May 22, 2001 — Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA — Information Services Extended (ISx) announced today ISx4, the new version of its directory assistance platform. The powerful search engine and database that underlie the ISx4 platform have been expanded with speech recognition and Internet access for cost-cutting direct access to telephone listing data. Enhanced workstation and database management capabilities of ISx4 enable directory assistance agents to provide expanded information services efficiently.

“Deregulation and new business structures are transforming directory services operations to focus on generating revenue and expanding customer service,” says Ed Downs, chief executive officer, ISx. “The ISx4 platform serves the primary need of telephone service providers and call centers to perform very fast searches and efficient service to callers, and now has been enhanced for new, revenue-generating directory assistance services. Whether it be a 100-operator call center or a multi-center operation with over 3,000 workstations, ISx4 offers an information retrieval system with excellent, proven price performance.”

The new ISx4 capabilities are ready for implementation, already tested in pilot programs with leaders in directory assistance, like the Ameritech division of SBC, LSSi, MCI, Sprint, and Telstra.

Call Automation Boosts Productivity
The ISx4 platform provides speech recognition access fully integrated with the operator call center platform, for added efficiency, and works with the customer’s preferred speech recognition engine. Call Automation can eliminate any agent time spent handling a call for a frequently requested listing. The system can prompt the caller to confirm that the correct listing was identified; if not, the call is transferred to an operator.

Call Automation simplifies and reduces the work of call center agents even when calls are not completely automated. For example, when an automated search produces multiple listings, then the call is routed to an agent and the search results are delivered to that agent’s workstation screen for further qualification to select the correct listing. Locality automation can recognize caller’s responses to prompts for city or state information, and automatically populate the locality field for faster searching.

Enhanced Directory Assistance Services
At the heart of the improvements in ISx4 is integration with the Internet. The platform’s Enhanced Services Access Feature is a configurable Web browser that provides controlled access to Internet-format content. Internet content enables directory assistance operators to expand into valuable, revenue-generating information services, including transportation schedules, traffic updates, stock quotes, movie listings and weather forecasts. With the Enhanced Services Access Feature, agents can alternate easily and quickly between Internet content and standard directory assistance searches for efficient delivery of new services.

Web Access Cuts Costs
Another Internet capability of ISx4 is its Web Access to Listing Information component for creating customized Web interfaces for directory assistance searches. Web access can provide a premium Extranet service for large corporate customers or a self-service alternative for general telephone subscribers. Using the software’s search options, public services can prevent high-volume misuse with limits on search types and the number of listings returned. XML-based, Web Access to Listing Information adapts to wireless Internet devices for searching and delivering listings results.

Besides standard directory assistance searches, Web Access to Listing Information supports other types of searches, such as searching for businesses by category and ‘reverse search’ -- searching on a telephone number to find the listed name and address. With Web access to reverse search, telephone subscribers can use the Internet to check specific long-distance numbers on bills.

Expanded Business Category Searches
ISx4 has expanded its database and operator search tools to handle business category and keyword searches of up to 30,000 categories.

“Searches by business category help travelers locate types of businesses, such as restaurants or taxicabs,” Mr. Downs explains. “These services are particularly popular with mobile callers who don’t have as many reference sources at hand. And directory assistance providers are expanding services for wireless subscribers, since these callers pay for directory assistance services.”

With ISx Business Category tools, agents speed through searches using quick selection from the category list, adding keywords to refine the request -- for example, searching for a restaurant featuring a specific cuisine or an auto repair shop that offers towing.

New Delivery Features Offer Added Convenience
The new ISx4 platform enables information delivery directly to any handset or receiving device. For example, requested listings can be delivered to Short Message Service handsets automatically or with a single operator keystroke. Wireless subscribers can generate directory queries to the ISx database, either through the Wireless Access Protocol feature or other wireless data protocols integrated with the ISx Web interface.

Centralized Directory Management Facility
The Centralized Directory Management Facility provides the flexibility of a relational database with the accessibility of a simple browser interface for advanced data management.

“The expanding number of data sources from other telecoms, wireless and wired outputs along with different types of data from pagers, faxes, email addresses and URLs is making the job of managing listing data much harder,” Mr. Downs commented. “Our Centralized Directory Management Facility offers robust tools for standardizing this more complex data, and formatting for expanded uses, such as direct marketing lists and databases for Internet directories.”

With Centralized Directory Management Facility, telecom organizations can provide different access levels to the listing database for specific users or departments, like customer service or billing. With efficient way to expand and update subscriber data, telecoms can increase productivity and improve customer service.

Additional Capabilities Planned
Additional releases of ISx4 capabilities are planned for later this year, including expanded platform integration for wireless information delivery and workstation support for Active-X applications.

Contact: Anne Farnsworth via Barbara Shoemaker, 954-928-4780