Contact Information: Media Inquiries: Jonathan Varman 908-953-6432 jvarman@avaya.com
Avaya and Loquendo Expand Relationship in Speech Self-Service
| Source: Avaya Inc.
BASKING RIDGE, NJ and TURIN, ITALY--(Marketwire - August 26, 2009) - Avaya Inc., a leader in
business communications applications, systems and services, today announced
an expansion of its relationship with Loquendo, a global speech technology
provider and leading innovator in speech recognition. This strategic
relationship will provide Avaya customers with new and enhanced speech
self-service options for a broad range of advanced contact center solutions.
Loquendo is already a participant in the Avaya DevConnect program. As a
DevConnect member, the Loquendo MRCP Server (formerly known as Loquendo
Speech Suite) is certified to work with Avaya Voice Portal, the company's
flagship speech
self-service solution for contact centers, as well as with Avaya
Interactive Response. Loquendo MRCP Server is a server-based solution for
large-scale deployments of speech technologies in telephony environments,
including contact centers.
The expanded strategic relationship announced today enables Avaya to resell
Loquendo speech technology licenses as a speech automation option for Avaya
Voice Portal in 27 languages worldwide, and growing.
In addition to Avaya Voice Portal, Loquendo speech technologies can now be
integrated with other Avaya contact center solutions, such as Intelligent
Customer Routing, which unifies delivery of exceptional customer care
across self and assisted service, and Proactive Outreach, the multi-channel
outbound self-service solution for improving customer response.
"This strategic relationship with Loquendo aligns with our commitment to
offer the best technologies available to enhance customer service
experiences," said Anthony Bartolo, general manager, Contact Center
Communications. "The adoption of speech self-service in the enterprise
continues to accelerate, and by working with industry innovators such as
Loquendo, Avaya will continue to help businesses reach new levels of
customer service."
"We are particularly proud to extend our reach as enablers of Avaya's
superior range of self-service and IVR solutions -- which lead in providing
customers around the world an enhanced user experiences," said Davide
Franco, Chairman and CEO of Loquendo. "The addition of Loquendo's portfolio
of multilingual speech technologies gives Avaya's customers worldwide a
compelling option for speech self-service using the best available
technologies."
The combination of Avaya and Loquendo technologies has been successfully
adopted by customers worldwide to develop customer help desks, self-service
banking applications, railway timetable enquiry services and football match
information and ticketing. A company that currently uses a solution based
on Avaya and Loquendo is VIVA, one of Bolivia's most important mobile
service providers. VIVA implemented an Avaya Voice Portal and Loquendo
text-to-speech (TTS) solution in its contact center to improve agent staff
efficiency by routing customer recursive information requests to Avaya
Voice Portal. With Loquendo TTS, specific information is provided
automatically to customers, saving agents time and enhancing customer
service. This information can be changed easily online for special
campaigns, without requiring an audio studio to record new messages.
Members of Avaya's DevConnect program expect to see new options as a result
of the expanded Avaya and Loquendo relationship. Avaya Platinum DevConnect
member, Interactive Northwest,
Inc. (INI), which provides custom communications solutions built upon
leading interactive voice response and telephony platforms, says:
"Businesses are increasingly adopting speech-based service as an effective
way to improve customer satisfaction. We continue to see growing demand
for the services this relationship offers and believe this new customer
option will expand the market for high quality speech platforms."
About Avaya
Avaya is a global leader in enterprise communications systems. The company
provides unified communications, contact centers, 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.
About Loquendo
Loquendo is the leading innovator in speech recognition and speech
synthesis -- providing a complete range of technologies for server,
embedded and desktop solutions. Currently available in 27 languages with 65
voices, and constantly growing, Loquendo's best-in-breed technologies have
proven to enhance customer satisfaction and greatly reduce costs.
Loquendo is headquartered in Turin, Italy, with international offices in
North America and Europe, and a worldwide network of partners. For more
information about Loquendo, and to hear demos of all Loquendo TTS voices,
go to www.loquendo.com.