Pronexus to Participate in the Microsoft Speech Partner Program

OTTAWA, CANADA - Pronexus Inc. announces that it is working with Microsoft to bring speech technology to the mainstream. As a member of the newly announced Microsoft Speech Partner Program, Pronexus will help create speech-enabled business solutions that deliver value to enterprise customers.

At the heart of the program is the Microsoft Speech Server, designed to enable the delivery of enterprise-grade, mission-critical speech technology solutions for both telephony and multimodal applications.

"The Microsoft Speech Partner Program is designed to accelerate the widescale adoption of speech by providing enterprise customers with access to products and services based on the Microsoft Speech Server," said James Mastan, director of marketing for the Speech Technologies group at Microsoft Corp. "Companies such as Pronexus share our vision for making speech mainstream and pervasive, and we are proud to welcome it into this key initiative."

Speech technology has delivered value to customers and, according to market research firm Datamonitor, was worth $656 million in 2002. However, the potential impact of speech far exceeds its current market penetration.

"Microsoft realizes it takes a host of technologies and skills to deploy successful speech-enabled applications," said Benjamin Farmer, managing analyst, Datamonitor. "By creating an industry partner community that includes speech solutions vendors such as Pronexus, Microsoft is better positioned to achieve its goal of making speech pervasive while advancing the quality of applications customers expect."

"Speech will become a ubiquitous technology, and this program will broaden the deployment of sophisticated speech-enabled business solutions to customers around the world," commented Gary T. Hannah, president and CEO of Pronexus. "We are pleased to participate in this program and look forward to delivering economically compelling world-class solutions for our customers."