What do James Bond-style voice authentication technologies and offshore outsourcing have in common? Voice authentication for security purposes, called voice biometrics, is becoming an important factor in customer-to-company transactions that relay personal and financial data. It’s one more firewall to ensure that a customer is who he or she claims to be. PIN numbers can be stolen, passwords can be bypassed and mother’s maiden names are not the secrets of the Universe that many call centers believe them to be. Voice authentication is increasingly seen as one-third of what’s becoming known as “triple factor” security (including authentication of the device, phone or computer, the customer uses to communicate, plus a password or PIN). Triple-factor security and authentication is becoming a federal requirement in many industries, most notably financial services.

Voice biometrics start-up CellMax Systems today announced the closing of $2 million in Round “B” funding from U.S. private investor group CellMax Vision, LLCled by Jacob and Nediva Schwarz, founders of IDS, Inc. and NS Enterprises, Inc. The funds will be used to increase the penetration of CellMax Systems’ proprietary voice identification and verification technology into the contact center market.

CellMax Systems specializes in identification and verification of the human voice according to a person’s individual voice features. The company’s product suite includes VioMetrics, a line of voice identification and verification products based on a solution for dependent speech, independent speech and speech prompting. VioMetrics provides access control, privacy protection, and third-party verification; it thwarts identity fraud, and is a complete solution for call centers, banks, police and security enterprises and institutions — all while offering smooth system integration and low-cost implementation.

CellMax Systems closed a $1.3 million Round “A” funding investment in 2003 by the Wolfson Group, led by private investor Morris Wolfson, founder of Ness Technologies (News - Alert).

Israel Ronn, CEO of CellMax Systems said, “The call center market is growing exponentially and with growth comes increased risk of fraud and security breaches. Legislation is being put into place that demands higher levels of security for e-finance and other transactions. This goes hand-in-hand with the general public’s heightened awareness, post-9/11, about the importance of security in electronic transactions.”

Nediva Schwarz said, “New I.D. authentication laws set to go into effect for banking, medical and homeland security make it necessary for contact centers to have highly accurate, proven, low-cost solutions right now. We believe CellMax Systems’ voice biometrics solution is the most accurate, reliable, and cost-effective alternative to established but problematic methods of passwords, routine questions and personal identification numbers.”

According to a 2006 report by analyst company Datamonitor, the worldwide market for offshore outsourced contact center services will grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 13.4 percent to over 300,000 offshore outsourced agent positions by 2010. A 2006 Frost & Sullivan study states that major trends in the contact center services market include the increased use of automated technologies that employ voice biometrics.

Ziv Barzilay, founder and CTO of CellMax Systems, said, “Punching in a four-digit PIN number is no longer good enough. Voice biometrics offers highly accurate solution for ID and verification, and it’s the most convenient — you always have your voice with you. An affordable, easily integrated, media-independent authentication product like VioMetrics — which also has a range of other security applications such as voice password-protected data access, number/digit password option for double protection, and playback protection – is something the growing contact and call center market desperately needs and CellMax Systems can readily supply.”

CellMax Systems was founded in 2003 and is headquartered together with R&D facilities in Tel Aviv, Israel. CellMax Systems and OEM partner TeleData Technology, were recently awarded Technology Marketing Corporation’s BiometriTech 2005 Product of the Year Award for its T3 VioMetrics voice print identity authentication system.

For more information, visit www.cellmax-systems.com.