27th Jun 2006 07:01
Eckoh Technologies PLC27 June 2006 For Immediate Release 27 June 2006 Eckoh and BT win 3-year contract to supply ground-breaking parcel tracking service to Parcelforce Worldwide Eckoh Technologies plc ("Eckoh"), one of Europe's leading providers ofoutsourced automated solutions and BT, one of the world's leading providers ofcommunications solutions, today announced a 3-year contract with ParcelforceWorldwide, the UK's leading express carrier. The contract, which marks Eckoh's entry into the £23 billion European expresslogistics market, is to supply Parcelforce Worldwide with a new automatedinformation service that allows customers to track parcels and make re-deliveryarrangements over the phone on a 24-hour, no queue basis. The service, which will go live this summer, will be one of the first in theUK's express logistics industry to give customers personalised information. Itwill use advanced speech recognition technology and caller identificationprocesses to recognise callers, anticipate their information requests and offerpersonalised information about their particular packages. A further innovationof the service will be the ability to give customers the option of receivingstatus updates on parcels via text message. Customers will be able to arrange new delivery times and later this year theywill be also be able to automatically make the additional payments to secure aSaturday delivery or a delivery to a new address using Eckoh's automated paymentsolutions. Emma Bailey, Customer Services Policy Manager at Parcelforce Worldwide says:"Immediate access to up-to-the-minute relevant information is crucial forcustomers and we intend to provide that in a fast, efficient way by usingautomated solutions, but without losing the personal touch." "We believe Eckoh and BT's hosted solution not only provides us with theflexibility we need to cater for the variable peaks in our business but mostimportantly delivers a quality of service and convenience that will impress ourcustomers and enhance our business relationship with them," Nik Philpot, Eckoh's Chief Operating Officer comments: "Companies sometimesassume that using an automated system rather than customer service agentsinvolves compromise, gaining cost efficiency but at the price of an impersonalcustomer service. However as the Parcelforce Worldwide service illustrates, thisisn't the case, as they expect to substantially reduce their costs while makingthe access to information easier, faster and more responsive to individualcustomer needs, which has to be a positive step forward for all involved". In the first year Eckoh expects to manage in excess of 1 million calls to thenew Parcelforce Worldwide service. -ends- Notes to Editors About Eckoh Technologies:Eckoh Technologies plc sets the standard for outsourced automated solutionsacross Europe, specialising in advanced speech recognition and interactiveservices. Eckoh enables its clients to communicate more effectively and toenhance their profitability, while making life better for people who use theirservices. Eckoh has direct contracts to supply hosted Speech Solutions to clientsincluding Vue Cinemas, William Hill, 02, Virgin Mobile, Ideal Shopping Direct,Tote and The London Stock Exchange. In 2003, Eckoh formed a strategic alliance with BT to capitalise on the growingopportunity for speech recognition services in the corporate marketplace. Thealliance has supplied speech solutions services to over 20 clients generatingmore than 40 million minutes of self-service speech transactions and wasextended in July 2005 until 2010. The combined strengths of both parties havecreated an unrivalled and value-added speech proposition and clients of thealliance include: National Rail Enquiries, Parcel force, Barclays Stockbrokers,TD Waterhouse, NIE, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Three Valleys Water. Eckoh is also a market leader in providing interactive services to large mediaowners and has amongst its clients ITV, the UK's largest commercial broadcaster,Trinity Mirror, the largest newspaper publisher and IPC, the leading consumermagazines group. Eckoh has a call processing platform of 10,000 lines (capable of handling over650,000 calls an hour) of which over 8,000 lines incorporate speech recognitiontechnology making it the largest speech enabled call processing platform inEurope. In the year to 31 March 2006 Eckoh Technologies plc generated a turnover of £127million and had a cash balance of £12.7m. Further information can be found atwww.eckoh.com. For further enquiries, please contact Eckoh Technologies plcMartin Turner, Chief Executive OfficerNik Philpot, Chief Operating OfficerAdam Moloney, Group Finance Directorwww.eckoh.com Tel: 08701 100 700 Buchanan CommunicationsMark Edwards/Jeremy Garcia Tel: 020 7466 5000 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Eckoh TechnologiesBT