SpeechWorks Customers Reach New Call Volume Milestones with Speech

BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. (Nasdaq: SPWX), the developer of speech technologies and services, announced twenty of its customers have achieved and in many cases surpassed a new milestone; servicing over one million calls with their speech recognition systems. Combined, these companies have successfully handled over 68 million calls using SpeechWorks technologies. These customer achievement milestones were recognized at SpeechWorks Annual User Group Conference in October. The "Millions of Calls Via Speech" customers represent a range of industries, including financial services, travel, retail and telecommunications. The group includes an impressive list of blue chip companies, such as Amtote, CIBC Bank, Continental Airlines, Credit Union Australia, Microcell Solutions, Office Depot, Synapse Group Inc., Thrifty Car Rental and World Access. The list also includes a number of customers whose speech applications have more than exceeded the one million call benchmark. For example, Amtrak's speech system has surpassed 5 million calls, First Union/Wachovia (now Wachovia Corporation) banking application has handled over 10 million calls and Synapse's magazine subscription customer service application has handled over 20 million calls using SpeechWorks' speech recognition technology. SpeechWorks deployed these speech systems with several of its partners including Avaya, Intervoice, NetByTel and Vicorp. "The quantity of calls being handled by our system is evidence that speech recognition is strategic to our customer service operations objectives," said Omar Alvi, Manager Speech and Wireless Programs at Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL). "Deploying speech-based applications has created a win-win situation: our customers are happy with speech and the convenience offered by the system and we are able to free up more time for our call center representatives to focus on revenue-generating tasks." These customers join the ranks of other SpeechWorks customers whose speech systems have handled millions of calls since deployment including America Online, Continental, McKesson, United Airlines, Yahoo!, and others. "SpeechWorks is proud to be the foundation of such well-accepted speech systems," said Steve Chambers, chief marketing officer at SpeechWorks. "These high volume call numbers speak to the success of the applications in delivering real business value. They also validate the hard work and dedication of those who developed the applications - at the customer site, our partner companies and SpeechWorks."