As evidenced in the news items listed below, “buy-side” interest in voice biometrics and speaker verification is on the rise. Collectively, these announcements point to increasing momentum for the voice biometrics sector as requests for information on speaker verification projects have accelerated measurably in recent weeks. The next sign of a maturing market will be achieved when these partnerships and pilot installations evolve into larger, revenue-generating, customer-facing deployments.

Diaphonics and BioPassword Team Up
Last week, Canadian-based voice biometrics technology provider Diaphonics announced a partnership with BioPassword, makers of keystroke biometric authentication software. The partnership, formed out of board discussions, is a clear attempt by both companies to target Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) recommendations for multi-factor authentication in electronic banking environments.

While BioPassword’s solutions are designed to match keystroke patterns with an online user name and password, the company saw a need to complement its existing software with a voice biometric-based resource. Diaphonics, which has targeted corrections departments and the financial services industry, provides a premises-based, caller voice-verification solution.

The value proposition for both companies is to create a common data store and interface for clients. The architecture doesn’t require special hardware or software and, as Jeremy Bernard, VP of marketing with Diaphonics, put it in an interview with Opus Research, the platform is “low cost, easy to deploy and easy to manage.”

In order to ramp up for prospective banking clients, Diaphonics and BioPassword (which received $11 million in a third round of funding in February from RRE Ventures) have been sharing account information and making joint sales calls. While no customers have been named, Diaphonics says the combined solution is currently being architected with a template ready in the next 6-8 weeks.

PerSay Eyes Latin American Market
Announced last week at a banking conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Israel-based PerSay and Wittel, a provider of contact center technology solutions for Brazil’s banking and telcos, will target the recent rise in financial services fraud attempts in Latin America.

The partnership was forged after the company executives held meetings at G-Force, Genesys Labs’ user conference. Wittel is one of the main distributors of Genesys platforms for Brazilian contact centers. Persay’s FreeSpeech voice authentication tool has been integrated into the Genesys Voice Platform (GVP) and designed for call centers to verify the identity of a caller.

According to Ariel Freidenberg, VP of global sales and development with PerSay, the partnership will expedite PerSay’s attempts to enter the Latin American market. Goals of the partnership include enhancing security for call center banking customers and improving the customer experience, says Freidenberg.

CellMax Systems In Panama
Latin America has also been the focus of another Israeli-based voice biometrics vendor, CellMax Systems. In May, CellMax signed a five-year distribution agreement with Multitek Corp. S.A. of Panama City. Multitek is a provider of communications solutions and operates the largest retail computer store in Panama. Multitek names Cisco, Polaroid, HP Hyundai and Sharp among its partners.

The terms of the agreement allow for Multitek to serve as the local integrator and regional distributor of CellMax Systems technology into call centers exclusively into Panama, as well as a push into neighboring Costa Rica and Colombia. According to the press release issued by both companies, the Latin American contact center space, serving both the Spanish and English language commercial and financial markets, is the fastest growing in the world.

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