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Vodafone Turkey Offers Customers Voice Biometric-Based Authentication
By Dan Miller | June 23, 2009
The adoption of voiceprints to authenticate wireless subscribers is accelerating, thanks to a new installation of PerSay's VocalPassword(TM) developed and installed by Turkish speech application specialist SPEECHOUSE at Vodafone Turkey. With roughly 16 million subscribers, Vodafone Turkey is the second largest mobile carrier in the country. Yet, if past is prologue, the incorporation of voice authentication into the customer care fabric of any Vodafone subsidiary is bound to have implications across all of its properties - an empire of over 300 million customers.
The deployment as a milestone in a couple of respects. The mobile market holds huge potential for speaker authentication for customer care and electronic payments. In addition, Vodafone Turkey clearly sees subscriber authentication as a source of differentiation in a long-standing battle for share versus Turkcell. In that pursuit, SPEECHOUSE has successfully integrated speaker authentication into the IVR-based Vodafone Voice Portal Platform. The immediate result is the use of a spoken password for secure self service applications the mobile equivalent of password reset, GSM PUK (Personal Unlocking Key) reset.
We'll be learning more about the details and timing of the complete in the coming days to include in an advisory, and in our long-standing set of company and deployment dossiers.
Voice Biometrics 2009: Building on Expectations
By Dan Miller and Derek Top | June 17, 2009
[Opus Research released its latest report and forecast of voice biometric technologies and solutions: "Voice Biometrics 2009: Building on Expectations." Below is a brief excerpt that addresses the overall objective of voice biometric technologies in customer care settings.]
The Message of Voice Biometrics: "Your Identity is Important to Us"
One of the banes of phone-based commerce is the phrase, "Your call is important to us." It tends to be the last thing an inbound customer hears from an IVR system before being put on interminable hold. It would be much more reassuring - and accurate - for an IVR to say that "Your identity is very important to us" and then, rather than indiscriminately placing each call on hold, to treat each caller according to his or her expressed preferences, status, or other known attributes.
Both businesses and technology providers repeatedly affirm that "caller experience is of paramount importance." Yet, that does not mean that they place risk management or security in a lesser role. They recognize that speaker verification provides a mechanism to serve these seemingly contradictory goals - highly usable, highly secure interactions.
For too long the most common practice for handling inbound calls was to put even their best customers through onerous question-and-answer routines to validate their identity based on "knowledge-based authentication." While it is deemed "good enough," it is neither customer-friendly (because it takes so long), nor particularly secure (because the information is often available through a number of physical or online sources).
Instead of making the spurious claim that "your call is important to us," leading-edge service providers, like Australia's largest healthcare specialist ahm (Australia Health Management), and one of its top banks (National Australia Bank) are showing customers in practice that "your identity is important to us." Their use cases are "inclusive," meaning that the use of speaker verification addresses both UI and security concerns, providing a "win-win" for customer and company alike. Both recognize that quick, accurate authentication is beneficial to the customers as well as to the business enterprise.
Strong Authentication Raises Confidence
As the number of customer-facing voice verification implementations grows, enterprises and their technology providers have already learned the value of strong caller authentication. They've also learned that voice biometric authentication never exists in a vacuum. Low levels of confidence in a voice biometric match seldom leads to outright rejection of a call. Instead, they trigger routines to obtain other information that can include CallerID or ANI (automated number identification) as well as "risk profiles" based on customer records, transaction history, "last known location" and the like.
Voice biometric-based authentication can replace or augment the entry of the caller's account number. When the captured utterance matches a stored voiceprint, the authentication engine returns a high-confidence indicator ("green light"). If there are no other concerns, the caller can proceed toward accomplishing the purpose of the call.
As for market potential, Opus Research sees global spending on Voice Biometrics-based solutions (a category that goes far beyond customer care to include automated password reset, remote "time and attendance" reporting, voice signatures, mobile security and the like) reaching about $124 million in 2009 and growing to roughly $260 million in 2014 (roughly 16% compounded annual growth rate).
