Loquendo - the global speech technology company, and its partner MET SA, French company part of the Business & Decision group, announced the launch of the CRM voice application for Marionnaud, the European chain of perfumeries, headquartered in France.

The freshly launched Marionnaud voice portal, realized by MET SA, is based on Loquendo advanced voice technologies: Speech platform and VoiceXML Interpreter, Loquendo ASR and Loquendo TTS. The voice portal aims to facilitate the communication of Marionnaud perfumeries with their customers, adding a new channel of communication to the already existing web interface. The customer has the possibility to handle his Fidelity Card, to have information about the Marionnaud stores and offers, and to be connected to the stores. This CRM voice portal enables completely automated Direct Marketing and Promotional Marketing campaigns. As a first step the service is launched in France, using Loquendo’s French technologies, and soon will be deployed in several European languages.

Loquendo and MET SA have established a partnership in October 2003, whereby Loquendo speech technologies and VoiceXML platform are used by MET for a broad range of voice applications and products to be offered to French customers. Other applications developed by MET using Loquendo technologies are:
ALIZE, a virtual switchboard application with voice recognition of names, departments and services; calls transfer rules are self defined and updated on line by the customers or users. This solution targets home, small business, and remote sites in large accounts. It provides 24/7 assistance.
MET AUDIOTOOL, an automatic audio-portal generator to supply information and calls transfer via a Web interface, which targets consumer services, work councils, club members etc.
MET HELPDESK, an application to handle call transfers and voicemails to remote locations or shops outside working hours, according to pre-established trigger rules like Zip codes or city names.

Loquendo technologies will provide MET and Marionnaud with an extremely broad market reach. Loquendo technologies are currently available in French, U.K. and U.S. English, Italian, Castilian Spanish, German, Brazilian, Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Greek, Mexican, Chilean, Argentinean, Swedish, Catalan.

About Loquendo - Vocal Technology and Services
With over 30 years R&D expertise, Loquendo is at the forefront of the global speech technologies market. Its high-quality, high-performance technologies (Loquendo TTS text to speech engine, Loquendo Embedded TTS text to speech engine, Loquendo ASR automatic speech recognition) and platforms guarantee the best solutions in 15 languages and 33 voices - with more coming soon.
From its headquarters in Turin, Italy, Loquendo deploys technologies that power over 2,000,000 calls every day in the telecommunications and enterprise markets throughout the world.

For more information, visit www.loquendo.com.

About MET SA
Mail Engineering & Technology SA (MET SA) is the company within the Business&Decision group, which provides advanced voice applications and services to the French market. From its headquarters in Paris (France), MET SA develops and hosts highly performing solutions for prestigious French customers as A Vendre A Louer, Vivacances-Amadeus, Naf Naf, Piaggio etc. to handle their geolocalisation, itinerary assistance, travel booking, virtual switchboard, advert consultation or loyalty programs.

In parallel to the development of customized services, MET is offering application in ASP mode, allowing quick service availability with no change in system architectures involved.