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SUN, BEVOCAL AND NUANCE FORM
STRATEGIC ALLIANCE
TO DELIVER "SUN VOICETONE PLATFORM"
TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIERS
2002/03/13
编者按：
SUN、BEVOCAL和NUANCE结成战略同盟将SUN的VOICETONE平台转向电信级应用......
Pre-Integrated Solution Combines Hardware, Software and
Services to Speed Delivery of Standards-based Speech Applications
预先集成的解决方案包括硬件、软件及服务，以便能尽快提供基于标准的语音应用。
SANTA CLARA, SUNNYVALE and MENLO PARK, CA -- March 13, 2002
-- Sun Microsystems, BeVocal and Nuance (Nasdaq: NUAN) today announced
the availability of the Sun VoiceTone Platform, an open, standards compliant
architecture to help both mobile and wireline operators quickly deliver
enhanced services -- including voice portals, voice-navigated voicemail
and voice-activated dialing -- to their subscribers. The strategic alliance
between Sun and market leaders BeVocal and Nuance will provide telecommunications
carriers with validated, integrated solutions for the development and
deployment of voice-driven services.
"By utilizing this solution from Sun, BeVocal and Nuance,
BellSouth provides its voice hosting customers with a scalable and reliable
platform," said Jai Menon, BellSouth's executive vice president of applications,
strategy and product innovation. "At the same time, the VoiceTone Platform's
open, standards-compliant architecture future-proofs our investment, enabling
BellSouth to easily add and integrate new voice-activated services to
meet the needs of our consumer and business customers."
"This collaboration joins a powerhouse in telecom, Sun,
with two speech innovators, BeVocal and Nuance, who have a laser focus
on carriers," said Mark Plakias, The Kelsey Group's Senior Vice President
of Voice & Wireless. "BeVocal's VoiceXML applications allow carriers to
reuse speech assets for a better profit on revenue-enhancing voice offers,
deployed on a platform they know and trust. We see VoiceTone as the right
answer to the carrier industry's need for reliable, open solutions."
The Sun VoiceTone Platform - Simplifying Speech Services
Sun, along with BeVocal and Nuance, provides mobile operators
a solution that simplifies the process of building and maintaining a best-in-class
speech service.
The Sun VoiceTone Platform offers:
- proven set of VoiceXML based applications combining the products,
technology, and know-how of BeVocal and Nuance with Sun's years of
telecom expertise, deployed and tested to validate quality of service
and to ensure carriers' time-to-market needs:
- Reliability of Sun's UltraSPARC processor-based systems, including
the carrier-grade NEBS-certified Netra[TM] T1 AC200 server, the
Netra t 1405 server, and the entry-level Sun Fire[TM] V880 server.
The VoiceTone platform supports iPlanet[TM] Web Proxy Server,
and is expected to interoperate with iPlanet Application Server
version 6.5 by late 2002.
- Scalability made possible with BeVocal's Foundation software
platform, VoiceXML interpreter and suite of voice application
bundles with multimodal output. Accuracy and performance in both
wireless and wireline applications supported by Nuance's industry-leading
speech recognition, voice authentication and text to speech software.
- Ease of integration into a carrier's existing network infrastructure,
whether PSTN or IP, by using distributed, fault-tolerant components
for critical functions including load-balanced speech processing,
voice application rendering, telephony and call control, operation
and administration, and billing and provisioning.
- A standards-compliant platform architecture, enabling carriers to
easily build branded voice-driven services, while supporting in-house
or 3rd-party developer applications based on VoiceXML 2.0 and Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP), as well as other emerging IETF and W3C
specifications including Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML),
Speech Recognition Grammar (SRG), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP)
and future Java[TM] APIs.
"This solution brings us closer to realizing a voicetone
vision of enabling subscribers to accomplish their day-to-day tasks, get
information over the web and access personalized content, all via speech,
the most natural form of communication," said Shahram Moradpour, senior
director of Market Development at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Through this
strategic alliance with BeVocal and Nuance, we are providing mobile and
wireline operators a speech platform solution that is ready-to-deploy
today and that scales with their growing subscriber interest."