The biggest challenge is developing expeditious call flows for handling calls which, for any number of reasons, might fall into one or more gray areas in user authentication. Perhaps the risk profile is high and the call originates from a noisy environment. Automated, phone-based authentication could be difficult. Businesses, and their technology providers, must also build the business logic to govern situations where there is a strong match to the voice biometric, but the risk management system calls for additional authentication based on other metadata (such as a report of a lost payment card).
Solutions providers offer a considerable number of options to deal with the instances where other resources (such as the risk management system) yield a "yellow," or worse "red" light. Calls may originate from unknown devices, in unexpected geographic locations. The voice biometric may indicate strong confidence in the caller’s identity, but he or she may not remember a pass-phrase or know the actual response to a wallet-based query. (How many of us can accurately answer, "What was the exact amount of your last purchase at a bar or eating establishment?") Companies have considerable leeway in designing call flows and agent scripts for these instances.
A well-designed authentication routine will minimize the instances that require lengthy, agent-based authentication. Experience in the field is helping to establish "best practices" for dealing with those "caution light" situations when a caller cannot be totally rejected, nor can a company readily allow them access them to sensitive information or personal funds. Agents have important roles to play in establishing caller expectation and, in essence, training them to use the system. They may end up resorting to KBA (knowledge-based authentication) but they will be able to explain to the customer why they are being subjected to further questioning.
The customer care pendulum is swinging away from a short list of company-driven choices toward a wide-range of customer-defined interactions and transactions. Rapid recognition and protection of a caller's identity and associated information is the basis of higher quality customer care. Over the phone, deployment of voice biometric-based identity proofing can make such authentication simpler, faster and more pleasant. A growing body of "real world" experience shows that voice biometrics streamline the authentication process and lead to shorter calls which are more economical for the company and a better experience for the caller.
National Australia Bank Launches Customer-Facing Voice Biometric Service
By Derek Top | June 10, 2009
Australia continues to be a hotbed for the latest in voice biometrics announcements. In another widely rumored deployment, National Australia Bank (NAB) has officially launched a voice verification service, making it available to the company's 3.3 million personal banking customers.
Aimed at "delivering enhanced customer experience and security," the public deployment comes after NAB ran a successful internal pilot involving 2,000 branch staff in May. The voice biometrics-based service is part of a multi-million dollar effort to upgrade a range of new security functions available to NAB personal banking customers.
According to a company statement, "With identity theft related fraud increasingly moving to the phone channel, the use of voice biometrics enables the effective identification, authentication and verification of customers, offering an extra layer of protection," said Warren Shaw, executive general manager with NAB Personal Banking.
Successful authentication pilot programs have long been rumored for financial services organizations, but NAB's official launch marks the first bank - both in Australia and globally - to go public with a large-scale, customer-facing service. More to come...
Aviva Launches Voice Biometric Capability
By Derek Top | June 9, 2009
Speaking at last month's Voice Leadership Forum in Sydney, Australia, Paul Magee, managing director with Salmat VeCommerce, predicted "an insurance company and bank are going live with biometrics technology in the next few weeks."
True to Magee's word, Australian life insurance and wealth management provider Aviva today announced the deployment of a voice biometric service to expedite the process of routing customers to appropriate resources over the phone. Utilizing Salmat VeCommerce's VeSecure service, callers to Aviva can be quickly verified in order to access all insurance, investment and superannuation products. Enrollment to the service takes approximately two minutes, but Aviva guarantees "subsequent calls will be a faster and better experience."
In a statement, Frank Lombardo, Group Director Operations at Aviva said, "Voice biometrics is yet another way in which Aviva is improving the experience for both our customers and financial planners."
Aviva has set up a page on its website to address frequently asked questions about the voice verification system and includes a prominent mention on the company's home page.
