Speech Tech Names Its Annual Industry Awards Winners

NEW YORK -- Speech Technology magazine, the industry’s leading source of news, information, and analysis, announced the winners of its 2010 Speech Industry Awards today.

Speech Technology magazine's fourth annual Speech Industry Awards reveals various standout companies and individuals with its Market Leaders, Star Performers, Speech Luminaries, and Implementation Awards.

Speech Technology magazine’s Market Leader awards feature vendors focused on the highest-quality products and services in six categories: Speech Engine, Speech Self-Service Suite, Speech Analytics, Speech Security, Professional Services, and Mobile Voice Search. In each category, the magazine has again named a single Winner, denoting the year's highest score relative to a peer group. Each category also identifies two Market Leaders and one company deemed a Vendor Contender.

Recipients were determined through an extensive process and proprietary rating formula that involves collecting industry analyst and consultant reviews, financial and corporate information, product and functionality assessments, and scores based on their importance to current and potential customers. This year’s Market Leader award recipients are as follows:

• Speech Engine—Winner: Microsoft/Tellme; Leaders: AT&T and Loquendo;?Vendor Contender: Nuance Communications.
• Speech Self-Service Suite—Winner: Voxify; Leaders: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories and Microsoft/Tellme;?Vendor Contender: Avaya
• Speech Analytics— Winner: Nexidia; Leaders: CallMiner and Verint Systems; Vendor Contender: NICE Systems.
• Speech Security—Winner: PerSay; Leaders: Agnitio and Raytheon/BBN; Vendor Contender: Loquendo.
• Professional Services—Winner: AT&T; Leaders: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories and Microsoft/Tellme; Vendor Contender: Avaya.
• Mobile Voice Search—Winner: Google; Leaders: Vlingo and Yahoo! Mobile; Vendor Contender: Apple/Siri.

The magazine also named four Implementation Award recipients, which recognize speech user companies that have seen impressive results from their speech technology deployments during the past year. They are:

• Global payments processing firm Elavon, which employed Impact 360 Speech Analytics from Verint Systems to save more than 2,000 accounts (valued at $5.4 million) at risk of taking business elsewhere;
• Home alarm service provider Pinnacle Security; which relies on the Productive Workforce and Seamless Customer Service applications from Aspect Software to shave staffing needs and total call time;
• Salt River Project, an energy supplier in Phoenix which turned to NICE Systems’ NICE SmartCenter to dramatically improve customer and employee satisfaction; and
• Vodafone Turkey, which, thanks to PerSay’s VocalPassword solution, has been able to speed service to customers and slice nearly a minute off most call times.

Speech Technology also honored four Star Performers that have provided game-changing innovations to advance the speech technology industry as a whole. They are:

• Google: The leading search engine is expanding into the telecommunications, voice search, smartphone, and Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIP) markets;
• VoltDelta: The speech company is working with ParkMobile to replace parking meters with interactive voice response technologies;
• Oddcast: The provider of avatar technology brought an added element to E*Trade’s talking babies advertising campaign; and
• BBN Technologies: The company, whose customers are mostly in the military and government sectors, now makes it possible to transcribe and search foreign-language multimedia presentations and Web sites for very specific content.

Last, but certainly not least, the magazine named five individuals as recipients of its Speech Luminary Awards, focusing on visionaries who have influenced the industry in a significant way during the past 12 months. They are:

• Peter Mahoney, senior vice president and general manager of Nuance Communications’ Dragon product line;
• Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, product managers of Google Voice;
• Michael Finke, CEO and founder of M*Modal; and
• The late Torsten Brand, former lead product manager for mobile applications at Nuance Communications.

“In a challenging economy it is essential for organizations to understand which companies are developing the best tools and strategies to streamline business processes, improve profitability, and increase customer satisfaction. The recipients of the 2010 Speech Industry Awards are focusing on all of these issues and Speech Technology magazine is pleased to recognize these companies and individuals for their hard work,” said David Myron, the magazine's editorial director.

The 2010 Speech Technology Industry Awards will be presented at the SpeechTEK Conference (www.SpeechTEK.com) at the Marriott Marquis in New York August 2-4. An expanded version of the results has been published in the July/August 2010 issue of Speech Technology magazine.