Ascent Computing Group and Integrated Speech Solutions Deploy Speech with Subway Restaurants

WHITE PLAINS, NY - Ascent Computing Group, an Inc. 500 and Fast 500 company, and Integrated Speech Solutions (ISS), a speech recognition design, development and services company, announced the implementation of the AscenTel speech recognition software product into Subway Restaurants' corporate offices. After an intense and lengthy review and evaluation process, Subway Restaurants, the submarine sandwich franchise, selected ISS to deploy a phone system based on Ascent Computing Group's technology. The system is designed to allow consumers who call Subway Restaurants' corporate headquarters to locate the nearest Subway restaurant by verbally speaking their ZIP code. Future enhancements to the Subway Restaurant Locator will include speaking the city/state information, as well as support for international locations As an additional element of the deployment ISS will install Ascent's Call Manager Auto Attendant product to assist in the processing and management of the many thousands of incoming calls the Subway restaurant chain receives per week. Ascent's Call Manager will provide automated attendant functions for callers who are unaware of the extension number for the Subway employee they wish to reach. The caller speaks the full name and is then automatically transferred to that employee. Subway Restaurants' corporate headquarters hosts approximately 650 full time employees. This contract, which represents the beginning of an ongoing relationship between Ascent, ISS and Subway Restaurants, will serve as the platform by which ISS will actively promote and launch speech recognition efforts utilizing the AscenTel platform to other applications within the Subway organization. "Ascent has spent the past few years developing the most sophisticated speech technology products available on the market today," said Sunil Nikhar, CEO and Founder of Ascent Computing Group. "We are pleased that Subway Restaurants, in recognition of the commitment to quality and service on the part of both Ascent and ISS, has chosen to do business with us." "This is a great example of how speech recognition solutions add bottom-line real value to a call center environment, where much of the information that is both collected and delivered by a live representative is just as easily gathered via speech recognition," said David Bernstein, President of ISS.