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To: hcirteg who wrote (6765)	7/27/1999 10:45:00 AM
From: Straight Up	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10081

Tuesday July 27, 10:03 am Eastern Time Company Press Release Mitel to Build Advanced Speech Recognition Products With Nuance: Companies Will Bring the Industry's Most Intuitive Voice Capabilities to Enterprise Communications KANATA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 1999--Mitel Corporation (NYSE:MLT - news; TSE:MLT - news; ME:MLT - news; LSE:MLT.L) and Nuance today announced that a memorandum of understanding has been signed to develop a series of natural language speech recognition applications and incorporate them into Mitel's leading communications systems, messaging and call center product platforms. Mitel anticipates its first voice-driven products will be available during the first quarter of 2000. According to Dr. William Meisel, a speech recognition expert and president of TMA Associates in Tarzana, CA, ''The Mitel-Nuance agreement recognizes that speech recognition makes possible a wide range of productivity applications on telephony platforms. Adding speech recognition to a PBX, for example, helps companies and their customers connect, changing the image of the PBX from a costly commodity to a money-making asset.'' Mitel will develop speech recognition solutions based on Nuance software for the enterprise voice, messaging and call center markets. The first result of these efforts will be an advanced auto attendant for Mitel's SX-2000 platform. The product will be announced in September and available in Q1 2000. Other products are expected to include voice-enabled messaging, voice-enabled telephony feature access and V-Commerce(tm), or voice-driven e-commerce, systems. In addition, one of the Nuance and Mitel development projects will focus on voice over IP speech recognition applications leveraging both companies' IP strategies. This is a natural extension of recent announcements that will allow the vendors to take a leadership position in addressing the opportunities for speech recognition technology in enterprise communications. ''Mitel sees the convergence of voice over IP, the web and speech recognition as a fundamental paradigm shift for the new millennium,'' said Paul Butcher, Senior Vice President, Mitel Communications Systems. ''Mitel has developed the industry's most advanced PBX and server-based communications platforms. Nuance's expertise in voice user interfaces, their highly accurate speech recognition and verification software, and their support for major spoken languages, will enable Mitel to bring new levels of productivity and ease-of-use to our global customers.'' ''An advanced product family, extensive VAR network and large installed base makes Mitel an important partner for Nuance,'' said Ronald Croen, Nuance president and CEO. ''Together, we'll raise the bar for the enterprise communications market and deliver a host of new products that will change the way business is conducted via the phone.'' This is a best-in-class pairing in the communications industry that combines Mitel's core voice platforms with Nuance's advanced speech recognition and speaker verification technology. For over 25 years, Mitel has demonstrated its leadership in providing easy to use, full featured telephony product. Nuance complements that with unparalleled rapid development tools and SpeechObjects(tm), reusable speech components, that will help quickly bring new products to market. About Nuance Nuance provides enterprise-level speech recognition and speaker verification software to automate V-Commerce and telecommunications transactions. Users interact with deployed Nuance systems over one million times per day using everyday conversational language. Nuance's products support a variety of languages including U.S. English, U.K. English, Australian English, Brazilian Portuguese, Canadian French, German, Japanese and Latin American Spanish. Nuance was named one of Upside's Hot 100 Private Companies and Red Herring's Top 50 Privately Held Companies. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California and maintains offices in Germany and the United Kingdom. About Mitel Headquartered near the capital city of Ottawa in Canada, Mitel (NYSE: MLT - news; TSE: MLT - news) is a global designer, manufacturer and marketer of networked systems and specialty semiconductors for the communications industry. Mitel Communications Systems provides enterprises with voice and data communications systems; complete private networks including remote teleworking solutions; unified messaging and call-center applications; CTI systems and applications; and it supplies competitive carriers with public network access products. Mitel Semiconductor specializes in connectivity solutions for the communications and medical industries with a product range which includes components for both wired and wireless networks; microelectronics for enabling the convergence of voice and data; optoelectronic devices for high-speed Internet systems; and applications-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for medical applications such as pacemakers and hearing aids. Note to editors: M Mitel (design) and Mitel are registered trademarks of Mitel Corporation. All other names and products referenced herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. For more information on Mitel Corporation, visit our web site at mitel.com