BOSTON — SpeechWorks, the global leader in speech recognition and text-to-text speech (TTS) technologies and services, today announced that Union Pacific Railroad, the largest freight railroad in North America, has gone live with new, automated speech services to enable its 30,000 freight customers to release empty railcars. Union Pacific has deployed several of SpeechWorks’ products, including its speech recognition and text-to-speech engines, and speaker verification module.
Union Pacific receives more than 22,000 calls per month for railcar release, the process used to place a railcar on the tracks for new inventory. With the SpeechWorks system, about 30 percent of these routine calls are now offloaded from call center representatives. By automating these calls, Union Pacific agents have more time to handle other customer inquiries and offer value-added services.
“SpeechWorks has enabled us to provide customers with another business channel, while also freeing Union Pacific staff to concentrate on providing more value-added services,” said Charlie Duckworth, senior director, electronic commerce at Union Pacific. “The number of customers using our speech recognition system is well beyond our expectations. Customers get right into the system and conduct their business — it’s immediate. We see the system as a strategic component in providing superior customer service.”
With the speech system, customers can speak into any phone, including wireless, the phone preference for many Union Pacific customers, and provide their railcar information. The SpeechWorks’ SpeechSecure(TM) speaker verification module, powered by Veritel, enrolls the voiceprints of first-time callers and then verifies each caller’s voice for maximum security in subsequent calls. The application understands railcar information provided by callers and shares it with Union Pacific’s railcar tracking application to identify car numbers and schedule railcar pick up. The speech application allows customers to release up to one hundred railcars at once. In addition to added security and accuracy, the new speech-enabled service provides Union Pacific customers with confirmation via e-mail or fax.
One critical factor in driving fast acceptance of the speech recognition system among employees and customers was Union Pacific’s participation in the SpeechWorks Here(TM) Market Accelerator Program, a marketing service offered by SpeechWorks designed to assist companies in launching and promoting their speech services. “SpeechWorks helped us prepare and execute a complete program to educate callers on our new speech offering, enabling us to create the `buzz’ needed to drive usage, leading to fast results and strong ROI,” said Duckworth.
“Union Pacific has leveraged a variety of speech technologies to provide customers with the security, reliability and speed they need to complete business transactions via the cell phone in their pocket,” said Steve Chambers, vice president of worldwide marketing at SpeechWorks. “We are pleased to help Union Pacific implement this innovative speech application.”
The SpeechWorks system runs on telephony hardware from Intel.
About Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad is the largest railroad in North America, covering 23 states across the western two-thirds of the United States. A strong focus on quality and a strategically advantageous route structure enables the company to serve customers in critical and fast growing markets. It is a leading carrier of low-sulfur coal used in electrical power generation and has broad coverage of the large chemical-producing areas along the Gulf Coast. With competitive long-haul routes between all major West Coast ports and eastern gateways, and as the only railroad to serve all six gateways to Mexico, Union Pacific has the premier rail franchise in North America. More information can be found at http://www.up.com.
About SpeechWorks
Through the power of SpeechWorks’ technologies, the human voice is all a person needs to access instant information and conduct transactions from any phone or device. Around the world, SpeechWorks’ customers – customer service innovators such as America Online, CIBC Bank, Microsoft, OnStar and Singapore Telecom – are realizing returns on speech applications that consistently delight and serve customers 24 hours a day. With over 100 partners, SpeechWorks (Nasdaq: SPWX – news) delivers natural language speech recognition, speaker verification and text-to-speech (TTS) solutions to leading corporations, telecommunications providers, device manufacturers and government organizations worldwide. For a description of our products, services and unique customer programs such as SpeechWorks Here(TM) S.T.E.P. (Speech Technology Evaluation Process) call 617.428.4444 or visit www.speechworks.com.