Aviva Australia, combined with funds management arm Aviva Investors, manages or administers more than AUD$19.2 billion in funds for more than 350,000 customers. Both are part of the global Aviva group, the world's fifth largest insurance group.
Centrelink Unveils Voice Authentication System
By Derek Top | May 28, 2009
In a widely anticipated deployment, Australian social services agency Centrelink has officially launched a biometric speaker verification system used to authenticate customer access to welfare services. The $2 million system has been in development for more than two years, including a pilot program for students and families, and is now available to up to 60,000 Centrelink customers.
Because customers were having trouble remembering passwords for phone access, speaker verification was implemented as "the only thing that might work beyond a PIN," said Ross Summerfield, Project Manager with Centrelink. Additionally, the voice self-service system frees up Centrelink employees to handle more complex cases and hopes to improve staff efficiency in handling some 28 million calls per year.
While the opt-in system is initially targeting "customers without complex lodging requirements and who may need to routinely update simple information," Summerfield says they have no intention of rolling it out to all Centrelink customers. To recruit the initial customers, employees have been actively calling and inviting prospective users.
Summerfield says enrollment takes about five minutes, with a customer repeating an access number three times, their name twice and counting "1 to 9" a minimum of two times. Once authenticated, the user has access to all telephone self-service offerings.
Telecommunications provider Telstra has managed the service delivery, while KAZ provided project management for connecting the system components to Centrelink's security services. As well, KAZ built dual, text-independent speaker verification engines, with Nuance providing an additional text-dependent engine.
Since the program was only officially made available this week to Centrelink customers, there's little in the way of customer feedback to determine the program's success. But Summerfield said measurements during the 2007-2008 pilot showed that 90% of callers would prefer to use speaker verification over a PIN, with 95% finding the system friendly and easy to use and 98% saying they would use it the next time they accessed Centrelink.
Study Finds Consumers Leery of Current ID Proofing Techniques
By Derek Top | May 14, 2009
A comprehensive study into consumer perceptions and attitudes in Australia and New Zealand has found increasing concern that current forms of identity verification, such as PINs and passwords, are less than adequate security measures in preventing identity theft. In an online survey of more than 400 consumers, callcentres.net found 67% of respondents were "very or mostly concerned" about identity theft compared to 63% a year ago.
And while high-profile security breaches and subsequent media coverage may fuel this public concern, the study, sponsored by Salmat VeCommerce, found 37% of Australians (and 22% of New Zealanders) have directly experienced, or know a friend or family member to have experienced, identity fraud or theft.
Additionally, consumers are increasingly uneasy that PINs and passwords could be guessed or otherwise compromised leading to stolen information and possible theft. According to Laurence Jackson, research manager with callcentres.net, the ever-growing number of PINs and passwords is adding to the uneasiness.
"There is considerable frustration among consumers at having to remember multiple PINs and passwords when dealing with various organizations," says Jackson. The study found that 70% of Australian consumers have more than 4 active PINs, accounting for a total of more than 63 million.
Underscoring consumers' caution towards the more traditional methods of identity verification, the study found voice biometrics as the preferred method of identification processes (45%), followed by PIN (21%), password (18%) and personal details or history questions (16%). To provide a clear understanding of how a biometric identification process works, Jackson said the respondents were each given a brief demo of the technology and then asked whether they would use it.
Still, some of the data presented in the study signals that consumers' perceptions of identification technologies remains conflicted at best. For example, asked when an organization "uses more technology I feel my personal information is secure" some 33% of consumers "strongly or mostly" disagreed, compared to 26% in 2008. And when asked "how simple or complex a process you would ideally like organizations to use when identifying you," 75% of Australians wanted a "very or fairly" complex security process, up from 64% the year before.
Jackson says these contradictions are perception realities and reflect a need for technology providers to better educate consumers, as well as pointing "in a good direction toward future technologies, like biometrics."
