Superior Court Adopts Speech Technology to Better Serve Citizens Via the Telephone27 April 2005
Edify® Corporation and American Telesource Inc. (ATI) today announced that the Superior Court of California, Napa County, has invested in self-service speech technology that automates jury management and criminal and traffic fine collection, in both English and Spanish. Residents use ordinary human speech or simple touch-tone commands to gain around-the-clock access to updated court information, reserving staff time for questions that require live assistance. Automating employee and customer processes significantly enhanced service to residents, raised staff productivity and dramatically cut operational costs.
With decreasing budgets and tight resources, local governments are turning to new technology to make the most out the residents' tax dollars while giving them the best possible service. At the forefront of this trend is the Superior Court of California, Napa County, which serves a population of 132,000. The county realized its juror management and criminal and traffic fines collection processes were frustrating for staff and citizens alike. Every week, the court issues approximately 1,100 jury service summons and handles an average of 500 requests for deferment of service or disqualification. All of these tasks were being handled manually by jury staff who felt buried in paperwork and phone messages. Prospective jurors endured lengthy and cumbersome wait times when trying to find out court instructions on the phone during overloaded peak hours. Staff in the criminal and traffic divisions faced similar challenges. Napa County looked to Edify and ATI for a comprehensive solution that would enhance customer service, help court clerks recover from piles of busywork, and cut costs.
"We are 100% focused on providing the best possible service to our constituents," said Jeanette Vannoy, information technology manager for the Superior Court of California, County of Napa. "ATI's government expertise coupled with Edify's proven platform and speech technologies enabled us to not only exceed our expectations in process efficiency and service levels, but also allowed us to use public money wisely by lowering costs while improving service."
Two full-time employees used to feel overwhelmed by paperwork and telephone calls. Now, just one clerk works just part-time, giving personal attention to people who really need it. The criminal and traffic divisions also reported lower volumes of live calls now that the automated system is resolving questions so effectively.
"A key government initiative is to reduce spending without impacting customer service, and Napa County is leading the way in executing on this vision and setting a precedent for counties in California and throughout the country," said Mitch Mandich, president and CEO of Edify. "Automated speech recognition solutions enable organizations to deliver higher levels of service and satisfaction to constituents while increasing operational efficiency and reducing costs."
This is a prime example of the Edify e-CONNECTS partner program promoting a partner ecosystem that more effectively delivers true end-to-end voice and speech solutions to the market place across industries. Within the program, Edify and ATI are extending their reach in the government market place raising awareness of speech and the associated service and costs benefits of the technology.
"We developed the interactive solutions to be customizable, scalable and easy to manage to meet the most pressing needs for courts," said Mark Seeba, application development manager of ATI. "The ATI and Edify solution is also designed to provide full return on investment within 6 to 24 months."
ABOUT ATI
ATI (American Telesource Inc.), www.ati-cti.com, was formed in 1987 to help companies communicate more effectively. ATI implements CTI and IP telephony within corporate and government infrastructures throughout the United States. This includes Voice over IP (VoIP), unified messaging, self- service e-commerce and wireless applications. ATI is a value added reseller for AVST, Captaris, NEC, Edify, Cisco and Shoreline Communications. For more information, call 1.800.333.8394 or visit www.ati-cti.com.
About Edify Corporation
With fourteen years of industry leadership and innovation in voice and speech applications, Edify® has changed the way more than 2,000 global companies enhance customer service. Applications built with Edify are scalable, multilingual and flexible, allowing companies to easily integrate backend systems with multiple contact interfaces. Edify's open, standards- based platform successfully manages millions of customer interactions every day across a broad range of industries. The Edify Design Collaborative and consultancy experts assist customers with the design and deployment of speech solutions that provide increased customer satisfaction with reduced costs. You speak, we deliver(TM).
Additional information about Edify may be obtained by calling 408-982-2000 (USA), 81-3-5532-7827 (Japan) or +44 162 885 0222 (Europe, Middle East, Africa) or via the World Wide Web at http://www.edify.com.
Inquiries
Edify Corporation
Cynthia Dimidik, Edify Corporation: (408) 486-1791;
cynthia.dimidik@edify.com
A&R Partners
Marisa Lee, A&R Partners: (650)762-2883; mlee@arpartners.com
Edify is a registered trademark and Edify Voice Interaction Platform (EVIP) 9.0 and Edify Voice Banking are trademarks of Edify Corporation. All other product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements include statements with respect to our financial condition, results of operations and business. The words "believes," "expects," "may," "will," "should," "projects," "contemplates," "anticipates," "forecasts," "intends" or similar terminology identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our beliefs as well as assumptions made using information currently available to us. Because these statements reflect our current views concerning future events, they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Therefore, actual results may differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The risk factors included in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (and available on our web site at www.s1.com or the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov) provide examples of risks, uncertainties and events that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations we describe in our forward-looking statements. Except as provided by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
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Source: Edify Corporation
Source: PR Newswire
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