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Using Voice Biometrics To Pay-By-TV

By Derek Top | December 18, 2008


Voice Commerce Group announced a new payment processing service utilizing voice biometrics to enable consumers to phone in and purchase any product or service sold via a TV advertisement.

The service, known as VoicePay TV, allows businesses to place a logo and toll-free phone number in a TV ad encouraging consumers to simply call in and order the product by citing a unique code. The transaction is authorized with their voice signature.

To use the system, customers are require to sign up for a VoicePay account enrolling a voice signature and account information that includes card and delivery details. According to Nick Ogden, CEO of Voice Commerce Group, the language-independent service becomes "an instant sales channel, bypassing potential fraud in online transactions and creates a real opportunity in video advertising."

In addition, Ogden says businesses can see a measurable return on investment from advertising incoming customer calls can be traced back to product codes from advertisements and locations, making it possible to monitor the effectiveness of campaigns.

VoicePay TV, which can be imbedded in both IP and traditional video channels, is available to business for annual price of £150. There are no transaction charges for the first £10,000 worth of sales. The VoicePay network is reportedly available in more than 50 countries and complies with existing standards for Visa and MasterCard Level 1 PC1.

Voice Biometrics News Roundup

By Derek Top | December 2, 2008


Several releases have come across the wires in recent days announcing new developments in the voice biometrics industry. Here's a brief roundup:

Dell Partners with Voice Transact To Target Financial Services

Dell Industry Solutions Group announced an alliance to work with Voice Transact, a payment and transaction processing platform utilizing voice biometric signatures. The partnership would allow Dell ISG to configure and distribute Voice Management Hubs to banks and financial services with the Voice Transact platform, designed to fit into any financial process where a bank requires a signature.

According to the release:

Voice Management Hubs enable multi-factor transaction approvals for payments and other financial transactions and can store millions of encrypted voice signatures locally. They are specifically designed to enable banks and other financial institutions to respond to increased industry and regulatory interest in the role of voice signatures. The Hubs will play a key role in helping to meet and support regulatory requirements, which form part of the interoperable standards program operated by the Voice Commerce Group, the parent company of Voice Transact.

Nick Ogden, CEO of the Voice Commerce Group, speaking at Voice Biometrics Conference London, said "Voice signatures are complex, patent pending, devices that combine the use of voice biometrics with transactional history, trends and patterns to create a highly secure, unique, authorization environment."

Dell ISG was established nine years ago and has worked with customers including Google on the Google Search Appliance. The Group was expanded in June 2008 to cover Europe and enhances Dell's dedicated OEM support for global customers.

PerSay Partners with Exodus

Israel-based voice biometrics provider PerSay announced a new partnership with Exodus, developers of software solutions for banking, financial services and telecommunications industries. Exodus, based in Greece, offers customized consulting services targeting customer convenience and satisfaction. Voice biometrics is a logical value-add to the company's services.

"We are excited to be able to offer PerSay's innovative solutions to the Greek market," says Manos Margaritis, CTO of Exodus. "PerSay's state of the art solutions make it so much easier for customers to interact with companies."

Vicorp Touts Voice Biometrics for Fraud Prevention

UK-based solutions provider Vicorp has launched a new speech self-service portfolio highlighting fraud prevention for credit card issuers and financial services firms.

"Chip and PIN has helped significantly reduce point-of-sale fraud," says Brendan Treacy, CEO at Vicorp in a statement. "However, this does not solve the growing problems such as fraud abroad and fraudulent online purchases, which are time intensive for agents to deal with."

Vicorp has introduced "Voice Passport," which uses voice biometrics to match the cardholder's voiceprint to identify the caller. Coupled with fraud prevention, the solution could present card issuers with huge savings at the same time as reduced fraud losses, says the company.

Voice Biometrics Case Study: Government Service Insurance System

By Dan Miller | November 25, 2008


A Philippine government employee pension program serving 1.5 million people has become a showcase for voice biometric-based authentication to enable loan applications and payment distribution. At Voice Biometrics Conference London 2008, Jean Bengo, vice president of the Government Service Insurance System, shared the organization's experience and delivered insights into both its origins and technological underpinnings.

Opus Research has long thought that authenticating the identity (and indeed "liveness") of recipients of government transfer payments is an ideal application for voice biometrics. Previously, we predicted Centrelink, the Australian social security service, to be the first large-scale implementation of voice biometric authentication for government services - and indeed its service went live on Telstra's network last month.

Additionally, as showcased at Voice Biometrics Conference London last week, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) of the Philippines has undertaken a massive effort to utilize voice biometrics in authenticating user identities. GSIS, the primary pension program for about 1.5 million government retirees in the Philippines, is in the process of leapfrogging many of its peers in the transfer payment and loan application business by charging ahead with implementation of a system that extends the reach of its network of ATMs and wireless kiosks that support biometric-based authentication of members as part of simplifying and controlling loan application and benefit distribution.

Click here to view the entire Opus Research Advisory

VBC London 2008 - Conference Presentations Now Available

By Dan Miller | November 25, 2008


VBC London proved to be a success in providing engaging content and promoting lively conversations about the potential benefits and current challenges facing voice biometrics deployments.

Among the highlighted sessions:

Click here to view the session presentations.

New Entrant in Battle Against Credit Card Fraud

By Derek Top | October 16, 2008


As economic turmoil rattles global markets and many people face financial uncertainty, one thing's for sure: credit card fraud is not going away. Identity thieves continue to target call centers as weak links, using social engineering techniques and stolen credit card numbers to make fraudulent purchases.

California-based Victrio has developed a voiceprint call screening process to complement current fraud protection systems and help call center agents identify fraudsters. As calls are transparently entered into the system, the technology screens the calls against a database and determines the probability of fraud. If a call is flagged as "surely fraud," the agent can make note and prevent the transaction from being processed.

Tony Rajakumar, founder and CEO of Victrio, says the company's patented system is able to parse up and segment the database of voiceprints to effectively handle a large community of fraudsters. Victrio has launched a trial with a large online retailer to develop a fraud database and is targeting big-ticket online merchants, as well as banks and credit card issuers, as customers.

Cellmax Systems Becomes Zehu Technologies

By Derek Top | September 29, 2008


The company formally known as Cellmax Systems announced last week that it has changed its name to Zehu Technologies. The name change coincides with a new business strategy and efforts to attract OEM partners.

Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, Zehu Technologies targets enterprise customers and names Multitek, T3 Teledata, and Softel among it partners.

The company also introduced Zehu Authenticator 3.0 based on its patented biometric Adaptive Speaker Verification technology. "With Authenticator 3.0, we empower application developers with the means to offer their customers the most accurate and reliable speaker verification solution on the market," said Jacob Schwarz, PhD., Zehu CEO, in a statement.