Convergys Formally Launches On Demand Voice Authentication
By Dan Miller | May 6, 2009
After tantalizing attendees at Bill Meisel's Voice Search Conference in San Diego, relationship management specialist Convergys Corporation formally announced an "on demand voice authentication solution" that integrates Trade Harbor's Voice Signature Service into its call flow. Hot on the heels of Voxeo's partnership with Trade Harbor and news from hosted service provider Salmat VeCommerce that "an insurance company and bank are going live with its biometrics technology in the next few weeks" in Australia, momentum is building for financial services companies around the world to incorporate voice biometric-based caller authentication into their contact center call flows.
In the midst of a general slowdown in IT-infrastructure spending, a hosted approach to caller authentication is starting to take hold. In a briefing, Paul Watson, GM of Multi-Channel Self Service at Convergys, told Opus Research that the company is prepared to offer either an "on-premises" solutions (building on a stronghold established by Intervoice) or on-demand, much like a Web service, based on the partnership with Trade Harbor. Indeed one of Convergys' clients is already using the on-demand service and has found the hosted approach to be a good way to accelerate development while minimizing capital expense.
There are strong signals that the market for voice biometric-based authentication services is beginning to stir again after a few chilly quarters. In addition to the financial services vertical, healthcare, credit card payment processing and phone-based commerce loom, once again, as potentially fertile ground for new implementations. And the sleeping giant of government transfer payments is showing signs of growth in a few countries around the world.
Opus Research estimates that spending on commercially available, voice biometric-based authentication and verification solutions will approach $145 million in 2009, reflecting growth in the 15% range, which is double the growth in 2008 over 2007. The increased growth rate can be attributed to greater flexibility exhibited by solutions providers, like Convergys, as well as a greater appreciation by prospective buyers that voice biometrics offers a superior user experience while supporting secure transactions and commerce over the phone.
Our latest findings and market assessment, along with dossiers on the major technology providers, will be included in "Voice Biometric Market Potential Report: 2009-2014," to be issued this month. It is an update of the well-respected forecast and planning guide issued by Opus Research since 2005.
Raytheon Integrates Loquendo Voice Security Library
By Dan Miller | April 23, 2009
It has long been clear that voice biometric-based speaker identification and verification technology providers will ride into government IT infrastructure on the coat-tails of approved vendors. As a case in point, Raytheon Company is integrating Loquendo's Voice Security Library into Redwolf(TM), its "one-stop" suite of solutions for collection, storage and analysis of digital audio and VoIP (Voice over IP) communications.
In a press release, Loquendo explains that Raytheon chose the LVSL to shorten the time it takes to filter voluminous amounts of data "by identifying the voice(s), language(s) and gender of the speaker."
Raytheon is one of the largest military contractors with over 73,000 employees and revenues in 2008 in excess of $23 billion.
This signals heightened activity in the speaker identification domain as military contractors seek packaged technologies from voice biometric vendors to complement their solutions set. Spanish technology provider Agnitio has had success in the forensic field for law enforcement for a number of years. In addition Lockheed Martin will be including voice biometric technologies from PerSay at a showcase called BEACON (Biometric Experimentation and Advanced Concepts) to be held on May 4.
The partnership puts emphasis on flexibility and speed-to-deploy for applications or services that want to add another factor for user authentication. Voxeo has done an excellent job of constantly adding to the tools and capabilities of its platforms. It attracts new developer/partners by constantly adding new tools, capabilities and APIs (application programming interfaces) to its arsenal.
Even though customer service applications are decidedly multimodal these days (involving the Web, email and even Tweets), more than half of e-commerce culminates in a phone call. During these tough financial times, the need to authenticate callers is more acute than ever. Voxeo's developer community will find that voice signatures are stronger than a PIN (which can be stolen) and more convenient than the challenge questions that "knowledge-based authentication" schemes insert into the call flow.
