Metaphor Launches International Distribution of Its Packaged Speech Applications

WELLESLEY, Mass. - Metaphor Solutions develops new partnerships to expand its distribution to international markets.  All the new customers provide hosted self service by phone using Metaphor speech IVR applications.  

The first partner is Kainos, a large system integrator in the United Kingdom market that has deployed Metaphor's suite of speech IVR applications.  It is also using Metaphor Conversation Manager (MCM), Metaphor's C# and .NET based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to customize Metaphor's packaged applications and offer them to the U.K. market on a hosted basis.  Kainos has initial call center customers in the retail and healthcare sectors.

Oration, the second partner, is a hosting services provider in the Greek market.   It is offering multilingual applications based on Metaphor's application packages, and is also using Metaphor's high-level tools to customize and administer applications for customers.  Its initial focus is on the financial services and healthcare sectors in Greece.

The third partner, Cepa, targeting the North American markets, is a provider of personal information management solutions to corporate clients, college students and affinity groups.  Cepa is deploying a version of Metaphor's SpeechOutlook application that will allow callers to name-dial contacts in their contact lists, listen to their emails, send emails, and set up personal and group appointments.  The solution will be deployed on the VoiceGenie platform using ScanSoft's speech recognition and text-to-speech engines.

Metaphor's applications allow companies to deploy speech solutions on IVR platforms. 

Applications include solutions in financial services, retail, healthcare, and for the enterprise. Examples of speech applications include Telephone Banking, Location Finder, Inventory and Pricing Request, Password Reset, and Literature Request, as well as SpeechOutlook™.

In addition, Metaphor offers customers and partners a suite of tools that include Web-based tools for application customization, report generation and application monitoring, as well as a development environment based on C# and .NET technologies, enabling millions of IT developers to customize and deploy speech applications.