After tantalizing attendees at Bill Meisel’s Voice Search Conference in San Diego, relationship management specialist Convergys Corporation formally announced an “on demand voice authentication solution” that integrates Trade Harbor’s Voice Signature Service into its call flow. Hot on the heels of Voxeo’s partnership with Trade Harbor and news from hosted service provider Salmat VeCommerce that “an insurance company and bank are going live with its biometrics technology in the next few weeks” in Australia, momentum is building for financial services companies around the world to incorporate voice biometric-based caller authentication into their contact center call flows.

In the midst of a general slowdown in IT-infrastructure spending, a hosted approach to caller authentication is starting to take hold. In a briefing, Paul Watson, GM of Multi-Channel Self Service at Convergys, told Opus Research that the company is prepared to offer either an “on-premises” solutions (building on a stronghold established by Intervoice) or on-demand, much like a Web service, based on the partnership with Trade Harbor. Indeed one of Convergys’ clients is already using the on-demand service and has found the hosted approach to be a good way to accelerate development while minimizing capital expense.

There are strong signals that the market for voice biometric-based authentication services is beginning to stir again after a few chilly quarters. In addition to the financial services vertical, healthcare, credit card payment processing and phone-based commerce loom, once again, as potentially fertile ground for new implementations. And the sleeping giant of government transfer payments is showing signs of growth in a few countries around the world.

Opus Research estimates that spending on commercially available, voice biometric-based authentication and verification solutions will approach $145 million in 2009, reflecting growth in the 15% range, which is double the growth in 2008 over 2007. The increased growth rate can be attributed to greater flexibility exhibited by solutions providers, like Convergys, as well as a greater appreciation by prospective buyers that voice biometrics offers a superior user experience while supporting secure transactions and commerce over the phone.

Our latest findings and market assessment, along with dossiers on the major technology providers, will be included in “Voice Biometric Market Potential Report: 2009-2014,” to be issued this month. It is an update of the well-respected forecast and planning guide issued by Opus Research since 2005.

Categories: Articles

Tags: Trade Harbor, Voice Self Service, Opus Research, Convergys, Caller Authentication, secure customer care, Voice biometrics