AACHEN, Germany, STOCKHOLM, Sweden, 5 July 2001
Philips Speech Processing, an acknowledged expert in network-based speech applications for telephony, Internet and mobile Internet, today announces the formal agreement to extend its technical and commercial partnership with Sweden's PipeBeach AB, a leader in VoiceXML platforms for mobile network operators.
PipeBeach has integrated Philips' SpeechPearlÒ 2000 speech recognition engine and understanding software package into its carrier-grade VoiceXML platform speechWeb. Philips Speech Processing's SpeechPearl 2000 is specially designed to integrate into third-party voice processing platforms such as PipeBeach's speechWeb™. Philips Speech Processing's product offer includes a complete set of modular components to add natural language processing and offers the largest vocabulary capability in the industry with more than one million words. In June this year the two companies formed an international strategic reseller alliance to deliver advanced speech recognition solutions.
Since VoiceXML is becoming the new standard for voice-based web services, the reseller contract with PipeBeach enables Philips Speech Processing to capture a share of the VoiceXML market and to meet the demand for fully VoiceXML-based services. For PipeBeach the alliance will extend the reach of its technology through Philips as an additional and very important sales channel.
Working together, Philips Speech Processing and PipeBeach become the leading force for VoiceXML-based services. They address the needs of service providers and the telecommunications industry to provide their customers with innovative and exciting services in an increasingly competitive market. Both parties also actively drive the standardization process of VoiceXML within the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). PipeBeach will benefit from Philips' industry-leading speech recognition technology, which incorporates the latest advances in conversational language interaction that enable callers to speak in their own words, rather than follow menus of prompts.
"Extending our alliance increases the scope of how Philips' speech recognition technology can be implemented in the applications and solutions that PipeBeach creates for customers. It also extends Philips' reach in the market while at the same time it opens up new opportunities. We look forward to continuing our combined success in the VoiceXML market." said Rob Thornton, senior vice president for Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, Philips Speech Processing / Telephony Solutions.
Adding to this, Christer Granberg, Chief Executive Officer of PipeBeach, said: "We are delighted to continue our strategic alliance with Philips, so that we can not only benefit from their continuing technology advances, but also use Philips' world wide support and sales channels and thus make speechWeb easy accessibly all around the world. "
One of the first projects resulting from the partnership between Philips Speech Processing and PipeBeach AB was the installation of the first fully VoiceXML-based voice portal for the Swedish GSM operator Europolitan Vodafone AB.
The new strategic agreement reinforces the existing and ongoing cooperation between the two companies in deploying a number of highly successful implementations.
About Philips
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of EUR 37.9 billion in 2000. It is a global leader in colour television sets, lighting, electric shavers, colour picture tubes for televisions and monitors, and one-chip TV products. Its 219,400 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, and medical systems. Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.news.philips.com
About Philips Speech Processing
Philips Speech Processing, a business unit of Royal Philips Electronics, is a pioneer and global leader in speech recognition, natural dialogue and language understanding technologies, with more than 40 years experience in the development and marketing of speech products. Philips offers a broad portfolio of speech technology solutions to the telecommunications industry. As a developer and provider of speech technologies in multiple languages, Philips has the largest installed base of speech recognition and natural language understanding systems in Europe, and is a large and growing provider of speech technology in the Americas and other regions of the world. Installations include directory assistance and call center services automation, voice portals, telephony and Internet applications. Visit www.speech.philips.com/telephony for additional information.
About PipeBeach
PipeBeach AB, with headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, and offices in São Paulo, Brazil, develops innovative services for mobile Internet access using speech technology. PipeBeach has pioneered an open approach to speech application design using standard Internet technologies. The company is a leading contributor to the W3C (World Wide Web Consortia standardisation on speech based web services. In addition, Scott McGlashan, CTC, is the chairman of the W3C subgroup for VoiceXML.
About speechWeb™
speechWeb™ is a carrier class VoiceXML platform that allows applications and services written in VoiceXML, located on standard web servers, to be accessed over the phone. speechWeb converts VoiceXML documents into interactive dialogs using advanced Internet and multi-lingual speech technologies. Today speechWeb supports more than 10 languages for both automatic speech recognition a
