[July 28, 2004] Fluency Voice Technology Acquires SRC Telecom LONDON, July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Fluency Voice Technology Ltd, the global provider of speech recognition applications, today announces the acquisition of SRC Telecom, the hosted speech recognition provider, from Voice Recognition Holdings. This acquisition further strengthens Fluency's market leading position in speech recognition applications for automating customer care activities. Speech recognition allows callers to perform simple tasks like ordering a brochure or finding out a bank account balance by speaking naturally via the telephone. Fluency has an unparalleled range of customers including Powergen, National Express, Energis, Royal Mail, Barclaycard, Woolwich and JD Williams. The acquisition will allow Fluency to offer hosted service provision in addition to in-network and premises-based solutions. It will therefore expand Fluency's market potential as well as encouraging the take-up of speech self-service more broadly. Fluency recently raised its first round of venture capital funding and, prior to that, completed the acquisition of Vocalis. SRC Telecom is well respected as a leading provider of hosted speech services, with a customer base including the BBC's Freeview and Lloyds TSB. SRC Telecom was a division of Voice Recognition Holdings (VRH), which will continue to own and operate its market leading digital dictation and desktop speech recognition business under the name SRC Dictation Solutions. Alex Green, Fluency's CEO, commented: "The acquisition of SRC Telecom further strengthens Fluency's UK leadership in speech recognition solutions. It allows us to offer hosted speech recognition solutions, via an existing proven facility, to those customers who prefer this means of delivery. The SRC Telecoms business has excellent people, who will add to Fluency's unique skill base in the design and building of speech applications." Chris Hart, CEO of Voice Recognition Holdings said: "This transaction gives SRC Telecom customers access to an even wider range of high quality telephony speech solutions, as well as being good for VRH's shareholders. The sale of the Telecom business will allow VRH to focus greater resources on further developing our fast growing dictation solutions business." About Fluency Fluency Voice Technology is a global provider of speech recognition applications for use in call centres. Our solutions enable large enterprises to significantly reduce costs and enhance customer service. We provide sector specific applications that allow the automation of high volume contact centre activities. Key sectors for which we have deployed applications are Retail Banking, Travel & Transport, Utilities, Retail & Distribution and Telecoms. Fluency has offices in the UK, US and India. For further information please visit www.fluencyvoice.com. Fluency is privately owned and backed by two major European technology venture capital firms, Favonius Ventures and Kennet Venture Partners Ltd. About Voice Recognition Holdings Voice Recognition Holdings (VRH) Limited is the holding company of the SRC Telecoms and SRC Dictation Solutions businesses. Founded in 1995, SRC Dictation Solutions is the European leader in delivering cost savings and productivity improvements through turning speech and dictations technologies into document creation solutions. SRC Dictation Solutions partners with world leading technology suppliers such as Scansoft and Winscribe. Established by VRH in 2001, SRC Telecom has developed into a leading supplier of hosted telephony speech recognition services. SRC's industry experts, working with best-of-breed suppliers such as Nuance, Rhetorical and Nortel Networks, successfully develop, deliver and operate a complete range of speech-based customer contact services. VRH is privately owned and backed by leading financial institutions including Cazenove Private Equity. For more information visit: www.src.co.uk Fluency Voice Technology Ltd Contact: Christine Grady on +44-(0)20-8237-6284 or [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]