ScanSoft Establishes Dedicated Professional Services Team for DA Solutions

SAN DIEGO, CA - ScanSoft Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) announced it has formalized a dedicated directory assistance (DA) solutions group within its global professional services organization to focus exclusively on the growing demand for automated DA solutions. In addition, ScanSoft introduced SpeechPAK™ 1.0 for DA, a packaged application kit that incorporates DA-specific technologies and professional services experience. "DA service providers have long since recognized the value that automated speech services provide," said Dan Miller senior analyst at Zelos Group. "Most recently, service providers have employed speech recognition to automate prompts and frequently requested lists to handle more than 40 billion inquiries. The introduction of SpeechPAK for DA is well timed, as it coincides with heightened competition and changing regulations across the globe, which are compelling service providers to offer a broad spectrum of services, including low-priced, fully automated query." Though less than five percent of DA inquiries involve speech recognition today, Zelos Group projects that by 2008, automated handling of DA queries with speech recognition will be a global phenomenon handling over one-third of all calls from wireless and fixed line phones. "What we offer to service providers worldwide is to make an increasingly strategic portion of their business - directory assistance - even more profitable without sacrificing that vital caller experience," said Steve Chambers, senior vice president and general manager of Network Speech Solutions at ScanSoft. "We have an impressive array of DA-specialized assets and now we have created the specific organizational focus, and packaged technology and services into our SpeechPAK, to bring results to our service provider customers faster and more reliably that ever before." SpeechPAK 1.0 for DA combines ScanSoft's speech recognition and Text-to-Speech (TTS) software, search capabilities and best practices in user interface (UI) design to help service providers deploy fully automated DA solutions. SpeechPAK delivers deployment on a variety of ScanSoft's standards-based partner platforms. SpeechPAK for DA contains standards-optimized speech recognition software; DA DialogModule™; business rules technology; SpeechFinder™ database integration technology; FindIt™ for free text input; name lexicons; TTS optimized for listings playback; nightly update tools; development and reporting tools; and DA solutions. It will be available in Q1 2004 and will be distributed through select DA partners worldwide. Also from ScanSoft SAN DIEGO, CA - ScanSoft Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) introduced four new services to support customers with their speech investment. Each service was created in response to customers who are requesting that ScanSoft not only to fulfill their demand for individual speech systems, but also provide a broader and deeper expertise that helps them maximize their investment in speech - and create satisfying telephone interactions with callers. "Customers consistently ask us for support in creating their enterprise speech strategy, branding their speech service to achieve a powerful, memorable identity and exploring new ways to extend their monetary return from existing, deployed speech services," said Steve Chambers, senior vice president and general manager of Network Speech Solutions at ScanSoft. "Now, ScanSoft can respond with proven programs to meet each of these requirements." The four services are: Voice Identity Program (V.I.P.™); Advanced Technology Proof of Concept (P.O.C.); DesignLab Services to Evolve Speech Applications; and Enterprise Speech Strategy.