CyberOne-Award: EXCELSIS wins the high-tech competition

Stuttgart, 19.5.2006 – EXCELSIS Business Technology AG won first prize in the 8th CyberOne Awards on 18 May, held in the state bank of Stuttgart. The president of CyberOne, Prof. Hans-Jörg Bullinger, together with bwcon chairman, Klaus-Dieter Laidig, presented the Stuttgart software company with the award in front of 600 guests. The business plan competition awards prizes to innovative and successful solutions and business ideas in the field of high-tech as well as information and communication technologies.

With this, the top-class, 18-strong jury from the fields of business and research honoured the voice application software developed by EXCELSIS. Since its foundation in 1998, EXCELSIS has been profitable and self-financing, expanding to more than 100 employees in the last eight years.

Call center solutions developed on the EXCELSIS Speech Framework platform are now being used very successfully by more than 50 major companies from all sectors. "For us and our clients, this award confirms that our speech platform will play a decisive role in the automation of language applications in the most diverse of sectors," Christian Sauter, chairman and founder of EXCELSIS Business Technology AG, stated.

Forty-two young entrepreneurs and founders of new businesses submitted their contributions for the bwcon:award, worth in total EUR 35,000. EXCELSIS was particularly impressive in the categories of  "Successful Company Development", "Management Team" and "Market Performance". "Our numerous projects with major companies, such as Deutsche Telekom AG and Vattenfall, back this assessment," Christian Sauter stressed. MWI Micro Wave Ignition GmbH and mbm Mikrobrennermodule took second and third place. The special prize of the state of Baden-Württemberg for the most innovative foundation concept went to Aquatune GmbH.

Application software for speech systems

EXCELSIS Speech Framework is a software platform for use in the most diverse of speech technologies, including speech recognition, speaker recognition and converting text into speech. It helps to automate call center processes. The city council of Augsburg, for example, uses it to improve its service for its citizens: when calling its citizens line, callers can get information such as opening hours, registration and de-registration, car licences and much more by conducting a simple conversation in natural language with the EXCELSIS voice portal. The city of Augsburg thus released some of its staff members from the burden of dealing with standard enquiries and offers its citizens a more comprehensive service.

About CyberOne Business Plan Competition

CyberOne's business plan competition awards prizes to solutions and business ideas in the high-tech as well as information and communication technology sectors and has, in the meantime, become one of the most important contact points for not only young entrepreneurs but also venture capitalists. The winners of CyberOne can look forward to money prizes and – even more importantly – to one year of advice from an experienced manager. In addition, the competition has developed into an exchange for all participants, one in which they can link up with financiers and business contacts. This is where innovative ideas can often meet up with the necessary capital. With consultancy services and more than EUR 130 million in liquid funds – mainly venture capital – the competition has been an important impetus for ideas since 1998, turning Baden-Württemberg into a location for innovation.

www.cyberone.de

About Baden-Württemberg: Connected  

Baden-Württemberg: Connected [bwcon] e.V. is one of the most successful technology networks in Europe and the leading business initiative for technology and innovation in Baden-Württemberg. bwcon unites more than 400 highly committed industrial and service companies, universities, colleges and research facilities. The circle of members links up about 3,700 employees with each other. Baden-Württemberg: Connected wants to promote strategic technologies and applications to improve Baden-Württemberg's standing as a place to do business and live.

www.bwcon.de

About EXCELSIS

Across the globe, EXCELSIS is one of the leading suppliers of standard application software for speech systems. By using this software, companies from all sorts of sectors can automate their call centers. Furthermore, EXCELSIS offers software especially for the sectors of banking, digital TV, transport, suppliers, and trade as well as intersectoral software for information systems, customer management and helpdesk automation.

Companies from all sectors use EXCELSIS's software, thus lowering their costs and improving their service. 9Live, the town of Augsburg, Cablecom, Deutsche Telekom, EnBW, Jamba!, Medion, Orange, Swisscom, UBS and Vattenfall, to name but a few examples, are all customers.

EXCELSIS has partnerships with globally important technology suppliers such as Alcatel/Genesys, Aspect, Avaya, IBM, Microsoft, Nuance, Intervoice and Telisma and employs over 100 staff in Berlin, Berne, Luxembourg, Singapore, Stuttgart, Sydney and Zurich.

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