Eckoh Technologies and TFCC Sign Exclusive 5-year Contract for the UK Utility Market
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 29, 2003
Columbus, Ohio: Eckoh Technologies plc (“Eckoh”), Europe’s leading speech application provider, today announced that it has signed an exclusive 5-year contract with Twenty First Century Communications, Inc., of the USA to host the company’s High Volume Call Answering (HVCA®) service in the UK market.
Twenty First Century Communications, Inc. currently work with over 70 US electric utility clients covering over 60 million customer meters in the North American marketplace. The HVCA® service has been developed and refined over 14 years and in 2002 processed over 20 million successful power cut calls.
The HVCA® service will be re-deployed for the UK market supported by Eckoh who will exclusively host and manage the call handling platform on behalf of Twenty First Century Communications, Inc. The HVCA® service will for the first time provide UK electricity distributors with the ability to automatically process large volumes of calls resulting from power cuts. The service allows callers to inform their electricity provider that they are experiencing a power cut, enables the capability of providing specific messages regarding the effected area, estimated restoration times by area, and includes call back options to confirm power restoration, as well as numerous other proven features.
Jim Hennigan, Managing Director of Speech Solutions at Eckoh Technologies, comments:
“We are delighted to have been chosen by a recognized market leader like Twenty First Century Communications, Inc. to host its highly successful HVCA® service for the UK and Ireland marketplaces. This exclusive contract is another endorsement of our technology and product offering and the 5-year term demonstrates our commitment to building a successful long term partnership in this high growth sector.
The ability to terminate large volumes of calls in the event of power cuts is only feasible via a large hosted solution like Eckoh’s and reinforces our strategy of providing hosted services on this scale. Twenty First Century Communications, Inc. have a proven track record in the US and we are looking forward to replicating that success in the UK.”
Thomas Calabro, Senior Vice President – Sales and Marketing, for Twenty First Century Communications, Inc., explains:
“Based on our extensive experience in the North American marketplace, we knew exactly what we were looking for in an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and ASR (Advanced Speech Recognition) service bureau partner for the UK. Eckoh Technologies thoroughly impressed us. First, Eckoh Technologies has reached critical mass in its equipment, facilities, technical talent, and performance. Second, we are confident they are in a strong position to continue to grow with us to serve the UK and then Europe. Third, they are highly responsive, fast-moving, and focused on customer needs.”
In the UK marketplace, Eckoh Technologies will host the HVCA® application and provide HVCA® with advanced speech recognition technology to identify UK Post Codes and addresses such that callers can be uniquely identified when they report their power cuts.
