Speechmatics told me in an interview, it recently extended its partnership with interaction recording and quality monitoring company Liquid Voice. The enhanced partnership is set to create a new insight and analytics tool that protects vulnerable customers and those at risk of GDPR data breaches.
“The business intelligence tool will analyze and derive rich insights from data that are otherwise potentially harmful to organizations,” Jeff Palmer, VP at Speechmatics shared with UC Today.
The FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), a UK regulatory body, freshly expressed concerns over the challenges posed by data protection legislation when it comes to recording and sharing data on vulnerable customers. The organization shared a set of guidelines to protect them, one of which involves companies having a continuous view of whether the fair treatment of vulnerable customers is embedded in company culture, as well as how its actions impact them.
Speechmatics & Liquid Voice Deepen Ties for GDPR Compliance
Not only will Speechmatics’ any-context speech recognition engine enable Liquid Voice to convert call recordings into accurate transcripts in noisy environments and across all file formats. It will provide a complete, searchable archive for use in a range of scenarios including dispute resolution, quality management, and event reconstruction, all of which carry deep GRPR implications.
And such a capability should more than come in handy in the post-Brexit UK. Following Brexit, an updated version of GRPR specific to the UK will take effect, along with another amendment of the Data Protection Act 2018. Until then, the EU GDPR will apply throughout the transition period.
With new regulations expected in 2020, Simon Broadbent, CCO at Liquid Voice, said, now, more than ever, it is important for contact center operators to have access to vast databases of customer interactions. “This is to protect themselves from growing fines.” He cited a recent report that found European regulators have issued $126 million in fines under GDPR since the new privacy rules were made law.
Taking on New Markets
All this follows the announcement that Speechmatics will open a new Denver office. The UK-based speech recognition company previously expanded into India, the Czech Republic, and said it has future plans to take its software to more parts of the globe.
The ASR company reported last year, it doubled its revenue as well as its workforce. In a statement, Speechmatics CEO John Milliken, noted: “The speech recognition market is set to be worth $21.5 billion by 2024 and Speechmatics is ideally positioned to compete for a large slice of this exciting industry.”
According to the company, U.S., sales make up 43 percent of its total annual revenue. Speechmatics’ Denver office is where its employees will focus on developing into broadcast media, government, defense, and intelligence, all new verticals for the automatic speech recognition provider.
Are investors excited about Speechmatics? I think the answer to this is obvious, yes. Back in November, the company announced it had raised £6.35 million to fund its expansion, and leadership at Speechmatics is doing a great job being transparent with investor funds and putting them to good use.
