Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG), a global leader in relationship management, has announced the availability of a platform-independent On-Demand Voice Authentication solution. Convergys clients and non-Convergys clients can easily implement this solution by enrolling the voice signatures of their customers and employees. Upon enrollment, companies can authenticate agent-assisted and consumer transactions more securely than with a traditional ID + PIN authentication.

Included in this solution is voice biometric security from the Voice Signature Service [SM] provided through Convergys’ partnership with TradeHarbor [R], Inc., a leading provider of voice authentication Web services. Unlike other on-demand voice authentication products, Convergys has a Voice Authentication Deployment Framework that includes an operations and administrator interface to provide a total enterprise solution for managing deployments, adjusting security thresholds and generating reports. In addition, any company can easily access Convergys On-Demand Voice Authentication via an API or Web services from an existing IVR/Voice Portal platform. The Web services interface delivers voice authentication in conjunction with web and mobile device applications.

A Convergys client currently using this on-demand solution has acknowledged the rapid implementation and how well the production calls are going. Other Convergys clients state that with many of their customers using a variety of media channels – phone, web, and mobile devices – to perform transactions, fraud continues to be a concern. Customers that like the convenience of working with multiple media channels have reacted positively to the additional security provided by voice authentication. A person’s voice signature is as unique as a fingerprint and can be used in legally binding documents and contracts if allowed by applicable law.

“Government regulations requiring strong multi-factor authentication coupled with the growth of identity fraud are driving market awareness and the need for enhanced security, making features like voice authentication critical to companies and individuals that are increasingly concerned about protecting their self-service and agent-assisted interactions,” said Nancy Jamison, president and principal analyst, Jamison Consulting. “With this offering, Convergys is building on its legacy of offering on-demand hosted services expertise by using the latest security technology – voice biometrics – to provide a scalable, reliable solution not just for its own clients but for any company seeking to maximize their fraud prevention capabilities for their customers.”

With this solution, Convergys is offering no-capital expense deployment. Furthermore, Convergys’ on-demand business model has the potential to reduce deployment time to less than a month and the pay-as-you-go model can result in rapid return-on-investment. This solution can also be complemented by the Convergys Dynamic Decisioning Solution to further enrich the business rules governing authentication, enabling enterprises to establish dynamic and context-sensitive policies to determine the level of authentication required for specific transactions.

“Today voice authentication is a competitive differentiator because it is new. However, with the increase in online transaction activity and increase in mobile device use, voice authentication will quickly go from being a nice-to-have to being a must-have for companies that want to retain their customers,” said Bill Livingston, vice president of services architecture and deployment, TradeHarbor. “We greatly value our partnership with Convergys. No other company has breadth of implementation capabilities or as much demonstrated expertise in enabling customer service security and convenience as Convergys.”

The Convergys Voice Authentication Practice is leading the industry in developing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Solutions that respond to the identity protection needs of companies that provide financial services to their customers. This well-established practice helps companies achieve Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) compliance more quickly and with less risk. Existing voice solutions can meet FFIEC requirements for MFA by adding voice authentication using speaker verification technology, a process that verifies the caller’s voice model against one that is on file.

“In these economic times, our clients have been asking us for increased authentication security for their customer self-service – for both speech and touchtone applications as well as agent-assisted transactions, but without the traditional capital expenditure hurdle,” said Paul Watson, general manager of on-demand solutions, Convergys. “Our partnership with TradeHarbor has enabled us take customer service security and convenience to a new level keeping cost efficiencies in mind.”

Availability
Convergys On-demand Voice Authentication is available immediately through Convergys’ direct sales force and select channel partners.

About Convergys
Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG) is a global leader in relationship management. We provide solutions that drive more value from the relationships our clients have with their customers and employees. Convergys turns these everyday interactions into a source of profit and strategic advantage for our clients.

For more than 30 years, our unique combination of domain expertise, operational excellence, and innovative technologies has delivered process improvement and actionable business insight to clients that now span more than 70 countries and 35 languages.

Convergys is a member of the S&P 500 and has been voted a Fortune Most Admired Company for nine consecutive years. We have approximately 75,000 employees in 84 customer contact centers and other facilities in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and our global headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. For more information, visit www.convergys.com

(Convergys and the Convergys logo are registered trademarks of Convergys Corporation. Other marks are the property of their respective owners.)