SAN FRANCISCO -- VoiceGenie Technologies Inc., the proven performance leader in standards-based IVR software platforms powering next-generation speech-enabled contact centers, today announced the successful completion of a project at the Akron Beacon Journal with VoicePort LLC, a leading provider of advanced speech automation solutions for the publishing industry, to speech-enable the newspaper's Customer Care Center.

"The Akron Beacon Journal is always striving to improve the speed and ease with which customer inquiries are handled, and by deploying an automated service to complement our circulation department attendants, we are better able to expedite customer inquiries regarding, for example, delivery schedules, payments and vacation 'holds' - especially during peak periods," said Debbie Fox, Customer Service Manager at the Akron Beacon Journal, a subsidiary of Knight Ridder Publishing. The new system replaces an older, slower touch tone installation, enabling a reduction in the number of customer service representatives (CSRs) handling circulation requests, while freeing the time of the CSRs to highlight promotions (up-selling), point out bundled packages (cross-selling) and attend to complex customer interactions.

"Rather than install a traditional software setup, loading software onto in-house servers - which requires an up-front capital outlay along with the expense of maintaining and updating - the VoicePort hosted system off-site reduces costs substantially and can in many case accelerate time to deployment," added Chris Mann, President of VoicePort LLC. New System Replaces Touch Tone; Increases Usage Rates

Callers are definitely finding the system to be friendly and efficient, allowing them to complete transactions quicker, illustrated by preliminary estimates that show the usage rates of the new, automated system have increased by more than 150 percent over rates for the older, touch tone system. The CSRs are also pleased with the new system, as it allows them to concentrate on more interesting, 'higher value' tasks.

"Like most newspapers, the Journal had been losing readership to the

internet, cable television and other non-traditional news sources, which also take away advertising and classified ad revenue," said Chris Mann, President, VoicePort LLC. "At the same time, production costs - such as the price of newsprint - are rising. So we proposed a solution that helps keep subscribers and add new ones through faster, more focused, speech-enabled customer service, reducing costs and adding the opportunity to better use resources to pro-actively reach out to and in some cases market new services."

Underpinning VoicePort's CircPort(TM) application is a heavy-duty, flexible infrastructure - VoiceGenie 7 - based on open standards and capable of supporting all manner of next-generation, speech-enabled applications.

"The best speech-application infrastructure in terms of reliability, scalability and performance is one based on the latest industry standards, including VoiceXML 2.0," said Frank Tersigni, VP of Marketing and Business Development, VoiceGenie Technologies Inc., "and we're pleased to add the Akron Beacon Journal, through our partner VoicePort, to a rapidly growing list of global customers which have realized the benefits of our industry-leading VoiceGenie 7 platform."

About VoicePort LLC

VoicePort LLC is a leading provider of advanced speech automation solutions for the publishing industry. Founded in 2002 with a highly experienced team of speech engineers, the VoicePort team brings their many years of automation product development with large telecom companies to create robust, innovative applications for the publishing industry. Currently VoicePort is partnered with over Forty Five newspapers and is growing at a rate of three newspapers a month. VoicePort's speech solutions include CircPort(TM), AdPort(TM), and SpeechAttendant(TM), and it have recently expanded to introduce WebPort(TM), a self-service application for the internet.

VoiceGenie Technologies Inc.

VoiceGenie IVR software platforms provide the most flexible open standards infrastructure for supporting next-generation speech-enabled contact centers. VoiceGenie's platform is renowned for excellence in VoiceXML and also supports other emerging standards such as CCXML, X+V, SIP and MRCP. Deploying speech solutions with the VoiceGenie platform results in the lowest total cost of ownership and the best overall solution in terms of reliability and performance - VoiceGenie 7 delivers a consistent and repeatable user experience regardless of platform loading.

VoiceGenie software powers some of the largest IVR deployments in the world. Our customers include leading organizations such as Scotiabank, Sony, AIG, AT&T, Air Canada, Bank of New York, Bell Canada, Citibank, Eastman Chemical, France Telecom, Hertz Germany, India Times, Merck, Motorola, Netflix, New York Daily News, SCANA, Suncoast Media, Ticketmaster, TV Guide, Tyco, Verizon, and many others.