New Perspectives on Voice Biometrics

By Dan Miller | September 10, 2008

Voice Biometrics Conference London 2008 is the only venue dedicated to determining where, why, how and with whom you should deploy speaker verification, speaker identification and other voice-based biometric solutions.

Register Now!

Remember Life magazine? (If you're under 30 years old, chances are you don't.) Its parent company, Time Inc., developed one of the best lines in advertising history: "Life ... Consider the alternative!" This bold promotional message equated any upstart picture magazine competing with Life with the grim prospect of Death.

This verbal bravado led me to a similar tag line for the Opus Research's 2008 Voice Biometrics Conference London: "Voice. Consider the alternatives!" In reality people already have. Thousands of enterprises around the world already deploy alternative methods for authenticating customers or identifying imposters. The good news is that many of these firms have considered voice biometric-based alternatives and hundreds (if not thousands) now use speaker verification in addition to existing solutions.

The "A" List of Alternatives
All companies that accept payments over the Web or over the phone have implemented a variety of systems and services to combat increases in consumer and financial fraud. The most common alternatives involve personal identification numbers (PINs). They are Chip & PIN, PIN & Password and PIN & ANI. All rely on four-digit numbers matched with another factor to minimize identity fraud. In practice, they are deemed "adequate" for their task; however industry participants and regulators are constantly looking for ways to heighten security to meet new threats.

Today it includes other biometrics (such as iris or retinal scans, fingerprints vein patterns or "keystroke dynamics"); one-time passwords (OTP), which often rely on physical tokens; and knowledge-based authentication (KBA) using challenge questions from publicly known info or customer provided preferences. End-to-end solutions incorporate "out-of-band" authentication (such as a separate, outbound phone call), custom-made scanners and even the use of SMS/text messaging.

Hoops and Flaming Hoops
The basic function of these technologies is "identity proofing" and authentication. Billions of dollars are being spent each year by payment card issuers, banks and brokerages, healthcare providers, insurance companies and virtually any company or government entity that accepts payments or distributes funds or information on a targeted basis. Authentication is necessitated to insure that individuals are who they claim to be. Catalogue wine merchants, for instance, must make sure their customers are of an age and in a location that makes it legal for them to receive alcoholic substances. Pharmacies should make sure that the person renewing a prescription over the telephone is the individual to whom a medication is meant. Government agencies issueing "transfer payments" require proof that the recipient is alive, present and eligible for the benefit in question.

Each of these 'use cases' necessitates that customers have certain hoops to jump through. In high-value or high-risk situations, those hoops should be flaming ones. Today's solutions lean hard on existing security infrastructure, but its first-order concern is detection of malware, spyware and other attacks on the corporate network. They care more about the bad that is being done, not the "bad guys" who are perpetrating it. Identification of imposters for the purpose of fraud prevention is another matter, in the time it takes to swipe a card and enter a PIN, high-speed networks can verify that the card has not been stolen and serve up the raw material for a series of "challenge questions" that are designed to reduce the probability of fraud to zero.

Finding a Fit for Voice Biometrics
Businesses and government agencies spend billions of dollars each year to prevent untold millions (or perhaps billions) of dollars in fraudulent transactions. The overall question we'll be addressing at VoiceBioCon London is "Do voice biometric solutions fit among the pantheon of fraud prevention solutioins?" "We have already observed that the answer is "yes." Hundreds of firms and government agencies have already implemented speaker verification systems for verification of identity as part of password reset routines, for secure access to customer care contact centers, for identity authentication in crime prevention scenarios and as electronic signatures for phone based transactions and document validation.

In each instance, voice biometric "engines" are integrated with business rules, databases and the other physical and logical elements that comprise security infrastructure. Today, as the volume of mobile payments and phone-based transactions crescendos across multiple vertical industries and government agencies, the need for reliable, real-time identity proofing also increases.

System integrators and solutions providers have come to the same conclusion - as evidenced by participation in Voice Biometrics Conference London 2008 that goes far beyond the community of biometric technology providers. Opus Research is featuring thought leaders in banking and financial services, payments solutions, security and forensics experts and system integrators, highlighted speakers:

Consider the Alternatives?
That's the whole idea at Voice Biometrics 2008, because no single solutions provides the level of security, convenience, mobility and comfort that the combination of voice biometrics and existing security solutions will provide. And no other venue will provide you with the knowledge you'll need to implement multifactor, multimodal security applications successfully.

For more information: www.voicebiocon.com/vbc-london08/index.asp

U.K.'s O2 Finding Consumer Appeal for Mobile Payments

By Derek Top | September 4, 2008


Using mobile phones to purchase goods and services is a fast-growing concept that is gaining traction from carriers, consumers and payment networks alike. Mobile payments rely on near-field communication (NFC) technology to facilitate purchases and include associated technologies for mobile couponing and payment authentication.

U.K. carrier O2 released the results of a six-month mobile payments trial in which 500 people were given Nokia 6131 handsets loaded with cash to make store purchases or travel throughout London. According to O2, nine out 10 participants enjoyed making cell phone payments.

Among the mobile payment activities in the O2 trial included:

Elsewhere, Visa announced the launch of new mobile payment programs in Brazil, South Korea and the United States. Visa has been working for some time with financial institutions, telecommunications providers and handset manufacturers in delivering mobile payments with efforts to improve the consumer payment experience.

According to the release, the latest programs include:

  • Brazil: Visa announced yesterday the availability of remote mobile payments in Brazil by Banco do Brasil. It is the first program of its kind in Latin America, allowing Banco do Brasil's Visa cardholders to pay with their mobile device and confirm the transaction via text message. The service is accessible through any Brazilian mobile carrier serving the more than 140 million subscribers in the country. Companhia Brasileira de Meios de Pagamento (VisaNet Brasil), the acquiring institution for all Visa debit and credit payment transactions in the country, will be running the deployment of this technology in Brazil.
  • Korea: In a world first and in partnership with T-Money provider KSCC (Korea Smart Card Company), card issuer Shinhan Bank and Korea Telecom Freetel (KTF), Visa has made it possible for commuters to use their Visa account to top up their T-Money balances automatically on the phone's SIM card when it falls below a certain level. By conducting the entire transaction automatically over the mobile network, commuters are freed from the inconvenience of waiting in line at transit kiosks or other agents to top up their transit account.
  • U.S.: Visa recently announced a partnership with Chase Bank for a pilot program to deliver personalized mobile offers to select consumers in Phoenix, AZ. With more than 50 participating merchants, the program has capacity for 5,000 participants who will receive offers, including discounts or special deals, directly to their mobile devices via text message. They will be able to redeem these offers at the merchant's location or online. The pilot will also cover special game day offers for baseball fans attending games at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
  • North America: Visa is working with multiple leading issuers, such as PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo in the United States, and RBC, TD Bank Financial Group, and Vancity in Canada, to trial a transactions notification program that is able to send near real-time information to cardholders. Participating cardholders will receive e-mail or SMS text messages on their mobile devices whenever one or more transaction "triggers" occur, sometimes before they leave the store. These mobile notifications will be created simultaneously with the transaction, providing cardholders with an effective way to monitor and manage their accounts.

