Message Technologies Inc. (MTI), a provider of hosted interactive voice recognition solutions for self-service call centers, is partnering with Escalate Retail, an e-commerce and back-office applications provider, to expand the reach of its speech-related technologies.

The partnership makes it easier for MTI's voice recognition services, which use speech technologies from Genesys Laboratories and Nuance, to be integrated with Escalate's back-office applications for both online and brick-and-mortar retailers.

MTI's IVR service will be available to Escalate's hundred of customers as an add-on.

"We've handled a lot of the heavy lifting so that retailers can easily automate their back-end office and call center applications with IVR," explains Dan Herhold, business development director at MTI. "Studies have repeatedly shown that it's cheaper and more cost-effective to use IVR for things like credit card transactions and giving out information about a sale and to have live agents dedicated to more sales-generating activities."

"We are pleased to add MTI to our growing list of best-in-class technology partners," states Brian Dean, Escalate's vice president of strategy and marketing. "Research and our experience have shown that IVR not only improves customer satisfaction, but also can significantly reduce costs in retail call centers."