12th April 2006

London, UK – April 12th , 2006 - Fluency Voice Technology, (www.fluencyvoice.com) the speech recognition application company, has today announced that Manchester Magistrates Court has gone live with its speeding and parking fines payment system using a ‘virtual agent’ based on Fluency’s speech recognition software and is already saving the courts both time and money thanks to the new solution.

The Payment Capture system, part of Fluency’s Voice Technology Virtual Speech Agent (VSA) Suite™, offers the public a convenient way to pay their fines 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and covers the whole of the Greater Manchester Area, which issues on average around 75,000 fixed penalty fines each year.

The system allows callers to speak their details, providing a fast, accurate and secure payment method. The service collects credit and debit card details and obtains real-time bank authorisation (APACS 30) and transaction settlement (APACS 29) where required. Payment Capture has the potential to deal with unlimited numbers of callers. Similar software systems, provided by Fluency, are being used by 8 regional water companies in the UK to process payments.

Manchester Magistrates is reaping the benefits with an increase in fine payments, lower administration and recovery costs and much improved cash flow. The average parking and speeding fine is £60 meaning that around £4.5 million is owed each year in the Greater Manchester Area alone.

Graham Rutherford, Court Manager, Manchester City Magistrates Court, who is responsible for the implementation of the new system, says: “The new speech recognition system provides an excellent service for people who want to pay their fines. Under the old system the telephone lines were often engaged and it was very frustrating for members of the public who wished to pay their fines, but could not.”

“The Fluency virtual agent offers an excellent service for the courts around the country to drive collection rates and meet the targets set by the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA). The Greater Manchester area covers 10 of Britain’s 400 courts and is leading the way for other courts to adopt the Payment Capture technology during 2006,” noted Graham.

Paul Barnes, VP Worldwide Sales of Fluency Voice Technology, added, ”Each day, payment collections are lost or delayed because people cannot find a convenient way to make a payment. Agent-based collection services are typically only available during working hours, while touch-tone applications are perceived as difficult to navigate, unpopular and cause caller frustration. As a result, courts are suffering the cost of extra administration for debt collection or bad debts.”

According to Graham, ”The Fluency virtual agent is a real voice operated by advanced software and is proving to be very successful in clearing back log and managing the fine collection process efficiently.”

You can try Payment Capture for yourself by calling +44 (0) 870 190 8030. Pretend to be Alex Richmond telephoning to pay the outstanding balance on Fluency reference number 29330-2 and postcode of TD1 9JW.

Feel free to use your own credit card number when making the payment.  Please note that this is a demonstration line and no transaction will actually take place.

About Fluency Voice Technology

Fluency Voice Technology is a leading provider of packaged speech recognition applications for use in call centres. Our solutions enable enterprises to significantly reduce costs and enhance customer service by automating much of the high volume call centre activities.

Key sectors for which Fluency has developed applications are Financial Services, Travel & Transport, Utilities, Telecoms and Retail. Fluency has always been at the forefront of speech recognition and has changed the way in which businesses use speech by introducing the first ever packaged speech application in 2002. Fluency has offices in the UK, US and India.