TD Waterhouse Launches Voice Biometrics System for Customer Transactions

By Derek Top | August 18, 2008


Canadian discount brokerage firm TD Waterhouse has begun rolling out a customer-facing voice biometric authentication process. The company is a subsidiary of TD Canada Trust, one of Canada's top five largest banks.

The new application, called Voice Print System, allows clients to create a unique voiceprint to speed up transactions and improve the customer experience, says the company. TD Waterhouse has set up several pages on its website explaining the new system's benefits and company privacy policy.

According to an article at ePaynews, Nuance Communications is the technology supplier for the Voice Print System. TD Waterhouse says it is the first discount brokerage in Canada to use voice biometric authentication and is targeting a rollout to the majority of its phone-based clients within a year.

Logica Committed to Access Management and Voice Biometrics

By Derek Top | August 7, 2008


In an up-close and personal interview, Tim Best with Logica talks with SC Magazine UK about enterprise security, identity management, and the high potential of ROI opportunities for companies that invest in access technologies.

Among the highlights, Best's encouraging words about voice biometrics:

Best is also big on biometrics, which he predicts have a great future, with relatively straightforward biometric technologies now being more widely adopted, especially in the banking sector where fear is undermining internet banking. "People are worried about internet fraud and identity theft, so they're using the telephone banking option more often, which means the bank's costs are going up," he says.

And again he sees opportunities against the backdrop of a credit crunch largely created by the banks themselves. "The banks have to fund this growth in telephone banking traffic and pay for someone to sit at the other end of the phone. It's quite expensive for them, so we're talking to a lot of the banks at the moment about using voice biometrics," he says.

Tim Best will be speaking at Voice Biometrics Conference London, November 19-20, on the panel, "Integrating Voice Biometrics with Existing Infrastructure."

Voice Commerce Group Launches Standards-Based Voice Signature Platform

By Derek Top | June 27, 2008


Voice Commerce Group, founded by Nick Ogden, announced the development and rollout of Voice Transact, a payment and transaction processing platform utilizing voice biometric signatures. The system is designed to fit into any financial process where a bank requires a signature.

"We believe that voice-signed transactions and payments will become as commonplace as Chip and Pin because they address key security concerns by delivering convenience, control, and responsibility to the consumer," said Ogden as part of the announcement.

Ogden says the Voice Transact system is the first to establish a framework of existing standards -- including Visa and MasterCard Level 1 PC1, ISO 19029, and EU certification 1999/93 -- and provides interoperability of voice biometric resources. Additionally, Voice Commerce Group will partner with Nuance Communications to supply the voice biometric engine and help in the global rollout.

Voice Transact is the back-end transaction processing system to the consumer-facing brand of VoicePay which was launched in May 2007. Ogden says the end-to-end system will first be offered as a hosted service to banks and financial institutions.

Technology Group Taps Voice Verification to Address Medicaid Fraud

By Derek Top | June 18, 2008


Medicaid fraud is an ever-growing concern for healthcare providers, taxpayers and government agencies alike. The U.S. spends more than $45 billion annually on Medicaid home healthcare but fraud, waste and profiteering has plagued the program in recent years. Increasingly, fraudulent cases are found in home healthcare and "consumer directed" plans where an individual is free to hire whomever they choose to provide home healthcare and bill directly to Medicaid.

Currently, there are over 20,000 home healthcare agencies today serving over 7.6 million people. And with the looming retirement of the Baby Boom generation, these numbers are likely to increase dramatically. Voice biometrics has a role to play in Medicaid fraud by eliminating the opportunity for patients to call in and bill for services never rendered and require verification of authorized healthcare providers.

Medical Management Technology Group, Inc. (MMTG), founded in early 2007, has focused on developing technology to improve the failing systems involved with home-based healthcare. In an interview with Opus Research, Joe Werner, Director of Information Systems with MMTG, discusses the need for fraud prevention and where voice biometrics fits in.

What is MMTG doing in terms of improving home-based healthcare?

The problem typically is that the payment process is slow and paper intensive for the medical providers, costly for both the provider and the insurer, and there is little or no fraud prevention or quality control in place. At MMTG, we apply a range of technology including optical recognition, biometric verification, voice/fax systems, and web-based software to increase efficiency in processing claims and detect and prevent fraud before payments are made. The key to MMTG's success is to keep the user's experience as simple as possible while these underlying technologies achieve their maximum results.

In the fall of 2007, MMTG formulated the concept for a home-based health care system that would verify service by using a phone-based time tracking system and voice biometric technology.

What is your planned application?

Payment processing for home-based health care includes paper intensive systems that result in slow payments to the providers, inaccurate data, and there is little or no fraud prevention in place.

To address these issues, we designed a phone-based time tracking system with integrated voice verification. Once each caretaker is enrolled, they are required to call into our system when they arrive at the patient's home and check in. During the brief call, they are asked to repeat random numbers so their voice can be verified. The caretaker calls our system again when they leave the patient's home and their voice is verified again. The voice verification ensures the paid caretaker is the person who is checking in and out. For each call, the caretaker is required to use the patient's phone so that our system can verify the caller ID and ensure the caretaker is onsite with the patient. The system records a time stamp for each call which can be used to track the duration of each visit. With this in place, billing for these services can be automated and fraud can be decreased if not completely eliminated.

How far along is the deployment?

Development began in December 2007 and in April 2008 the first version of the system was released. MMTG has been presenting the system to government and commercial organizations and is negotiating licensing agreements in upstate New York.

What significant challenges have you run into?

So far there have been three main challenges for us. The first was deciding which voice biometric technology provider to partner with. There are a number of great product offerings out there and we needed to select one. What helped us make the decision was to itemize our requirements:

Ultimately, we decided that Agnitio's Kivox product was the best fit for us. Kivox works by having the user repeat random series of numbers, and it is language and channel independent. They were also able to work out a licensing structure that fits with our plan for pricing the service.

The second challenge was to learn how to operate the voice biometric engine and integrate it with our software in time for an April 2008 release. Agnitio provided documentation about the engine and assisted our development team with the installation. After careful study of the documentation and experience with the technology, our team became very knowledgeable about handling audio data from the IVR and exchanging the audio and transaction data between our application server and the Kivox engine. Our team successfully integrated the features of the Kivox engine into our time tracking system and met the target for releasing the first version in April 2008.

