Nuance Communications, a speech and imaging software maker, on Jan. 18 introduced a voice dialing and call forwarding solution that leverages IP systems to cut time and cost from call management.

Designed specifically for intra-company communications, SpeechAttendant Internal Dialer lets employees call any person, department or location by dialing one number and saying a name. The product also allows employees to forward calls to their current location—such as a cell phone, home or remote office. Nuance officials said businesses can cut telecommunication costs because they need only maintain a single inbound phone number powered by automated, speech-driven call routing.

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"Our new SIP-based solution allows organizations to maximize IP-based infrastructure investments for improved employee productivity," said Richard Martel, general manager of AutoAttendant Solutions at Nuance, in a statement. "The SpeechAttendant Internal Dialer will allow customers using SIP to seamlessly speech enable their corporate directory, thereby facilitating employee-to-employee communication."

The turnkey system is compatible with IP-based infrastructures from leading vendors such as Avaya, Cisco, Genesys and includes a unique dictionary of more than one million pre-tuned names, with multiple pronunciations for each, officials said. The system supports all major SIP interfaces and can overcome background noise, cross talk, signal degradation, dropped packets, signal compression and other challenges inherent in wireless and VOIP (voice over IP) networks, officials added.

"Various studies have shown that up to 50 percent of calls received by a company operator are for transferring calls between employees," Mortel said. "But with SpeechAttendant Internal Dialer, these calls will be eliminated, freeing up operators to work on other tasks."

SpeechAttendant Internal Dialer synchronizes with back-end human resource databases to automate directory updates and ensure accuracy.

Pricing for a four-port, 1000-name system is under $20,000, including installation, company officials said.

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