27th Jun 2006 07:01
Eckoh Technologies PLC27 June 2006 For Immediate Release 27 June 2006 Eckoh & BT secure 5 year deal with National Rail Enquiries to deliver UK's most ambitious speech solution designed for the mass market 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 an extended 5 year deal worth aminimum of £3 million with National Rail Enquiries to deliver a ground breakingautomated train information service which is expected to launch in July 2006. The new speech enabled travel information solution will supersede and enhancethe already highly successful TrainTrackerTM service (0871 200 4950), designedto give travellers up to the minute times on direct train times across all 2,500mainland stations. TrainTrackerTM was built for National Rail Enquiries by Eckohand strategic business partner, BT in January 2005 and has already proved highlypopular with the travelling public; 30% of callers have become repeat users andthe service receives more than 225,000 calls per month. It is anticipated thatdemand for the new service will drive significantly higher call volumes. Chris Scoggins, CEO, National Rail Enquiries commented "Eckoh and BT'sexperience for providing best of breed self-service technology, combined withtheir proactive partnership approach and proven track record of serving high andvolatile call volumes for the successful TrainTrackerTM service, led me toextend the existing deal. The advanced intelligence of the new TrainTrackerTMservice will provide an even more sophisticated, flexible and complete service." Nik Philpot, COO, Eckoh Technologies said: "The extension of our agreement withNRE is a clear indication of their long term commitment to both Eckoh and to thespeech recognition technology which has proved so fundamental to the success ofTrainTrackerTM. The original service which we developed with our businesspartner BT has proven to be enormously popular with rail passengers across theUK and has delivered measurable customer service results. Through ourpartnership with NRE we're looking forward to building on that success bylaunching the new TrainTrackerTM this summer which we believe will provide thepublic with an even more comprehensive and convenient service that will driveeven higher usage." Eckoh estimates that the UK market for travel related speech automation systemsis growing at around 25% per annum year-on-year. In September 2005 "JourneyFinder" (the underlying speech recognition technology on which TrainTrackerTM isbased) was named 'Product of the Year' in the European Call Centre Awards. 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