Financial service providers, payment processors, telecommunications firms and government agencies have been the first to offer high-volume voice biometri-based authentication. We're looking forward to seeing what the fertile minds of the new generation of phone application developers build the better authentication mousetrap for a broader variety of applications and customer groups.
Voxeo and Trade Harbor Announce Partnership for Voice Biometric Authentication
By Dan Miller | April 23, 2009
Voice biometric-based authentication and security took one step deeper into 'The Cloud' as Voxeo and Trade Harbor announced a partnership. Voxeo is a provider of both premises-based and hosted platforms for standards-based interactive voice response (IVR) applications. Trade Harbor launched its efforts to expand the reach of voice-based authentication using a Software as a Service (SaaS) model back in 1999. The two companies are joining forces at a time that Opus Research believes will be looked back on as an inflection point in the adoption voiceprints for customer-facing services offered over the phone.
The partnership puts emphasis on flexibility and speed-to-deploy for applications or services that want to add another factor for user authentication. Voxeo has done an excellent job of constantly adding to the tools and capabilities of its platforms. It attracts new developer/partners by constantly adding new tools, capabilities and APIs (application programming interfaces) to its arsenal.
Even though customer service applications are decidedly multimodal these days (involving the Web, email and even Tweets), more than half of e-commerce culminates in a phone call. During these tough financial times, the need to authenticate callers is more acute than ever. Voxeo's developer community will find that voice signatures are stronger than a PIN (which can be stolen) and more convenient than the challenge questions that "knowledge-based authentication" schemes insert into the call flow.
Financial service providers, payment processors, telecommunications firms and government agencies have been the first to offer high-volume voice biometri-based authentication. We're looking forward to seeing what the fertile minds of the new generation of phone application developers build the better authentication mousetrap for a broader variety of applications and customer groups.
Financial Service Consortium to Study Biometrics for Banking
By Dan Miller | April 10, 2009
The Financial Services Technology Consortium, a group of technology executives with representatives from Citigroup, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, among others, has launched a research initiative to study various biometric technologies and how they could be used to discourage fraudsters' efforts at identity theft or account take-over. While a number of banks around the world are already trialing or piloting biometric-based authentication for both online and call center-based access, as evident from this report in SearchFinancialSecurity.com, adoption and deployment has been plagued by a lack of understanding.
FSTC's Executive Director Dan Schutzer acknowledges the whole topic of where biometrics fit into user authentication is "a fairly complex subject." He mentions that banks would be sharing information comparing various biometric approaches, use cases, and best practices. According to the report "the initiative will also explore the possibility of a shared database with biometric data of known fraudsters, which could help financial institutions prevent both insider and external fraud. While this sort of "black list" is one of the more rudimentary approaches to fraud detection, it is a step in the right direction in terms of defining ways that financial institutions can share infrastructure and make biometric authentication more affordable and commonplace.
That said, I was discouraged to read that an analyst from the Burton Group, one of the most respected firms in the network security domain, characterized biometric security as "simply a non-starter in the retail online banking space," adding that "customers absolutely refuse to use a hardware-based authentication solution." I couldn't disagree more. For one thing, voice biometrics don't require customers to carry additional hardware, and we've seen voice biometrics used in conjunction with online banking through the use of an outbound telephone call to capture a password or voiceprint.
More importantly, a number of customer authentication strategies already treat mobile devices as if they were tokens for one-time passwords (OTPs) by transmitting a unique series of digits via text messaging to support remote access either through the telephone or an desktop computer. Banking, like most other e-commerce and Internet-based activity in general, is steadily becoming mobile. As it does, the types of activities that will take place over mobile phones is broadening significantly. Adding a voice biometric to other factors (such as a PIN or secure SIM card) will provide the basis for inexpensive, accurate user authentication. As frequent users become more security conscious, the use of a "spoken token" can give users more confidence in using mobile channels to carry out more of their online activities.
