Nuance Employee Productivity Suite Increases Value of Employee Directory

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced the launch of its speech-driven Employee Productivity Suite (EPS), an integrated suite of applications that combine proven auto attendant and directory services with solutions that enhance organizational communications, improve business processes and increase employee productivity . EPS is based on Nuance’s market-leading SpeechAttendant solution which has over 2,000 deployments worldwide. It includes four key modules; Internal Dialer Automated Password Reset, Emergency Notification and SpeechAttendant™ At its core, EPS incorporates its market leading Nuance Recognizer 9.0 Speech Recognition Engine and the RealSpeak Text-to-Speech software for increased speech recognition accuracy and human sounding interactions. Through its Corporate Directory Interface, EPS routinely synchronizes with an organization’s corporate employee directory to ensure all employee names and extensions are continuously current and speech-enabled. Now supporting s directory listing of up to 100,000 names, EPS can be deployed as a stand alone system or in a clustered / fault tolerant environment for increased scalability and robustness. EPS also supports Analog, Digital or SIP telephony integration to a multitude of leading PBX’s including Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, NEC, and others or EPS can be configured to connect via VoiceXML (VXML) to a variety of IVR platforms from leading vendors such as Avaya, Genesys, Envox, Aspect Telecom and others. "Effective packaging of speech-processing transforms existing IT infrastructure into a source of efficiency and cost-savings,” said Dan Miller, sr. analyst, Opus Research. "Each component of Nuance EPS is an easy-to-deploy leverage point that makes existing directories the foundations for increased employee productivity, convenience and safety – ranging from speech-enabled routing to password reset and administration of emergency notification.” Realizing Full Potential of Employee Directories While all organizations have employee directories, most are not realizing the full potential and value this directory listing can bring. For example, over 30% of calls to a company operator are from employees who do not remember the extension or phone number of a colleague. Speech enabling an employee directory allows employees to just speak the name of the person they want to reach, removing the need for operators to transfer internal calls thereby reducing operator staffing costs while increasing employee productivity and is the basis for the Nuance Internal Dialer Module. An organization’s mobile workforce also benefits greatly from this module as they can quickly and safely access any department or colleague through one single number and the power of their voice. The EPS SpeechAttendant™ module brings the efficiency of voice access to an organizations public telephone system. External callers enjoy the simplicity of simply saying a name versus fumbling through touch tone keypads to spell the name of the person they want to speak to. Strong Continuity and Security Capabilities Expanding the efficiencies of speech even further into the organization, EPS also supports a speech-driven Password Reset module and an Emergency/Event Notification module. The Password Reset module enables employees to use their unique voice print to quickly and securely change their network password, significantly reducing the number of calls to the IT help desk. Emergency/Event Notification enables organizations to quickly, accurately and securely communicate news of pending disasters or emergency scenarios such as severe weather, natural disaster or potential threats to individuals or groups. Nuance technology identifies the broadcaster by their voice and then allows them to broadcast their message by simply stating the individual name or group name of the intended recipients thereby removing the need for the broadcaster to remember a password or access code information. SAS, the leader in business intelligence and predictive analytics software, has already trialed EPS. "SAS just completed a successful trial of the Nuance Employee Productivity Suite and are very pleased with the results,” said Wayne Hamilton, telecom manager, Global Communication Services at SAS. "We have already received positive comments from employees and others indicating that the EPS worked surprisingly well and was a time-saver for users.” SAS was recently named by Fortune Magazine as a "Top 100 Places to Work” for the 11th straight year. "Increased demand for improved data security, risk management planning and corporate compliance coupled with the need to continually reduce operational costs while increasing employee productivity has many organizations turning to speech-driven productivity solutions to increase efficiencies, " said Lynda Kate Smith, vice president and general manager of the Care Business at Nuance. "The speech-driven internal dialer and automated password reset module of EPS will offload mundane tasks from the main operator and helpdesk staff, while empowering employees. The speech-based emergency notification broadcast feature will aid government, education and any organization needing to keep people safe by facilitating efficient, secure, and effective communication during a crisis situation.” About Nuance Communications, Inc. Nuance is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications and professional services. For more information, please visit: nuance.com. Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners. The statements in this press release, relating to future plans or future events or services, are forward-looking statements which are subject to specific risks and uncertainties. These could involve particular market trends, competition factors and other risks described in the documents submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results, events and services may vary significantly from the forecasts. The reader is warned not to rely on these forward-looking statements without reservation, since these are simply reflections of the current situation.