The third challenge came during our initial testing of our system. The issue was we were getting unexpected results with the voice verification. With the same person calling multiple times in one day, the verification result was sometimes a failure, and sometimes not. The issue turned out to be that we had too few enrolled users in the system to get accurate results. The Kivox product is optimized for large scale operations. To address the issue, Agnitio loaded a sample population of a few hundred male and female users into the database. This solved the problem immediately.

Further advice or suggestions?

For someone that is new to voice biometric technology and interested in applying it to their business, I recommend the following:

1. Research the technology first. Develop an understanding of its capabilities.

2. Once you understand the technology, you are ready to map out what your business process requires from a voice verification product. Make a list of each necessary feature you've identified. For example, you will find in your research that some voice biometric products are "text dependent" which means the user must repeat a fixed phrase like "lucky star" each time they are verified. You will also discover as a pro that users find this to be user friendly and as a con that this approach can be possibly cheated with a tape recorder. With this knowledge, you can analyze your business process to determine whether fixed phrases (text-dependent) or random speech (text-independent) is the most appropriate option.

3. Finally, compare the various voice biometric products against your itemized requirements. This will give you a clear indication of who you should be talking to.

Voice Biometrics Gets Plug on Fox's "The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet"

By Derek Top | June 4, 2008


Voice biometrics as a solution to prevent identity theft was featured in a television interview today on the Fox program, "The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet." James Jackson, self-proclaimed "Father of Identity Theft" and speaker at last month's Voice Biometrics Conference New York, was invited for the segment, "Keep Your Identity," to discuss the various misdeeds that ultimately landed him in jail. When asked if there was anything that would've prevented him from committing these crimes, "Voice biometrics is the only thing that would've defeated me," said Jackson.

The nationally syndicated Fox program, which began airing in January 2007, is found in 68 U.S. markets, including 25 of the top 30. The show includes a typical talk show mix of celebrity interviews, audience interaction and informational segments.

Colorado Prison Department Chooses Diaphonics To Monitor Defendents

By Derek Top | June 4, 2008


A Colorado correctional division has chosen Nova Scotia-based Diaphonics in setting up a telephone verification and information system as an additional tool in helping reintegrate felony offenders back into the community. According to the announcement, the Larimer County (Colorado) Community Corrections will use Diaphonics' SpikeServer platform to provide defendants with pre-trial information, reporting schedules and electronic monitoring.

Voice biometrics is regularly used to track and monitor inmates on parole and those under house arrest.

Voice Biometrics Conference New York - A Resounding Success

Derek Top | May 20, 2008

VBC New York

More than 150 attendees convened in New York City last week to meet and discuss the maturing market for voice biometric technologies. Content and conversations ranged from understanding biometric basics and implementation challenges, a profile of the world's largest customer-facing deployment at Bell Canada, and hearing firsthand from the self-proclaimed "father of identity theft" on his various misdeeds and the need for improving phone-based security.

Opus Research is pleased to announce that the session presentations are now available for viewing or download (in .pdf format) from the Voice Biometrics Conference Web site.

Stay tuned for future announcements about Voice Biometrics Conference London in November 2008.

Australian Survey Shows Little Confidence in PINs and Passwords

By Derek Top | April 10, 2008


Fear of fraud and identity theft is eroding consumers' confidence in the way companies identify people over the phone, says a new survey by Australian-based callcentres.net.

The survey of 216 Australian men and women, conducted on behalf of VeCommerce, found dwindling levels of confidence in traditional contact center security methods such as asking for personal identification numbers (PINs) and passwords.

According to the survey, only 24% of people of those aged 18-30 felt that revealing their PIN number was a secure way to identify a caller, followed by a password (20%) and answering a personal details or history question (13%). Only 6% of those aged 31-45 thought a password was secure, followed by providing a PIN number (15%) and personal details (10%).

The survey also found almost half of respondents (47%) preferred organizations to use a "fairly complex process with fairly high security" for identification. To that end, voice biometrics was a preferred method of identification for both men (45%) and women (39%) and across all age groups.

Canadian Privacy Chief Hails Voice Biometrics

By Derek Top | March 13, 2008

Javelin

Lending a strong voice of support to the security benefits of voice biometric technology, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada touted an advancement in biometric encryption between PerSay and electronics giant Philips.

According to privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian, the combined technologies, which apply Philips priv-ID biometric encryption to a PerSay voiceprint, exceeded performance expectations and "remained at a world class level with respect to accuracy, plus invaluable privacy and security benefits." The advancement has particular benefits in remote voice authentication where a biometrically encrypted template can be sent without degradation to a processing terminal for authentication.

Cavoukian is unabashed in her support of the development, "We are on the cusp of making a truly positive-sum solution a reality through the use of voice biometrics - an approach that enhances both the privacy and security of a biometric, in this case, your voice, which happens to be a unique and unobtrusive form of identification."

PerSay and Telisma Announce Agreement

By Derek Top | February 18, 2008

Javelin

Speech-recognition provider Telisma has announced a partnership with voice biometrics company PerSay to provide more comprehensive customer solutions.

Based in Paris, France, Telisma has had success in providing ASR technology to Western Europe and India. While no customers were included as part of the announcement, the partnership does expand the geographical scope for PerSay beyond its current roster of partners in Europe, EMEA and Latin America.

In the press release, Laurent Balaine, CEO with Telisma, said, "Our partnership with PerSay will enable us to broaden the availability of our speech recognition solutions worldwide, and provide customers with the most accurate and cost-effective speaker verification technology available."

Research Shows Dramatic Rise in Phone-Based Fraud Activity

By Derek Top | February 15, 2008

Javelin

A new report shows a dramatic shift in identity theft crime activity away from online to the more traditional phone-based fraud. The report, by Javelin Strategy & Research, showed fraudster access through mail and phone-based incidents rose dramatically, from 3% of ID fraud in 2006 to 40% in 2007.

According to the press release, "This year's report reinforces a three-year trend that criminals mostly obtain the majority of information from stolen personal belongings, and through telephone calls, rather than online."

The findings appear to confirm speculation that as many banks and financial firms attempted to shore up online security, fraudsters would train there methods on the less-secure phone channel. While the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's 2006 guidance on multi-factor authentication included telephone banking, many financial institutions initially concentrated their efforts online.

Also, according to the report, wireless phone accounts are the most popular type of fraudulent accounts opened, increasing from 19% to 32% of new account fraud last year, exceeding credit cards, loans, checking or savings accounts.

The Javelin study is in its fourth year and was conducted in October 2007 with more than 5,000 telephone interviews.

Biometrics Gain Traction in Banking, Says Study

By Derek Top | February 7, 2008

Acxiom

A new study, sponsored by biometric scanning provider AuthenTec, found that U.S. consumers "trust in the convenience and security benefits" of fingerprint authentication, particularly for tasks such as online banking and other e-commerce applications. The survey, conducted in December 2007, sampled U.S. men and women between the ages of 21-55.

