Patented Technology Lowers Infrastructure Cost, Provides Major Memory Savings and Superior Application Performance

PEABODY, Mass., June 8, 2004-ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), the global leader of speech and imaging solutions, today announced the availability of OpenSpeech™ DialogModules 2.0 software, ScanSoft's patented application building blocks used to accelerate application development and deployment using a consistent user interface to ensure the highest levels of caller success in speech service transactions. The latest release includes significant application development enhancements that result in lower infrastructure cost, major memory savings and superior application performance.

The SpeechWorks Division of ScanSoft pioneered and patented DialogModules in 1996, and since that time, SpeechWorks and its partners have deployed more than 750 speech application using DialogModule technology. OpenSpeech DialogModules have been adopted by industry-leading, standards-based platform providers and tool vendors to accelerate application development of custom speech applications as well as support SpeechPAKs™, SpeechWorks industry specific packaged speech applications.

"VoiceGenie is pleased to offer a flexible and high performance VoiceXML platform that is optimized for ScanSoft OpenSpeech DialogModules 2.0 execution," said Rob Marchand, senior director of product management at VoiceGenie Technologies. "ScanSoft's OpenSpeech DialogModules are powerful and well-designed building blocks that dramatically speed application time to market for our customers, further enhancing the benefits of our NeXusPoint framework."

Latest Enhancements

The first standards-based VoiceXML building blocks available on the market, OpenSpeech DialogModules free software developers from programming frequently occurring speech recognition tasks in new speech applications. When used in conjunction with OpenSpeech™ Recognizer 3.0, OpenSpeech DialogModules provide leading recognition accuracy, efficiency, and caller satisfaction on the industry's broadest selection of telephony platforms.

Included among the OpenSpeech DialogModules are capabilities for collecting dates, time, yes/no responses and addresses. For example, rather than writing code to collect a correct spelling for a name, developers can use the Name OpenSpeech DialogModules to accelerate application development while providing a consistent user interface for the caller. The latest release includes a number of powerful application development enhancements including:

• Latest Standards Support: OpenSpeech DialogModules are components that generate VoiceXML and provide an application building block for simplifying the development of VoiceXML applications. The latest release supports multiple drafts of the VoiceXML 2.0 specification including the latest candidate recommendation from February 2003.
  
  
• Lower Cost of Ownership: OpenSpeech DialogModules provide improved caching performance resulting in greater CPU savings and faster response time for callers. For example, OpenSpeech DialogModules 2.0 can now support more than 400 cacheable channels, a four fold increase in performance relative to OpenSpeech DialogModules 1.2. As a result, speech solutions that employ OpenSpeech DialogModules 2.0 software can lower web application server infrastructure costs by 75 percent.
  
  
• Improved Application Management: OpenSpeech DialogModules 2.0 improve application management and tuning by providing for server side logging of information. Application developers can quickly and easily access call logs making it easier to deploy or optimize their speech applications.
  
  
• Supports Development of Complex Prompts: OpenSpeech DialogModules 2.0 provide greater flexibility for user interface designers enabling them to dynamically change parallel grammars, properties and behaviors. For example, designers can employ text-to-speech software to spell back information using the Name and Address OpenSpeech DialogModules, incorporating the same voice used for the pre-recorded prompts, to create a seamless caller experience.
  
  
• Wide Application Server Support: OpenSpeech DialogModules 2.0 support a wide range of J2EE application servers supporting the J2EE Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2 specification independent of the operating system.
  
  
• OpenSpeech Xccelerator Testing Suite: OpenSpeech DialogModules 2.0 includes a testing package for platform partners. OpenSpeech Xccelerator includes code, grammars, audio prompts, documentation, analysis tools and metrics so that platform partners can quickly qualify and integrate OpenSpeech DialogModules on their platform.

"Our professional services group relies on our patented OpenSpeech DialogModule technology for every customer engagement," said Steve Chambers, president of SpeechWorks, a division of ScanSoft. "OpenSpeech DialogModules provide a consistent user interface design that has yielded superior application results in more than 750 speech deployments. This latest release improves upon these field-proven components, enabling application developers to create more sophisticated speech applications while simultaneously providing efficiencies, cost savings and caller success."

About the SpeechWorks Division of ScanSoft

SpeechWorks® is the most trusted name in speech. Through its global partner network, SpeechWorks delivers field-proven applications that revolutionize the way people interact. Today, thousands of companies and millions of users around the world depend on SpeechWorks solutions from ScanSoft to deliver vital business information and simplify every day life. For information, please visit www.scansoft.com/speech.

About ScanSoft, Inc.

ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) is the global leader of speech and imaging solutions that are used to automate a wide range of manual processes - saving time, increasing worker productivity and improving customer service. For more information regarding ScanSoft products and technologies, please visit www.ScanSoft.com.

ScanSoft, OpenSpeech, SpeechWorks, SpeechPAK, and the ScanSoft logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All other company or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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