Voice recognition falls silent

Channel confidence in voice recognition has dropped amid accusations that vendors need to provide better offers.

Last week Dave Smith, business development manager of UK vendor The Speech Recognition Company (SRC), quit after only two months. According to sources, he left in frustration at "inability to close deals".

His resignation comes just six months after sales director Simon Clark quit by what the company described as "mutual consent".

Other sales staff who have left the market have complained that vendors in the UK have failed to work out a clear proposition. "Speech recognition should give companies a great return on investment, and it's the most user-friendly system going. But people aren't investing in it," said one sales manager at a distributor.

Another added: "It's a tough market anyway, but these companies don't know how to price things."

The loss of confidence has caused an exodus from the UK voice recognition channel.

Kenton Sanmogan, director of solutions at SRC, denied that the perception problem was the fault of the current generation of vendors. "I've been talking with potential clients like utilities companies, and the biggest stumbling block is that they associate voice recognition with that wretched system that a certain cinema chain uses for telephone booking. That's set us back years."

Last week, two of the leading vendors in the voice verification market - Nuance and Speechworks - saw their stock reach an all-time low. Nuance, whose shares were once valued at $160 on Nasdaq, was last week listed a $3.88 a share. Similarly, Nasdaq-listed Speechworks plummeted in value from $100 a share to $4 last week.