Of note to voice biometrics vendors and prospective implementers was the study's discussion of the use of biometric security in financial applications. In the survey, 75% of the respondents said they banked online, with 78% of those people indicating that, if available, they would use a fingerprint sensor to make online banking transactions more convenient and secure. Additionaly, the survey showed that 66% of consumers trust fingerprint biometrics as a means of authentication more than traditional PINs or passwords.

AuthenTec, based in Melbourne, FL, announced the shipment of its 25 millionth fingerprint sensor last November and reported a 67% revenue increase in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared to the previous year.

Announcing Voice Biometrics Advisory Services

Opus

With ever-increasing business demand for caller authentication solutions, Opus Research - in conjunction with the Buffum Group - is pleased to announce a new service offering to help prospective implementers justify and design voice biometric deployments.

Opus Research and Buffum Group offer an unparalleled set of information services and implementation support for companies interested in voice biometric-based authentication to secure self-service resources. At the macro level, Opus Research has a long-standing reputation for market assessment, trends analysis, forecasting and vendor evaluation in this fast-changing field. At the micro level, Buffum Group has built portfolio of enterprise-oriented requirements assessment and solutions planning services.

Together Opus Research and Buffum Group offer a package that includes: Market Assessment - conducted year-round and documented online, in printed reports and advisories; Vendor Analysis - encapsulated in regularly updated dossiers that include company history, financial overviews and product descriptions; Networking - Attendance at the industry's only global gathering of prospective implementers and providers of voice biometric-based solutions, featuring real-world case studies and exclusive program content.

A key part of the service offering will include Enterprise-Specific Consulting - Providing the dual advantage of internal team building and business planning that culminates in a business plan, with cost justification, for an overall phone channel security solution.

This comprehensive, tailored offering - combining customized consulting, proprietary research, conference interaction and ongoing support - will prove to be a cost-effective and targeted solution.

For details regarding options and pricing, please contact: Pete Headrick, 1-415-904-7666, pheadrick@opusresearch.net

Barclays Chairman Victim of Identity Theft

By Derek Top | January 17, 2008

Barclays

When the chairman of Barclays Bank gets robbed, the problem of identity theft makes headlines.

According to a story at ComputerWeekly, a man using personal information found online obtained a Barclays bank card for chairman Marcus Agius by calling a contact center representative.

While the thief walked away with £10,000 from a London bank, Agius did get his money back. But the fact that Barclays automatically refunds any customer who becomes a victim of identity theft - as do almost all banks and financial institutions - points to a staggering estimated financial loss worldwide. Voice biometrics and multifactor identity proofing are factors that can be used to thwart some of these attacks.

Or, as Agius admits in the article, "credit card fraud is an issue which our industry continues to confront."

Acxiom To Offer Voice Authentication

By Derek Top | December 20, 2007

Acxiom

Acxiom Corporation, a provider of customer marketing data, has entered into a strategic alliance with VoiceVerified to offer consumers voice authentication access. The partnership is centered on SoundAccess, a new identity protection system offered by both companies.

Acxiom - whose clients include many of the largest credit-card issuing banks - will ask customers to repeat five digits five times for initial enrollment. On each subsequent call, the customer will be asked to repeat a random five-digit sequence for authentication. The SoundAccess system matches a speaker's voiceprint with a previously stored sample.

"This product lets companies increase security and privacy while improving customer convenience," said Jeff Stalnaker, Acxiom Financial Services Organization leader in a statement.

While no specific customers were announced in the strategic alliance, Acxiom sees reduced contact center agent time for caller authentication as a cost savings benefit for those who deploy the solution.

Agnitio Receives Investment Boost

By Derek Top | December 16, 2007

Agnitio

Last week, Madrid-based Agnitio announced a funding round of 2.6 million euros (US$3.7 million) from Nauta Capital, who specializes in technology companies in both Europe and the U.S. According to the press release, the investment makes Nauta Capital the shareholder of reference and allows Agnitio to "accelerate its expansion plans at an international level."

Founded in 2004 as a spin-off from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Agnitio has focused on the use of voice biometrics in public security, counter-terrorism and forensic investigations. The company's flagship tool, Saivox, compares voices recorded by law enforcement officials with those of suspected criminals. Agnitio has reported successful case studies in Spain and is currently working on two projects in Mexico and Columbia.

Future Directions for Voice Biometrics

By Dan Miller | December 4, 2007

Voice Pay

Mobility is becoming a driving force for voice biometrics. Both Voice Pay and PerSay made announcements last week that herald a new wave of mobile payments built on voice biometric security.

Nick Ogden, CEO of Voice Pay, has circled the globe many times to encourage banks and card issuers to evaluate his company's offerings. The service is a packaging of the enrollment and "voice signature" service offered on-demand by VoiceVault. Because this approach requires no hardware or purchase by participants or prospects, his evangelism is poised to support high-levels of volume quickly.

The cause of voice signatures was further supported by PerSay through its newest customer, Planet Payment. Founded in 1999 to offer banks and credit card issuers the ability to handle multiple locations and currencies, Planet Payment is headquartered in New York and has offices in Atlanta, Beijing, Bermuda, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and the U.K.

The company's original product ("Pay in Your Currency") has been repackaged as "BuyVoice" and was launched mid-2007. While it's premature to judge the potential success of the Planet Payment, the announcement underscores the demand for mobile commerce.

Growing in the Medical Vertical

In addition to financial services and mobile commerce, the healthcare vertical stands poised for growth. During the Voice Biometrics Conference, VoiceVault announced that medical transcription specialist, AssistMed, will deploy its caller authentication service to provide secure access to its dictation and transcription service, DictAide.

Dictation and transcription of doctor's notes is a growing but highly competitive area. As noted in a recent Opus Research advisory, "Conversations from Nuance Conversations" (October 29th, 2007), it is the single vertical that automated speech specialist Nuance has opted to address through a strategic business unit, Dictaphone Health Care Solutions. Automating dictation and transcription is just one approach to differentiation. AssistMed, through its incorporation of speaker verification, will use biometric-based voice authentication as a differentiator.

WellPoint Simplifies Opening New Accounts with Voice Signature

By Dan Miller | October 24, 2007

WellPoint

As many businesses around the U.S. enter the weeks of "open enrollment" for benefits packages, it is particularly fitting that WellPoint has taken the wraps off its Web-based system for opening new accounts. The system went live in December 2005, providing a mechanism for WellPoint agents to:

The process had the dual benefit of reducing time and expense (including postage) associated with agent-handling and processing paper-based forms. Thus the impact on user experience and overall ROI were both very positive.Since its introduction, WellPoint's service adds 10,000 subscribers per month and has eclipsed 140,000 new members.

