Eckoh Technologies Regulatory News (ECK)

26 Nov 2007 07:01

Eckoh PLC26 November 2007 MGt partners with Eckoh to provide Speech based Subscription services to the Media Industry MGt, the outsourced customer management and technology solutions specialist thatserves the UK digital broadcast, new media and communications industries, hassigned a service agreement with speech automation specialist, Eckoh, to providevoice based subscription services to its digital media clients. The partnership launched its first service in June this year for a leadingsports channel, for which it currently manages very high volume peaks aroundmajor sporting events. It is Eckoh's ability to manage such large-scale peaksthat makes its service particularly appealing to MGt's media clients. "The subscription model that most digital media providers use, means coping withsignificant and frequent volume surges and is a common challenge that's hard toovercome using the traditional contact centre model," says MGt's JonathanGuthrie, Chief Executive. "By partnering with Eckoh we're able to offer clientsthe security of an automated system that can handle the peaks in demand inconjunction with our agents. For our clients this means sales opportunities arenot lost, whilst quality of customer service is assured." Eckoh believes its partnership with MGt is indicative of a growing trend fuelledby increased adoption of automation in the customer management industry."Increasingly outsourced customer management providers find that their clientsare seeking automated solutions to extend service availability to theircustomers and reduce their overall costs," says Nik Philpot, CEO, Eckoh. "Smartplayers recognise that, by partnering with specialist providers like ourselves,and offering automated services in tandem with their traditional, agent basedcontact centre operations, they will hold on to a greater share of theirclients' business." The speech service can be used as a stand-alone solution or as an overflowservice when call volumes exceed levels that can be handled by MGt's contactcentre agents. Because Eckoh's platform is integrated to MGt's own CRM system,Profile, subscription and payment details are transferred to MGt in close toreal time. This means the outsourcer has a consistent view of serviceperformance and volume levels at all times and can, in turn, provide the samelevel of management information and insight to its clients. All calls arehandled via Eckoh's own call processing platform, capable of handling up to650,000 calls per hour. The service offers automated payment via credit card orallows callers to set up direct debit instructions for ongoing subscriptions. -ends- Enquiries: Eckoh plcNik Philpot + 44 1442 458 300Adam MoloneyJim Hennigan Corfin CommunicationsHarry Chathli, Neil Thapar + 44 20 7977 0020 Seymour PierceJonathan Wright/Parimal Kumar + 44 20 7107 8000 About Eckoh Eckoh is the UK's largest provider of hosted speech recognition services. Eckohenables its clients to communicate more effectively and to enhance theirprofitability, whilst making life better for the people who use their services. Eckoh provides automated services in virtually every industry sector for clientsincluding Vue Cinemas, William Hill, O2, Ideal Shopping Direct, DEFRA, TheLondon Stock Exchange, National Rail Enquiries, AXA PPP healthcare, BSkyB,Parcelforce Worldwide, BAA, Barclays Stockbrokers, TD Waterhouse, UnitedUtilities, Scottish Power and NIE (Northern Ireland Electricity). Eckoh is also a market leader in providing interactive services to large mediaowners and has amongst its clients ITV, the UK's largest commercial broadcaster,Trinity Mirror, the largest newspaper publisher and IPC, the leading consumermagazines group. In 2003, Eckoh formed a strategic alliance with BT to capitalise on the growingopportunity for speech recognition services in the corporate marketplace. Thealliance, which was extended in July 2005 until 2010, has supplied speechservices to over 25 clients generating more than 55 million minutes of speechself-service transactions. The combined strengths of both parties have createdan unrivalled and value-added speech proposition and clients of the allianceinclude: National Rail Enquiries, AXA PPP healthcare, Parcelforce Worldwide,Barclays Stockbrokers, TD Waterhouse, NIE, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and ThreeValleys Water. Eckoh has a call processing platform of 10,000 lines (capable of handling over650,000 calls an hour) of which over 8,000 lines incorporate speech recognitiontechnology making it one of the largest speech enabled call processing platformsin Europe. In the year to 31 March 2007 Eckoh generated a turnover of £103 million with anadjusted PBT of £2m and had cash balances of £9.6m. Further information can befound at www.eckoh.com. About MGt MGt is the leading customer management and technology solutions provider to thedigital broadcast, new media and communications markets. It manages the entire customer lifecycle on behalf of clients from acquisitionand fulfilment to connection and payment. Leading independent channels to largebroadcasters, such as BSkyB, Discovery Networks, Freeview, Setanta Sports, SonyEntertainment, Top Up TV and Virgin Media rely on MGt to look after revenuemanagement and viewer relationships. MGt's comprehensive portfolio of services enables clients to shortentime-to-market, drive faster customer acquisition, assure revenues and monetiseaudiences. It has supported the launch of over 70 TV channels and is the UK'sleading expert on Pay TV and multi-platform delivery. Founded in 1998, MGt has enjoyed continuous growth and today employs over 2,000staff. It has a turnover of £21million+ and is the market leader in customermanagement services to independent satellite and Digital Terrestrial TV platformoperators. MGt is headquartered in Fife, Scotland. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange