Dixons Shortlisted for Inspired IT Award for its Speech Solution.

M2 PRESSWIRE-16 October 2007-DIXONS: Dixons Shortlisted for Inspired IT Award for its Speech Solution(C)1994-2007 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:16102007

Dublin, Ireland - SpeechStorm, a leading provider of advanced speech recognition solutions and its partner eircom, today announced that the speech solution at Dixons Stores Group, has been selected from hundreds of applicants as a finalist for an Inspired IT Award.

The BT Inspired IT awards are designed to recognise and reward those organisations that have demonstrated business value creation through the use of Information and Communications Technology. Last year Dixons partnered with eircom and SpeechStorm to implement a speech solution to streamline and improve customer service. The solution has helped Dixons handle over 15,000 calls into their stores each week and has ensured that customer queries are dealt with effectively, using the power of speech.

"Meeting customer demands and providing a high level of customer service is hugely important to Dixons. The speech solution designed by eircom and powered by SpeechStorm intelligently manages all customer calls to Dixons stores in Ireland and has allowed us to increase customer service levels by correctly directing all post sales calls to our specialist service teams. This helps to free up store based sales staff, enabling them to focus on assisting customers, achieving a double whammy in customer service," said Paul May, Service Manager, DSG Ireland.

Commenting on the news, Mike Mansfield, eircom said: "This nomination represents a huge endorsement for eircom and SpeechStorm. The solution brought to Dixons by eircom is one that maximises the strength and reliability of eircom's Intelligent Network and the innovation of SpeechStorm's application. The solution has not only taken the call load away from the Dixon's shop-floors, it has also enhanced the customer experience by routing every call to the right place, first time. A real win-win!"

"I'm delighted that our highly innovative and flexible speech implementation for the Dixons Group has been selected for this prestigious award," said Oliver Lennon, CEO SpeechStorm. "The beauty of the Dixons speech solution is that they have complete control over the management and configuration of the system using SpeechStorm's unique web based interface, assistDashboard. I've no doubt the solution will be a complete hit with the final judging panel at the Inspired IT Awards."

About SpeechStorm

SpeechStorm is a trading division of Kainos and is the largest provider of hosted and on-premise business enabled speech solutions in Ireland. Our assistOnDemand solution is leading the way in assisting organisations with high quality consistent customer service, by simplifying the use of speech recognition technology. Our solutions help organisations to realise real business benefits, reduce costs and achieve a fast return on investment. Some of SpeechStorm's customers include eircom, Dixons, Northern Ireland Electricity, and the Department of Finance and Personnel. For more information, visit www.speechstorm.com .

About eircom eircom is the leading provider of telecommunications services in Ireland. The company has over 1.2 million customers and provides a comprehensive range of advanced voice, data and internet services to the residential, business and enterprise markets. eircom also owns Meteor Mobile, Ireland's third largest mobile phone company. The company which was formerly listed on the Dublin and London stock exchanges, was purchased by Australian firm Babcock & Brown Capital Ltd (ASX:BCM) together with the eircom Employee Share Ownership Trust (ESOT) in August 2006. With over 7,000 employees eircom is one of Ireland's largest employers. For more information, see www.eircom.ie .

About Dixons Dixons Stores Group trades under the brands, PC World, Dixons and Curry's, and is the largest electrical retailer in Ireland. It is part of Dixons Stores Group International (DSGI) plc, a multi-brand business to business, and business to consumer organisation. With 1, 450 branches and online stores, spanning 27 countries and employing 40,000 staff, DSGI serves more than 100 million customers in stores and online every year. For more information on Dixons, visit www.dixons.ie .

CONTACT: Christine RocheTel: +353 1 636 9000e-mail: croche@speechstorm.com

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