Some Corporate Background

While not a household name, WellPoint is the largest health benefit provider in the United States (with 34 million members), is the parent company of UniCare and acts as the licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association for:

The acceptance of voice biometrics-based e-signatures - as part of a legally binding transaction by a large insurer - is a breakthrough for the biometric community. But it is one that has been largely under the radar for the simple reason that WellPoint sees it as a source of competitive advantage.

A Coup for TradeHarbor

The solution relies, in part, on the Voice Signature Service system (VSS) from TradeHarbor. WellPoint executives contacted TradeHarbor in late 2004 as part of a business process reengineering project designed to enable prospective members to sign health insurance applications over the telephone. TradeHarbor was chartered in 2000 as a service company providing Voice Signature capabilities to replace or augment hand-written signatures.

Its flagship product, VSS, is a telephone- and Internet-based service. The WellPoint use case demonstrates that VSS is recognized as a legally binding signature by the Departments for Insurance in each of the states where VSS is deployed.

Heralding the Age of Convenient Security

WellPoint has found dual benefit from its new workflow. It creates a better user experience because applicants can choose a plan and submit a signed application in a single phone call. This coincides with an unexpected boost in an agent's sales productivity resulting from quickly closing each sale.

It is also important to note that each applicant's Voice Signature also serves as a voice biometric enrollment. Thus TradeHarbor's VSS could be used in the future to provide HIPAA-compliant authentication for WellPoint health plan members in customer service interactions performed over the telephone and Internet.

A New World Order for Voice Biometrics

By Dan Miller | October 15, 2007

A year ago, RSA, the security subsidiary of storage giant EMC, gave both prospective buyers and technology providers reason to believe that adoption of voice biometric-based user authentication was entering a new phase. By offering Adaptive Authentication for Phone, the company prepared to pave the way for seamless integration of voice biometrics into its fabric of hardware, software and business policy governing access control.

Finally! Clarity in the form of a packaged offer that includes voice biometrics.

Alas, this simple starting point for business enterprises was not to be. In August, RSA and EMC were conspicuously absent from SpeechTEK in New York City. No promotional campaign ever took shape; no more shoes were dropped. The implication is that a company with a $50 billion market capitalization and $11 billion in top-line revenue could not build a compelling business case for speech-enabling its authentication infrastructure.

The parent company's mantra is to "store, manage and protect" enterprise data. However, like its brethren in IT and network security systems, it has a well-established hierarchy of priorities. At EMC, the order of things include: risk assessment, access control for information and infrastructure, protection of confidentiality and the integrity of information, security management and compliance. User authentication is definitely part of the mix, but it is not a first-order concern, which makes voice-based caller authentication almost tertiary.

Succeeding In Spite of the Cynics

Last May, at the Voice Biometrics Conference in Washington, DC, Opus Research highlighted several large-scale implementations of caller authentication in customer-facing contact centers including a roster of banking customers of ABN-AMRO, communications services customers at Bell Canada and "clients" for government largesse in New Zealand and Australia.

As it stands today - and illustrated in coverage on the VoiceBioCon.Com - we're seeing continuing growth in implementations. In September, BellCanada had already enrolled 275,000 customers into its voice authentication system. Healthcare giant WellPoint has enrolled well over 150,000 affiliated employees. And, likewise, voice biometrics is being used for phone-based authentication of the 128,000 members of Australian Health Management (ahm).

Solving Real-World Problems

The steady increase in enrollments is a good measure of the maturity of the emerging market. It's a triumph for the tenacious group of technology providers that have successfully provided solutions to both security mavens and customer care specialists. They have boldly moved into the market where EMC and its cohort of security "pure plays" are unprepared to tread. Like EMC's product planners, enterprise security officers have a well-defined hierarchy of concerns. First and foremost is to prevent wrong-doers from compromising important data. They fight the most common kinds of attacks: denial of service, constant spam, worms and other forms of malware that can bring down the corporate WAN and make all data inaccessible.

Mobility and Social Networking Will Accelerate Adoption

The growth of e-commerce, online banking and mobile access accentuates the need for multifactor protection of customer data for financial services, healthcare and insurance companies. Thus, securing "the phone channel" was the theme of Voice Biometrics Conference in Washington, DC in May. In the meantime, the advent of unified communications (UC) has redefined the term "phone" and with it, both security officers and infrastructure providers have to take a fresh look at network security.

There is growing evidence that mobility and customer convenience are poised to accelerate adoption. As an example of the first phenomenon, simply look at the roll-out of VoicePay as a simple, voice-authenticated means for mobile phone subscribers to make electronic payments. IBM has made duel advancements in the latter area by making speaker verification a feature pack that is baked into its flagship middleware and application server WebSphere, while at the same time introducing highly-reliable, text-independent speaker authentication, which has the potential to greatly simplify the user enrollment process. (Both companies will be featured at Voice Biometrics Conference London November 28-29, 2007.)

Network infrastructure providers have three primary areas of concern. One is to maximize up time, which puts emphasis on intrusion detection, firewalls, session border control and all that fun stuff. Another first order concern is protecting the privacy of a conversation. This is accomplished through encryption of the actual "talk-path." In addition, the system can maintain "whitelists" or "blacklists" regarding devices that reside at the endpoints of various talk paths.

At this point, the tension between the mainstays of "secure" networking and the values underlying of UC becomes obvious. An emphasis on real-time communications and collaboration dictates implementation of constant "presence indicators," push-to-talk initiation of phone calls and the simplification of spontaneous conferencing. This is antithetical to prevention of unsafe network entrance.

"Who's on First?"

This question, first asked by Abbott and Costello, isn't funny in the context of spontaneous voice teleconferencing or other IP-based real-time communications. How many of us have been on the company's conference bridge when an extraneous tone indicates that an unknown person has joined the call. Blacklisting a rogue device or softphone does not prevent a malicious interloper from joining the call. As the tools for enterprise-wide collaboration and real-time communications take hold, enterprises are bound to attach a premium to detecting who's calling, not just what they are using to initiate the call.

Our hypothesis is that voice biometric-based authentication is the most natural and cost-effective way to authenticate callers in real time. At Voice Biometrics Conference London, we'll have solutions providers and their customers describe how and why our hypothesis is true.

Q&A: Research Developments in Voice Biometrics

By Derek Top | October 8, 2007

University of Hertfordshire

Dr. Aladdin Ariyaeeinia, who leads the Audio Processing and Biometrics Group at the University of Hertfordshire in the U.K., began researching voice biometrics and speaker recognition more than twelve years ago. Most recently, he unveiled a new approach to determine when speakers change in a given conversational audio stream, which will have useful applications in criminal investigations and multimedia indexing. Opus Research discussed current research and the potential commercial applications of voice biometrics with Dr. Ariyaeeinia:

Where does voice biometrics technology compare to other biometrics - e.g. fingerprint, iris scan, etc. - in terms of accuracy, security and reliability?