Biometric Authentication Plans for iPhone
By Dan Miller | March 30, 2009
In a post on AppleInsider, reporter Aidan Malley is reporting a "stealth" development effort at Apple that could result in protecting iPhones with a selected biometric. According to the report, Apple published a patent filing indicating that it would use an embedded sensor or a component "repurposed from its original role" to capture biometric data that provides confidence that the individual trying to gain access to the whole device or to personal data on the device is, indeed, who he or she claims to be.
The article mentions flat screens, keyboards, or front-facing cameras as candidates for capturing unique biometric attributes such as fingerprints, vein patterns or iris coloration and patterns. Nothing is out of bounds. Malley notes that "Apple goes so far as to suggest the possibility of recognizing the user's distinctive voice or even collecting DNA samples to recognize a user's genetic sequence. Biometrics could also be context-sensitive and detect the shape of a user's ear before allowing a call to go through, for example."
Thus there is hope for voice biometric authentication to be featured on what has emerged to be the showcase, forward-looking smartphone for industrial design, application diversity and features (in the U.S. at least). Voice should be the most sensible biometric authentication method in the context of using a phone.
U.K. Fraud Losses Rise in 2008
By Derek Top | March 19, 2009
APACS, the U.K. payments association, has released figures showing card fraud losses in the U.K. totaled £609.9 million in 2008, up 14% from 2007. Additionally, online banking fraud jumped to £52.5 million last year, up from £22.6 million in 2007.
In a statement, APACS pointed to a rapid acceleration in banking fraud overseas has contributed to the card losses and emphasized chip-and-pin technology as a security prevention measure:
The two main areas of fraud were on transactions not protected by chip and PIN: specifically Internet, phone and mail order fraud; and fraud abroad - committed by criminals using stolen U.K. card details in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN - which has nearly doubled in two years.
The study found "card-not-present" fraud losses increased by 13% over the last year and account for 54% of all card fraud losses. Most significantly, card ID theft - when criminals take over other people's accounts, sometimes through social engineering measures - accounted for £47.4 million of fraud losses, up 37% from the previous year.
[T]he increase in fraud through online and phone transactions should be seen alongside the growing use of these shopping channels, as well as increasing numbers of businesses accepting cards remotely.
APACS publishes figures twice a year on U.K. payment industry fraud losses.
VoiceVerified To Close Operations
By Derek Top | March 18, 2009
Pennsylvania-based voice authentication provider VoiceVerified is closing its doors. An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer quotes a letter sent to investors on March 4th stating the firm had "begun winding down company operations."
Mark Schweiker, former Pennsylvania governor and current president and chief executive of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, was on VoiceVerified's board of directors and, according to the article, referred questions to James J. Volk, the firm's former chief financial officer:
Volk said yesterday that the six-year-old firm had never been able to gain financial traction before it was overwhelmed by the current economic realities.
The company suffered because its key customer base included banks and other financial institutions, which are at the core of the downturn.
VoiceVerified, a software-as-a-service provider of voice biometrics technologies, had a total of nine employees and reportedly raised $10 million to $20 million in investment during its tenure.
Agnitio Secures Second Round of Funding
By Derek Top | March 6, 2009
Agnitio, a Madrid-based voice biometric technology provider, has announced a Series B funding of €5.5 million (US$ 6.9 million) led by Elaia Partners. The round included participation of Nauta Capital, an investor who specializes in technology companies in both Europe and the U.S., who was responsible for an initial round of €2.7 million in late 2007.
In the announcement, Xavier Lazarus, General Partner at Elaia Partners said, "Already leaders in Homeland Security, [Agnitio's] offerings also bring a new way of considering authentication to many markets, including the telecommunication or the home banking industries."
Additionally,Emilio Martinez, CEO at Agnitio, said, "We are delighted with achieving this second round of funding from Nauta and Elaia especially in the current climate of severe economic conditions."
