Avaya at SpeechTEK 2010 Spotlights Multimedia Customer Service Solutions Using Speech Automation

Contact Center Leader to Showcase New Proactive Outreach Manager Solution Demonstrating Next-Generation Outbound Self Service


NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - August 3, 2010) -  SpeechTEK -- At this year's SpeechTEK event, Avaya (Booth #616) a global leader in enterprise communications systems, software and services, spotlights its next-generation self service solutions for contact centers that use speech automation to help businesses enhance customer experiences. SpeechTEK 2010, occurring August 2-4 in New York City, is a global event on innovative speech technologies.

At SpeechTEK 2010, Avaya demonstrates and discusses how real-time speech self service can deliver a more convenient, cost-effective and interactive way to serve customers in an environment where demographics and communications modes are shifting, even as risks are increasing. Avaya is the 2009 leader in the worldwide contact center market (measured by contact center agent end user revenue).1

The company will demonstrate its automated customer care solutions, including the recently announced Avaya Proactive Outreach Manager, as well as the newest releases of Avaya Voice Portal and Avaya Self Service Optimizer. The new Avaya Proactive Outreach Manager lets businesses automate the process of reaching out to customers via phone, email, or text, and simplifies management of all self service applications on a single platform. For instance, hotels can use the solution to send room availability alerts via SMS, while manufacturers can use email to provide real-time updates on events like new product launches and shipments. Speech applications can be integrated into Proactive Outreach Manager to blend speech automation into multimedia campaigns of all kinds, such as using automated speech outreach during business hours, and shifting to email after hours.

Outbound self-service can drive new revenues and savings, with one customer reporting a 10 percent increase in payments, and $50,000 in annual savings from automated appointment reminders.

New Opportunities to Drive Experience Management with Speech Self Service
Avaya Proactive Outreach and Avaya Voice Portal are key solutions driving the company's strategic vision for helping businesses succeed through Experience Management. Experience Management uses open communications so businesses can orchestrate people and information, learn customer data, bring full context to sessions, and immerse agents and customers into a collaborative session.

Beginning August 9th, businesses will have a unique way to try out the speech-enabled capabilities of Avaya's latest self-service solutions. Loquendo, a global speech technology provider, will offer its Loquendo ASR and TTS speech for use with Avaya Voice Portal and Avaya Proactive Outreach Manager on a waived license fee basis for up to 6 months.

"This Loquendo offer is an excellent way for Avaya customers to preview and experience the benefits of Loquendo Speech Recognition and Text-to-Speech capabilities with Avaya's innovative self service products -- with no obligation," said Paolo Coppo, Loquendo VP Marketing and Business Development. "This is part of our vision to make speech technologies available to all, in the most innovative ways."

For more information on the Loquendo preview offer, contact an Avaya account manager or Avaya Connect channel partner.

Avaya Receives "Strong Positive" Rating in IVR Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals Report by Top Analyst Firm
Also at SpeechTEK 2010, Avaya announced it recently received a "Strong Positive" Rating in Gartner's recent "MarketScope for Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals, 2010.2" The report evaluated leading vendors' voice response systems and applications, and rated vendors according to a number of criteria.

A "Strong Positive" rating is the highest possible rating given, and provided to a vendor that is "viewed as a provider of strategic products, services or solutions." If a business is using or considering a "Strong Positive" vendor, Gartner recommends customers "continue with planned investments," while potential customers should "consider this vendor a strong choice for strategic investments." Gartner's overall market rating for the IVR Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals market was "Positive."

In order to be included in the MarketScope report, vendors had to have an "established market presence in one or two major regions and mind share for voice response solutions," among other inclusion criteria.

For more on the report, visit here.

Avaya Speech Application Innovators Present at SpeechTEK 2010
Avaya speech technology experts will be at the show to share best practices for using speech across a business. Sessions featuring Avaya experts include:

Alignment in the Speech World: David Martin, Self-Service Solutions EMEA, Avaya Professional Services. Time: August 3, 10:45 am - 11:30 am

Using Speech on the Go: Judi Halperin, Principal Consultant, Global Speech Engineering, Avaya, Time: August 3, 11:45am - 12:30pm 

Understanding Mobile and Automotive Users: David Martin, Self-Service Solutions EMEA, Avaya Professional Service, Time: August 3, 4:15 - 5:15 pm.

Breaking the Barriers in Voice Interaction: Karen Owens, Sr. Consultant, Speech Engineer, Avaya Professional Service, Time: August 4, 1:45pm - 2:30pm

For a complete agenda, visit: http://www.speechtek.com/2010/CCS.aspx

1 Gartner report: Contact Center Market Share, Worldwide Totals, 2009, Drew Kraus, March, 2010
2 Gartner report: MarketScore for IVR Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals, Jay Lassman, Bern Elliot, July 2010.

About Avaya
Avaya is a global leader in enterprise communications systems. The company provides unified communications, contact centers, data solutions and related services directly and through its channel partners to leading businesses and organizations around the world. Enterprises of all sizes depend on Avaya for state-of-the-art communications that improve efficiency, collaboration, customer service and competitiveness. For more information, please visit www.avaya.com.

The MarketScope is copyrighted July 2010 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Contact Information:

Media Inquiries:
Jonathan Varman
(908) 953-6432
jvarman@avaya.com