The accuracy of voice biometrics varies according the operating conditions as well as the mode of operation (e.g. text-dependent or independent, speaker verification or open-set speaker identification). For instance, background noise and variations in the transmission channel (in remote applications) can affect the speaker recognition accuracy. In all cases, the effectiveness of voice biometrics has continuously improved over the last few years.

It is true that different types of biometrics exhibit different levels of accuracy. But this is not the only factor to consider when deciding on the type of biometrics for a given task. In fact, an important factor in practice is the suitability of the type of biometrics for the application considered. For instance, whilst a type of biometrics like iris is more accurate than voice, when it comes to such applications as telephone banking, it is voice biometrics which is the preferred choice mainly because of the convenience, not requiring additional hardware, and cost.

Do you see text-independent speaker verification as a fully mature technical solution for large-scale commercial applications?

Currently, considerable research is conducted into text-independent speaker verification and, as a result, very beneficial progress has been achieved. Regardless, other modes of speaker verification (e.g. text-prompted) are preferred in commercial applications because of their higher accuracy. It should be noted that an additional difficulty with text-independent operation is that of missing data (i.e. some acoustic classes in the test utterance are missing from the utterance used for training the system). Therefore, in commercial applications where the aim is that of secure (logical) access, text-independent is not yet considered a favorable mode of operation.

On the other hand, the text-independent process is more appropriate for certain other applications like operations in smart environments (where, for example, individuals are continuously differentiated based on their voices). This may be in the form of open-set identification involving both identification and verification. Criminal investigations and enhancing the accuracy of automatic speech recognition (through speaker adaptation) are other examples of applications for text-independent speaker recognition.

Rising Security Costs for U.K. Contact Centers

By Derek Top | October 1, 2007

Contact Babel logo

In a report studying the use of speech technology in U.K.-based contact centers, consulting firm ContactBabel has found that the costs associated with agents asking for PINs and passwords has reached GBP906 million ($1.8 billion) per year, up 10% from GBP820 million last year.

The report, "2007 UK Contact Centre Operational Review," is based on information gathered from over 3,600 operations and gives forecasts of the U.K. contact center industry segmented by region, vertical market and other metrics.

According to the report, sponsored by VoiceVault, eliminating the time taken by an agent to verify a caller's identity - which takes between 20 and 30 seconds - can save 20.5 pence per call or GBP2 million annually. Additionally, the reports states that secure automated identity verification can enable a broader range services and fully automated calls would result in agent cost savings of almost GBP2.9 million a year.

Steve Morrell, principal analyst at ContactBabel, emphasizes that U.K. contact centers must balance the need to improve the customer experience while maintaining high levels of security and controlling costs. "Contact centers need to rethink their identity verification strategy and implement a process that delivers a better customer experience, security that is auditable and compliant with regulations, and realize cost savings," said Morrell in a statement.

Last July, ContactBabel released a similar report for the U.S. market and found that 41% of the 43 billion U.S. contact center calls involve a contact center agent asking identity verification questions. According to the report, the U.S. contact center industry will spend $11.7 billion in 2007 in checking callers' identities.

Bell Canada's Voice ID Service Tops 275,000 Customer Enrollments

By Derek Top | September 19, 2007

Bell Canada logo

Last March, Bell Canada rolled out a customer support service offering callers a chance to enroll in a voice-based method for identification and authentication, allowing access to account services without asking for a PIN. The voice identification service -- which was sold internally as a cost savings measure while still maintaining high levels of security and privacy -- now claims more than 275,000 volunteer enrollments.

By calling the customer service number -- which is the same for all Bell Canada wireline, wireless, high-speed Internet, digital TV and VoIP services -- callers are offered an option to enroll a spoken phrase for universal access to the account. Enrollment is completed by repeating a passphrase three times and takes roughly two minutes, according to Bell spokespeople. Subsequent calls avoid the headaches of navigating through multiple layers of IVR menus to get to the right agent or IVR system.

The Bell Canada deployment, which began in September 2006, utilizes PerSay's VocalPassword with integration by IBM Global Business Services. Augmenting existing security processes has been an important part of the voice identification service rollout for Bell. "The primary driver for Bell in implementing a voice verification system was to make privacy protection more convenient for Bell customers," said Charles Giordano, marketing lead for the company's voice authentication project, in a statement.

Irish Bank Launches Internal Voice Bio Application

By Derek Top | September 10, 2007

AIB logo

Allied Irish Banks, one of the four largest banks in Ireland, has announced an internal voice biometric deployment to assist the company's IT help desk in resetting employee passwords. Utilizing technology from VoiceVault, the bank has rolled out an initial implementation to its corporate office locations serving more than 5,700 employees.

Increasingly, password reset has become a popular enterprise point solution for voice biometrics as IT security mandates require frequent changing of passwords, which can be problematic for both employees and IT help desk agents alike. With speaker verification, employees are able to use their voice to verify their identity and automatically reset their passwords.

With VoiceVault's Password Reset Service, Allied Irish Banks hopes to reduce the volume of IT help desk calls as well provide the convenience for employees to change passwords at any time. According to the press release, AIB plans to further deploy the solution to another 15,000 staff across its head office, branch and capital markets staff.

Investor Acquires Majority Stake in VOICE.TRUST

By Derek Top | August 28, 2007

Voice.Trust logo

Dutch investor Marcel Boekhoorn has acquired a majority stake in German-based voice verification technology provider, VOICE.TRUST, for a reported 16.5 million Euros (US$22.5 million).

A specialist in server-side speaker verification, VOICE.TRUST has made significant partnerships in Germany, including with IBM Global Services which has previously invested in the company. VOICE.TRUST names IBM as one of the largest customers for its password-reset technology, and last month the companies announced a text-independent system in trial at a major German bank.

Headquartered in Munich, Germany, with offices in California, VOICE.TRUST has sold over one million licenses to international enterprises. The company says a subsidiary in Dubai, UAE will be established in the near future to service the Middle East / Asia Pacific region.

According to the press release, Boekhoorn M&A will support VOICE.TRUST to extend its operations to the consumer market for mobile payment applications.

Announcing Voice Biometrics Conference London

By Dan Miller | August 15, 2007

Global plans ... Global exposure. Those are the two forces accelerating deployment of biometric solutions for both authentication and identification around the world.

As examples of the global plans, U.K.-based Voice Pay has initiated a voice-biometric based system that enables secure card-based payments from any phone. This greatly expands prospects for friction-free use of spoken words to authorize phone-based payments. Other examples include customer-facing deployments in banks (such as ABN AMRO in The Netherlands and Israel's Bank Leumi) and large telephone companies (such as Bell Canada).

Global exposure is a corollary to expanded deployments. Security breaches across all manner of commerce and payments systems have greatly stepped up the average person’s exposure to identity theft. When it comes to commerce carried out over the telephone, the use of voice-based biometric characteristics to identify or authenticate customers only makes sense.

