BEDMINSTER, N.J. -- AT&T today introduced a contact center service that could revolutionize the way businesses automate and streamline customer service with breakthrough speech recognition technologies.

Now in controlled introduction, AT&T VoiceTone® is the first "high-touch," carrier grade, end-to-end automation solution that integrates conversational speech technology with a full suite of contact center networking services, from traditional toll-free service and interactive voice response (IVR) systems to AT&T-hosted and managed multimedia contact center applications. Backed by AT&T's unsurpassed expertise in networking reliability, scalability and security, the service also gives businesses a Web-based "window" to monitor the performance of their contact center networking infrastructure.

"The service makes it possible for customers to hold natural conversations with computer-based systems that understand what they say and mean, and that respond to them to fulfill their request," said Eric Shepcaro, vice president, AT&T application services. "With AT&T VoiceTone, we are changing the automation paradigm by giving businesses more options to communicate with customers, from pre-defined, menu-driven prompts to free-flowing dialogue that can help customers complete their transactions even more quickly.

"AT&T VoiceTone enables businesses to improve customer service interactions, increase transactions, and enhance productivity by personalizing the customer experience-all while helping to reduce operations costs," he added.

Based on open standards, the service uses dialogue automation, an array of technologies such as the conversational speech capabilities developed by AT&T Labs, to mimic the experience of speaking to a live agent with minimal to no agent involvement.

"Speech applications are rapidly becoming the standard customer interface for contact centers," said Elizabeth Herrell, Vice President Giga Research, a subsidiary of Forrester Research. "Developing a quality speech application requires expertise in the development of the application, designing an effective user interface and continuous tuning and testing. Many organizations lack these skills internally and find turnkey hosted solutions provide the services needed for effective deployment for speech applications."

Unlike other speech technologies that are based on pre-determined words and phrases, AT&T VoiceTone supports an extensive speech recognition vocabulary and powerful natural language understanding technologies, which determine the intent of a customer's request. These innovative capabilities enable VoiceTone to offer a customer experience that more closely mimics natural dialogue.

In addition, the flexibility of AT&T VoiceTone means it can be integrated partially or fully into a company's customer service operations. For example, a company can use the service simply to identify the customer's request and then route the call to a live agent or menu prompts. Or a company can use the service to enable customers to complete transactions, such as placing orders and tracking shipments.

"AT&T has long been an innovator in the contact center networking industry, which we helped create with the introduction of toll-free service in 1967," said Shepcaro. "By integrating best-in-class speech technologies with our reputation in network-based contact center solutions, we believe this service can significantly improve the experience of interacting with a call center while delivering dramatic performance and productivity efficiencies to a business."

Winning and retaining customers is arguably one of the top priorities for any business today. And now that customers have immediate and near-universal access to information through Internet-related technologies and a myriad of suppliers to choose from, the balance of power has shifted to customers.

As a result, businesses increasingly are relying on service providers to help them manage the complexity of contact center networking. AT&T VoiceTone helps businesses exploit breakthrough speech technology to improve customer service by eliminating complicated menu prompts, ensuring customer information "travels" with the call, and reducing call times, opt-outs and abandoned calls.

"In today's automated world, we increasingly rely on person-to-machine interaction to get things done faster and more efficiently, and in a manner that drives member satisfaction," said

Kenneth Klepper, executive vice president and chief operations officer, Medco Health. "Our members have told us they want to increase their ability to interact with us in an automated fashion that is quick, efficient and easy to use. AT&T' VoiceTone allows us to meet our members' needs because it provides an increasing array of self-service options without the experience of navigating through multiple touch-tone prompts and menus."

AT&T VoiceTone currently supports voice calls and has been designed to incorporate enhancements customers might require in the future, such as text interactions and Web chats. It is offered as a managed service and is hosted in AT&T's global network of 21 Internet Data Centers (IDCs). As a result, customers can leverage AT&T's investment in contact center networking technology and equipment without a significant capital outlay.

Because the company's IDCs sit on the AT&T global network, AT&T can tie businesses' existing data networks, such as frame relay, virtual private networks, asynchronous transfer mode and private line, directly into AT&T IDCs, securely linking customers' critical operations, such as order fulfillment, to their Web-based applications.

In addition, the AT&T BusinessDirect portal gives AT&T VoiceTone customers Web-based controls that let them monitor all systems operations and view customer contact statistics.

AT&T VoiceTone Service also is supported by the company's investment of $200 million in its integrated Global Enterprise Management System (iGEMS), which monitors and correlates data on customer networks round-the-clock. Using the iGEMS platform, customers can identify, contain and isolate events, as well as see network activity affecting their infrastructure.

AT&T complements its extensive contact center networking portfolio with a full set of professional services in the areas of contact center networking assessments, computer-telephony integration and knowledge management. AT&T's professional services team can help businesses develop a blueprint of how to integrate leading technologies, such as speech technology, into their overall customer service strategy.

More information on AT&T VoiceTone Service and other contact center networking services is available at www.att.com/business.