March 19th, 2009

Redlands, California and Turin, Italy – ESRI, the world leader in GIS (Geographic Information System) software and technology, and Loquendo, leading provider of speech technologies worldwide, announce that ArcLogistics Navigator, ESRI's in-vehicle navigation solution, features Loquendo’s expressive, market leading Text-to-Speech (TTS).

ArcLogistics Navigator helps organizations with vehicle fleets by keeping drivers on route and on time resulting in lower fuel costs, reduced vehicle wear and tear, and improved customer service.

ArcLogistics – built for trucking, fleet, and logistics applications - is a complete desktop solution for creating the most efficient routes and solving scheduling problems, while ArcLogistics Navigator keeps those fleets on schedule by guiding drivers to the optimized stops created in ArcLogistics.

The savings are realized thanks to ArcLogistics ability to consider multiple factors such as customer time windows, vehicle capacity, driver specialties, road closures, as well as the nature of the street network. To ensure drivers follow the roads selected for the route, stops can be sent to in-vehicle devices running ArcLogistics Navigator.

Organizations that implement ArcLogistics typically save 15-20% in fleet-related costs within months of implementation.

ArcLogistics Navigator makes use of Loquendo TTS to read out route directions and help drivers get quickly back on course if they take a wrong turn. Thanks to its unparalleled clarity, Loquendo synthetic speech enables drivers to access this content easily and without having to take their eyes off the road.

Loquendo TTS is expressive, multi award winning Speech Synthesis in 26 languages, able to read out any dynamic texts such as road directions, traffic news, weather, local info, search results - including text written in foreign languages.

“ESRI created an advanced and sophisticated navigation solution which uses TTS, GPS and LBS to give drivers real-time info on every aspect of their drive,” says Luisa Cordano, Sales Manager for Embedded Technologies at Loquendo. “Precision routing results in punctual delivery and means customers are not kept waiting, while lower fuel consumption leads to significant cost savings.”

“ArcLogistics Navigator will help our customers gain further savings by ensuring drivers follow the exact routes and sequences set in ArcLogistics,” says Kerry Somerville, ESRI Product Manager for Navigation. “Having Loquendo TTS on board helps make these savings real by providing clear audible directions that keep eyes on the road and trucks on route.”

ArcLogistics Navigator includes NAVTEQ map data for the United States, Canada and Europe. ArcLogistics Navigator runs on Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Mobile devices (Windows Mobile 5 and 6).

Loquendo is proud to be participating at the 2009 ESRI Worldwide Business Partner Conference (BPC), at the Wyndham Hotel and Palm Springs Convention Center, Palm Springs, California, March 22-24. Loquendo will be present at Booth 224.

About ESRI
The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms.

Visit us at www.esri.com or www.esriitalia.it.

About Loquendo - Vocal Technology and Services
Winner of "Market Leader - Best Speech Engine" at the 2008 and 2007 Speech Industry Awards, Loquendo is the leading innovator in speech recognition and speech synthesis - providing a complete range of technologies for server, embedded and desktop solutions. Currently available in 26 languages with 62 voices, and constantly growing, Loquendo's best-in-breed technologies enhance customer satisfaction and greatly reduce costs.

Loquendo TTS, Loquendo ASR and Loquendo Speaker Identification and Verification are high-quality, high-performance technologies which are also available on the Loquendo MRCP Server and VoiceXML and CCXML platform.

Loquendo Embedded Technologies are innovative and easy to integrate solutions that can be found powering navigation systems and on-board devices, as well as virtual assistants on the websites of leading companies all over the world.

Loquendo is a Telecom Italia company headquartered in Turin, Italy, with offices in the US, Spain, Germany and France, and a worldwide network of partners.

For more information about Loquendo, and to hear demos of all Loquendo voices, go to www.loquendo.com.