It is with this theme - "Achieving Global Acceptance" - that Opus Research is proud to announce Voice Biometrics Conference London (Nov. 28-29, 2007 - The Grange City Hotel London).

Building on the success of last May's Voice Biometrics Conference Washington, DC, VBC London will showcase real-world implementations of biometric solutions to support financial services, payment systems, customer care, law enforcement and government services. It will bring the major voice biometric technology providers – along with their partners, customers and prospects – to showcase their wares, address common concerns and describe the advantages and opportunities surrounding voice biometric deployments.

Topic sessions include:

Confirmed speakers include Nick Ogden, CEO of Voice Pay, and Mark Pewlewski, Technical Group Leader at British Telecom, as well as solutions implementers and thought leaders from IBM and ABN AMRO. Check the conference Web site for news regarding new speakers and presentations.

The global roster of sponsors includes VoiceVault, Agnitio, Nuance and PerSay.

In order to qualify for the special early-bird rate (GBP 499) for the Voice Biometrics Conference London show, please register now!

For more information: www.voicebiocon.com

Voice Biometrics Nabs Brazilian Suspect

By Derek Top | August 10, 2007

In a widely circulated Reuters story, suspected Brazilian drug cartel mastermind, Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, was arrested today after positive voice recognition confirmed his identification.

Ramirez Abadia was indicted in the United States in 2004 on racketeering charges as an alleged key member in a cartel that sent 550 tons of cocaine to the U.S. from 1990 to 2003, according to the story. The suspect had gone through "radical" plastic surgery to alter his appearance and avoid arrest. According to the Reuters story:

"Brazilian police had difficulty making a positive identification of Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia while they investigated a money-laundering scheme he allegedly orchestrated in hiding in Brazil, but got a break after taping him on the telephone and passing that information to agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, said the lawyer, Sergio Alambert.

"The recording was compared in the United States to other tapes of Ramirez Abadia's voice, leading to a match that allowed Brazilian police to identify him so he could be arrested."

While no specific voice biometric vendor was named, it's clear government authorities relied on speaker identification technologies to identify the suspect and have confidence in the match.

IBM Announces Speaker Verification Feature Pack

By Derek Top | July 31, 2007

IBM logo

After years of testing and tweaking "conversational biometrics" in the lab, IBM announced this week a new speaker verification feature pack for its WebSphere middleware. The announcement opens the door for go-to-market IBM partners to produce fully mature voice biometric security solutions.

"This is middleware and we want our partners to build applications around it," says Brian Garr, Director of Enterprise Speech with IBM. "There is a policy manager available but we want partners [to help] build the policy."

The speaker identity verification feature on the WebSphere Voice Server product captures the utterances of callers, compares to stored voice prints and then calculates a score. With the policy manager, the score can be used to determine the quality of the match and then inform an application to proceed or not.

IBM's new feature pack is also language, grammar and text independent, meaning a caller can be verified with a simple statement such as "I want to check my balance." According to Garr, this feature accelerates the call flow process, speeding customers through IVR systems and increasing call completion rates - not to mention, saving customers the hassle of having to repeat account information.

IBM has named VOICE.TRUST as a partner, who has included the speaker verification feature pack in a customer-facing pilot currently underway at a large German bank.

Voice Biometrics Market Potential Study

By Dan Miller | July 23, 2007

The market for voice biometrics-based authentication software is starting to mature. The technology has proven its efficacy and value as the basis of password reset applications for enterprise Help Desk, leading to tens of millions of dollars in recurring revenue. Yet, according to this Opus Research report, the market will reach a positive inflection point as "customer-facing" deployments grow to support secure, phone-based access to financial services, e-government and electronic payments.

Voice Biometrics Market Potential, 2006-2011

Click here to see the Opus Research report summary

Voice Biometrics Community Update

By Derek Top | July 16, 2007

As evidenced in the news items listed below, "buy-side" interest in voice biometrics and speaker verification is on the rise. Collectively, these announcements point to increasing momentum for the voice biometrics sector as requests for information on speaker verification projects have accelerated measurably in recent weeks. The next sign of a maturing market will be achieved when these partnerships and pilot installations evolve into larger, revenue-generating, customer-facing deployments.

Diaphonics logo
BioPassword logo

Diaphonics and BioPassword Team Up

Last week, Canadian-based voice biometrics technology provider Diaphonics announced a partnership with BioPassword, makers of keystroke biometric authentication software. The partnership, formed out of board discussions, is a clear attempt by both companies to target Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) recommendations for multi-factor authentication in electronic banking environments.

While BioPassword's solutions are designed to match keystroke patterns with an online user name and password, the company saw a need to complement its existing software with a voice biometric-based resource. Diaphonics, which has targeted corrections departments and the financial services industry, provides a premises-based, caller voice-verification solution.

The value proposition for both companies is to create a common data store and interface for clients. The architecture doesn't require special hardware or software and, as Jeremy Bernard, VP of Marketing with Diaphonics, put it in an interview with Opus Research, the platform is "low cost, easy to deploy and easy to manage."

In order to ramp up for prospective banking clients, Diaphonics and BioPassword (which received $11 million in a third round of funding in February from RRE Ventures) have been sharing account information and making joint sales calls. While no customers have been named, Diaphonics says the combined solution is currently being architected with a template ready in the next 6-8 weeks.

PerSay logo

PerSay Eyes Latin American Market

Announced last week at a banking conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Israel-based PerSay and Wittel, a provider of contact center technology solutions for Brazil's banking and telcos, will target the recent rise in financial services fraud attempts in Latin America.

The partnership was forged after the company executives held meetings at G-Force, Genesys Labs' user conference. Wittel is one of the main distributors of Genesys platforms for Brazilian contact centers. Persay's FreeSpeech voice authentication tool has been integrated into the Genesys Voice Platform (GVP) and designed for call centers to verify the identity of a caller.

According to Ariel Freidenberg, VP of global sales and development with PerSay, the partnership will expedite PerSay's attempts to enter the Latin American market. Goals of the partnership include enhancing security for call center banking customers and improving the customer experience, says Freidenberg.

CellMax logo

CellMax Systems In Panama

Latin America has also been the focus of another Israeli-based voice biometrics vendor, CellMax Systems. In May, CellMax signed a five-year distribution agreement with Multitek, Corp. S.A. of Panama City. Multitek is a Panama-based provider of communications solutions and operates the largest retail computer store in Panama. Multitek names Cisco, Polaroid, HP Hyundai and Sharp among its partners.

The terms of the agreement allow for Multitek to serve as the local integrator and regional distributor of CellMax Systems technology into call centers exclusively into Panama, as well as a push into neighboring Costa Rica and Colombia. According to the press release issued by both companies, the Latin American contact center space, serving both the Spanish and English language commercial and financial markets, is the fastest growing in the world.