"BeVocal's vision is to bring voicetone to every phone,
enabling callers to use their voice rather than a keypad to instantly
connect to people, businesses and information. We are excited to team
with these technology leaders to offer carrier customers the most reliable,
flexible and scalable voicetone platform on the market," said David Hood,
CEO of BeVocal. "Our combined solution enables carriers to deliver highly
personalized and distinctively branded voice services that generate more
money from their network by boosting revenue, increasing customer loyalty
and reducing expenses."
"This integrated approach will dramatically speed time
to market for the worlds' telecommunications carriers," said Ron Croen,
president and CEO of Nuance. "By combining VoiceXML and technology from
Nuance and BeVocal with Sun's robust and flexible platform, we can help
ensure that carriers will be able to scale their applications to meet
customer demand well into the future."
The total worldwide market for speech recognition-based
services, including voice portals, voice-activated messaging, and automated
directory assistance is expected to reach over $41 billion by 2005, according
to the Kelsey Group, a leading voice and mobile commerce consulting firm.
The total worldwide market for the voice technologies used to deliver
these services is expected to reach nearly $16.3 billion by 2005.
The Sun VoiceTone Platform is available and ready to ship
today. For more information or to order an evaluation system, contact
VTPsales@sun.com or sales@bevocal.com.
This speech-enabling solution is expected to be deployed
in Sun's iForce[sm] Ready Center in Menlo Park, California, to help carriers
build customer proof of concept demonstrations to validate cost and time
to market needs. The iForce Centers bring together the community of Sun,
its customers and partners to create and deliver customer-driven solutions.
Built around a dynamic relationship model and providing access to iForce
Centers worldwide, the iForce Initiative helps customers engage with Sun
and its industry partners to reduce risk when deploying solutions.
About BeVocal, Inc.
BeVocal creates voice software that helps telecom companies
generate more money from their networks. Customers including BellSouth
and Cingular use BeVocal's platforms and applications to deliver services
such as voice dialing, voicemail, email reading and voice portals to their
customers every day. Developers worldwide build high-quality voice applications
using the BeVocal Cafe (http://cafe.bevocal.com), ranked as the industry's
#1 VoiceXML development environment by CT Labs. BeVocal is headquartered
in Sunnyvale, California. For additional information call 408-907-3200
or visit http://www.bevocal.com.
About Nuance
Nuance's speech recognition, voice authentication and
text-to-speech software is changing the way companies interact with customers
over the phone. In markets around the world, leading carriers and corporations
- including British Airways, Nomura Securities, OnStar, Sprint PCS, United
Parcel Service, Vodafone, and many more - use Nuance's software to reduce
costs, increase customer satisfaction and retention, create new sources
of revenue and improve security. Nuance's software powers a range of innovative
applications including automated directory assistance, voice-activated
dialing, self-service banking and voice-driven customer relationship management.
The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif. and has offices around
the world. For more information, visit www.nuance.com or call 1-888-NUANCE-8.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- The
Network Is The Computer[tm] -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq:
SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware,
software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide
to take their businesses to the nth. Sun can be found in more than 170
countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements,
including, for example, those relating to the potential adoption and uses
of the VoiceTone platform; the scalability, time and cost-savings and
other benefits derived from a customer's use of the VoiceTone platform;
the integration and interoperability of Sun, Nuance and BeVocal technologies
and/or the technologies of third parties and the growth of the speech
recognition-based services market. There is no assurance that the results
contemplated by any forward-looking statements will be realized. The following
factors, risks and uncertainties, among others, could cause actual results
to differ materially from those described or implied in this press release's
forward-looking statements: the risk that customers will not adopt the
VoiceTone platform for any or all of the anticipated uses thereof; the
risk that Sun, BeVocal and Nuance are unable to successfully integrate
their respective technologies or third party technologies to create the
VoiceTone platform; the risk that customers will be unable to develop
or commercialize successfully products or services that use the VoiceTone
platform or that such products or services are not commercially accepted
by consumers; the risk that the market for speech recognition-based services
will not materialize as suggested; and other factors described in Nuance's
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not
limited to Nuance's last-filed prospectus, annual and quarterly reports.
Nuance does not undertake to update any oral or written forward-looking
statements that may be made by or on behalf of Nuance.
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