Speech portal for Switzerland: Snow reports by "Snow Phone"

EXCELSIS develops an innovative snow report speech service for Seilbahnen Schweiz [Ropeways Switzerland].

Stuttgart/Bern, 9.3.2005. All information about Swiss winter sport venues are available with immediate effect by calling 0900 11 0900 from Switzerland. The advantages of this new speech service are clear: The user dials a number and has immediate access to current information about the snow conditions in Swiss ski resorts. The service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Snow Phone, available at 0900 110900 [CHF 0.50 per call and CHF 0.50 per minute], offers a multitude of information, like for example, details about individual ski lifts and cable cars, current slope conditions, cross country skiing conditions, and sled routes as well as local weather forecasts. With conventional regional telephone announcements, an expensive daily update must be recorded. The caller must then, in certain circumstances, listen to the entire announcement even though he only requires certain information. With Snow Phone, he can access the desired information directly. The basis of the new service "Snow Phone" is the winter sport report from "Schweiz Tourismus".

Snow Phone was developed by EXCELSIS. The service is an innovation as it is the only speech portal to date which combines the snow reports of all 250 winter sport venues in Switzerland and makes these available via telephone. The solution is based on the speech portal platform from EXCELSIS. The platform adheres to open standards like Voice XML and J2EE and it can easily be extended by further languages. The German and French languages are installed on the current solution. The system also understands different pronunciations. Any number of further functions and announcements can be integrated with ease. EXCELSIS offers the solution both as a rental model by outsourcing as well as a complete turnkey solution.

About Seilbahnen Schweiz

Seilbahnen Schweiz, located in Bern, is a union of companies in the Swiss ropeway sector. It's has over 400 members, including all medium to large ropeway companies from all regions. Seilbahnen Schweiz's purpose is to represent the common interests and concerns of its members and to encourage cooperation. The upshot of this is a wide range of activities, which range from representing members in dealings with authorities right through to public relations work.

www.seilbahnen.org

About EXCELSIS

EXCELSIS is one of the leading solution providers for internet transaction platforms and speech portals. Such solutions are deployed for example, in banks in the brokerage area, in insurance in the area of customer service, in mobile phone companies in the sales area and in high-tech companies in the area of high security communication systems. With the "Insonic Speech Solutions Platform" and "Plasma" software development frameworks, EXCELSIS serves its customers by developing and running innovative solutions to reduce costs and extend services. Computer applications can be developed much more effectively with the framework and the software created requires considerably less maintenance than conventionally developed solutions. In this, the company adheres open standards like J2EE and VoiceXML and develops solutions for the leading platforms of its partners, BEA, IBM, Nuance, Avaya, Aspect, as well as for open source platforms, to name but a few.

Solutions, developed by EXCELSIS are deployed in more than 100 institutions worldwide. Customers of EXCELSIS include SAP, HVB, LBBW, Debitel, GE Capital Bank, TeleCash, UBS, Orange, EnBW, Cablecom and United Overseas Insurance in Singapore. EXCELSIS was founded in 1998. Over 100 software developers and Consultants are currently working on customer projects.

EXCELSIS has offices in Stuttgart, Berlin, Luxembourg, Singapore, Sydney, Bern and Zurich. The turnover in 2004 was approx. 8.5 million euro with an EBIT of almost 1.5 million euro. The company which is privately owned has been profitable since its foundation and is based in Stuttgart.

Contact

EXCELSIS Business Technology AG
Daniela Burger – Head of Marketing
Wilhelmsplatz 8
70182 Stuttgart – Germany

Phone +49 711 6 20 30 113
daniela.burger@excelsisnet.com