AT&T PILOTS BBN SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE FOR NETWORKED CUSTOMER
TELEPHONY APPLICATIONS

Cambridge, Mass. -- July 17, 1995 -- BBN today announced that AT&T will
pilot its speech recognition software in several call center applications.
The software will allow callers to complete entire business transactions
such as making travel reservations or shopping by catalog, by speaking to
network prompts in everyday English. The software will be provided by BBN
HARK Systems Corporation, a BBN subsidiary.

According to Julie Donahue, CEO of BBN HARK Systems, the combination of
speech recognition and networked call center applications enables the
creation of a new customer service called the "virtual call center." "A
virtual call center exists beyond the boundaries of time and space because
it is a networked, interactive, 24-hour-a-day service, as opposed to being
physically located in one or more sites. The lack of physical overhead can
dramatically reduce capital and operating costs." Donahue added, "a
virtual call center significantly increases customer satisfaction because
it moves beyond the barriers of the traditional 9-to-5 call center, which
is typically staffed by operators, and where heavy call volumes during
peak calling times can slow the handling of consumer requests."

For example, in a virtual call center for a car rental company, the BBN
HARK speech recognition application would understand and respond to an
initial consumer request, "I'd like to rent a car to drive from Boston to
New York." Using speech technology, the virtual call center operator would
prompt the consumer to answer specific questions on the desired date,
time, car model, price, etc. of the rental. The system would then confirm
the reservation by fax.

"We believe that speech recognition will be a key customer interface
technology of the 21st century," said Sally Muscarella, AT&T vice
president for marketing. "When speech recognition is truly integrated with
advanced call processing, businesses can serve their customers on the
customer's timetable." Julie Donahue added, "AT&T and BBN HARK recognize
that the increasingly competitive business climate demands finding ways to
use existing infrastructures and emerging technology to offer smart,
flexible services that capture and keep customers."

Bart Stanco, vice president, Networking Technologies at the Gartner Group,
Stamford, Connecticut, said, "Through this agreement, AT&T and BBN can
help redefine customer service. It moves beyond premise-based solutions,
to networking existing distributed call centers to incorporate enhanced
speech recognition. "This development program is a model for companies
looking to take advantage of the combined power of sophisticated networks
and commercial speech recognition to meet the growing consumer demand for
immediate, flexible access to goods and services."

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, BBN HARK Systems Corporation, a
wholly-owned subsidiary of BBN (Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.), is a
leading vendor of robust state-of-the-art speech recognition software.
Working with its partners and resellers in the telephony market, BBN HARK
Systems combines more than 20 years of speech recognition research,
quality software products, and total customer commitment to provide
customer services solutions for enterprise telephony applications. The
company is a member of Dialogic Corporation's Signal Computing System
Architecture[tm] (SCSA) Automated Speech Recognition Working Group, and
Microsoft Corporation's Speech API (SAPI) Committee.
 
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