solutions for Microsoft's Tellme subsidiary.

SpeechCycle's RPAs provide native support of the Tellme voice platform for optimal performance. This delivers the most robust, scalable and reliable solution for automated voice self-service in the industry. Built on the Microsoft .NET Framework, SpeechCycle RPAs enable enterprises to rapidly connect their backend systems with natural-language-based speech interfaces and quickly respond to their customers as they deliver new products and services at breakneck speeds, with enviable time-to-market advantages. Voice self service is rapidly becoming a critical customer interaction channel, allowing companies to offer quick, convenient and easy-to-use customer service while building loyalty.

SpeechCycle automates millions of calls for some of the largest companies in the communications sector. Tellme's carrier grade voice and data platform, which processes nearly 2 Billion calls every year with 99.995% availability across redundant data centers, along with the SpeechCycle speech application development platform built on the Microsoft .NET Framework provide all the components and infrastructure needed to develop automated voice self-service solutions for the largest enterprises in the world. Together, SpeechCycle and Tellme can address the most complex customer care needs.

About SpeechCycle's SaaS-Based Rich Phone Applications

SpeechCycle Rich Phone Applications (RPAs) integrate customizable voice user interfaces with enterprise applications and web services to deliver an immersive caller experience that is a generation beyond traditional natural language dialog systems. RPAs represent the future of enterprise and mass consumer speech applications, connecting web, ERP, CRM, contact center, commerce and other transactional systems with a highly scalable, on demand environment that enables rapid time-to-value for phone-based initiatives.

About SpeechCycle

SpeechCycle, the leading provider of Rich Phone Applications (RPAs), powers innovative voice-based applications for more than 50 enterprise deployments across more than 35 contact centers in North America and around the world. With hundreds of millions of minutes of phone-based user interactions processed through the SpeechCycle service to date, SpeechCycle is in the vanguard of a new generation of on-demand speech innovators, delivering strategic customer value that speaks for itself. For more information go to www.speechcycle.com.

About Tellme

Tellme fundamentally improves how people use the phone to get the information they need every day. By combining Internet data and a voice interface, Tellme's services let people simply say what they want and get it. Some of the services running on Tellme's platform include business search on 411, information search on 1-800-555-TELL as well as customer service and ordering for many of the largest companies in the world. Today Tellme powers billions of calls every year and is used by more than 40 million people every month. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., Tellme is a Microsoft subsidiary.

NOTE TO EDITORS: More info on enterprise speech at blog.speechcycle.com.

SpeechCycle is a trademark of SpeechCycle, Inc. All other company or product names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies with which they are identified.

For More Information:

Chris McManus, Narrate PR for SpeechCycle
718-832-9154
chrism@narratepr.com

Rena Lunak, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide for Tellme
503.443.7000
rlunak@waggeneredstrom.com