[September 13, 2004] Psytechnics Assures Successful VoIP Rollout for Leading UK Bank SAN JOSE, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Sept. 13, 2004 -- Partners with BT on world's first commercial deployment of voice quality measurement; guarantees voice quality for Abbey Psytechnics, the global leader in voice and video quality assessment software for the telecom industry, is guaranteeing voice quality for one of the UK's leading banks as it rolls out VoIP across 800 branches. In order to improve workforce efficiency and deliver better customer service, Abbey, the UK's sixth largest bank and second largest provider of mortgages and savings, selected BT to implement a company-wide integrated voice and data IP network. As part of the contract, Abbey requires a guarantee that the VoIP network will consistently achieve voice quality levels comparable to traditional landline phones. To meet Abbey's demands, BT has implemented the industry's first MOS-based (mean opinion score) voice quality service level agreement (SLA), and uses Psytechnics technology to provide voice quality monitoring across the entire network. MOS provides a voice quality rating of 1 - 5, based on human perception, with one being poor and five being excellent. Under the terms of the contract with Abbey, BT has agreed to guarantee a MOS voice quality of at least 3.7, with an aim to consistently deliver a MOS of 3.92. To ensure that the SLA is met, BT has deployed a combination of Psytechnics technology using PESQ(TM) P.862, the ITU standard for measuring MOS, and PsyQ network management software featuring psyVoIP. Psytechnics' tools have allowed BT to catch, diagnose and repair potentially customer-affecting faults in a matter of minutes that might otherwise have taken weeks to resolve. With Psytechnics software in place, the voice quality experienced by Abbey users meets or exceeds the requisite 3.7 MOS on 99.9% of calls. "As Abbey and BT have discovered, employing MOS metrics to monitor voice quality is not only an essential part of network management for VoIP systems, it's also a meaningful SLA term that helps to ease concerns associated with implementing a new technology," said John Winchester, CEO of Psytechnics. "Psytechnics expertise and software have enabled Abbey to have high confidence in BT's VoIP services," said Nigel Chisnal, IT architect at Abbey. "With voice quality guarantees in place, the VoIP network allows us to improve both internal and customer-facing communications, and to increase flexibility to meet future business needs." "Abbey is a forward-thinking company that has chosen to implement the latest technology in order to cut costs while improving customer relationships and workforce efficiency, and we're pleased to help Abbey meet its goals," said John Blake, head of hosted IP telephony for BT Global Services. "Through our partnership with Psytechnics, we will ensure that the voice quality SLA with Abbey will be consistently met and exceeded." For further information or to download the full case study, please visit www.psytechnics.com. About Psytechnics Psytechnics is the global leader in voice and video quality assessment software, which integrate into telecommunications test equipment, switching platforms, mobile networks and VoIP gateways. The company provides the Mean Opinion Score (MOS), a numerical measure of the quality of human speech, or "customer experience" metric. MOS metrics may be used to manage networks and set SLAs from a meaningful, quality viewpoint. Psytechnics is based in Ipswich UK, and its customers include Agilent Technologies, Brix, NetTest, Empirix, Malden Electronics, Ascom, Inet and Radcom. The company holds over 30 patents in the area of voice quality measurement and its products include the ITU standards P.563 P.SEAM, P.562 CCI and P.862 PESQ, psyVoIP for IP networks, and NiQA for monitoring the quality of other network traffic. Psytechnics is a spin-off company of BT Exact. For further information, please visit www.psytechnics.com. For further sales or distribution information, please contact: Iain Wood at Psytechnics E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 1473 261 838 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]