Earlier in the week, Agnitio reported that Medical Management Technology Group, Inc. (MMTG), providers of technology to improve home-based healthcare, signed a contract to deploy Medify Home Health Verification with Onondaga County in New York. Onondaga County is the first county in New York State to provision the service with the first implementation rolled out to users in January 2009.
Medify, powered by Agnitio's Kivox voice biometrics technology, is a phone-based time tracking system integrated with voice verification. Once a home caretaker is enrolled, they are required to call into a system to verify checking in at a patient's home.
Singapore Emerging as a Focal Point for Voice Biometrics
By Derek Top | February 25, 2009
A couple of recent announcements have brought a spotlight to Singapore as an emerging hub for voice biometrics applications being deployed throughout Asia.
According to an article at Straits Times, the Singapore airport authority is considering using voiceprints as a way of authenticating travelers. Singapore passengers currently interact with thumb and iris identification devices, but voice biometrics offers the advantage of remote authentication verifying the identity when compared to a database of voiceprints. Still, some skeptics wonder how the system would work to identify those passengers who don't have a voiceprint on record.
Elsewhere, PerSay has announced a new go-to-market partner with Singapore-based INS Indriya, a technology consulting firm focused on voice applications and CRM solutions.
"The partnership with INS Indriya will provide our customers and prospects in Singapore and Asia with a local center of excellence and competence around the PerSay products," said Ariel Freidenberg, Executive VP of Global Sales at PerSay, in a statement.
In Asia, PerSay currently names YeSpeech as a partner in providing mobile banking services in Korea and AC Corporation is a partner at GSIS - the Philippines primary pension program who has deployed a voice biometric system to allow its more than 1.2 million members secure access to pension services over the phone.
VoiceVault Readies Voice Offerings for Texas State Government Agencies
By Derek Top | February 18, 2009
VoiceVault, in a partnership with Austin Biometrics, has completed negotiations with the state of Texas to offer voice biometrics solutions to any state government agency. According to the agreement, VoiceVault has been awarded a GoDIRect contract paving the way for any Texas government agency the ability to order product offerings.
The offerings, which are billed as-a-service, include VoiceTrack, a phone-based time-and-attendance solution; password reset capabilities; caller authentication and VoiceVault's Advanced Electronic Signatures service. Under the new agreement, according to VoiceVault VP of North America Julia Webb, the company's voice biometrics services could be used by state agencies as payment verification for everything from recording taxes, benefits, and other payment solutions. According to Webb, the state of Texas government had become aware of and interested in voice biometrics to support home-based detention.
Webb also mentioned the continuing roll-out of its voice signature service for Wellpoint is now being deployed in 17 states, with Texas and California next on the list. Internal monitoring by VoiceVault, says Webb, is showing a rate of 1000-1,500 voice signatures being added every day. The voice signature service is intended to help insurance providers reduce costs in lowering agent time and expediting the process to complete applications.
Australian Welfare Agency Centrelink Intros Voice ID for Customers
By Derek Top | February 3, 2009
Australian social services agency Centrelink will implement a voice biometrics system to authenticate customers over the phone, according to an Australian IT article. The agency has been experimenting with voice authentication for a number of years and started late last year with an internal pilot of 10 employees to test and refine a new system.
Telecommunications provider Telstra has worked with Centrelink in developing the pilot and will help deploy a customer-facing application to authenticate users over the phone via a voiceprint rather than providing a client number and password.
In the interview, Centrelink CIO John Wadeson says the agency has been aware of voice biometrics for a number of years but it now sees it ready for large-scale deployments:
"We were one of the first organisations back in 2002 to use voice as an online service when it was used to lodge income reports," said Wadeson. "For the past two years we've been playing with voice authentication, but until six months ago it wasn't ready for serious us. Now that it has matured, we have readied our IT systems to support this technology and are all set to go with it this year."
Wadeson said the voice authentication system would not only improve the security of accessing personal details through Centrelink, but would also improve the efficiency of the agency's call-centre operations, which handle some 28 million calls a year.