Eckoh announces award of a new contract with Essex County Co The contract, won in partnership with Azzurri Communications, will see Eckoh develop and implement a hosted speech recognition solution across the Council’s customer service operations
BigNews.Biz - Apr 25,2012 - April 25th 2012 - Eckoh (AIM: ECK), the UK’s leading provider of speech recognition and associated payment solutions across voice, web and mobile channels, is pleased to announce it has won its first joint contract in the public sector with a two year agreement from Essex County Council (“the Council”).
The contract, won in partnership with Azzurri Communications, the UK’s leading independent provider of managed communications services, will see Eckoh develop and implement a hosted speech recognition solution across the Council’s customer service operations. The agreement was secured through a formal tender process and represents the first implementation of Eckoh’s speech technology by a local authority.
The solution, which is based on a number of Eckoh’s products, will be delivered in phases the first of which was at the beginning of April 2012. The core aim of the implementation of these services will be to reduce call waiting times, free up contact centre agents to deal with more complex enquiries and achieve significant cost savings for the Council, who provide services for 1.4 million people and is one of the largest local authorities in the UK.
Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer of Eckoh, commented:
“We are delighted to be working with Azzurri and to have been selected by a progressive local authority such as Essex County Council to assist them in enhancing their customer services. With the deployment of our sophisticated solutions, the residents will have an effective but friendly experience when interfacing with the automated speech technology. We expect other local authorities will follow Essex’s lead in adopting an Eckoh hosted solution to improve the service provided to their residents and to maximise the reduction in costs. We also look forward to working on further opportunities with Azzurri over the coming months.”
Robert Overall, Deputy Chief Executive for Essex County Council, said:
“What is paramount to Essex Council is the delivery of first class customer service to all our residents in the most cost efficient manner. Eckoh’s industry-leading technology and Azzurri’s communication expertise will help us to deliver this, providing a resilient, fast and convenient experience.”
Steve Clark, Operations Director for Azzurri, added:
“Service quality is what differentiates Azzurri from our competitors. We only work with industry leading partners like Eckoh to create solutions that ensure our customers get the solutions they want, without compromise. The solution for Essex Council will set a new benchmark for innovation and quality for customer service in the local authority sector and we look forward to working alongside Eckoh to deliver other contracts using their market-leading speech technology.”
Ends
Notes to Editors:
About Eckoh plc
Eckoh plc (AIM: ECK) is the UK’s leading provider of speech recognition and association payment solutions across voice, internet and mobile channels. We are a PCI DSS Level One accredited Service Provider, currently processing over £250 million in card payments annually.
Eckoh’s solutions enable payments, transactions and enquiries to be processed without the caller needing to talk to a contact centre agent. This significantly reduces our clients’ costs,
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