NEW YORK, SPEECHTEK 2004, Sept. 14, 2004 — The VoiceXML Forum today announced the availability of the VoiceXML Platform Certification Program. The Program consists of a series of tests to determine whether a VoiceXML platform is fully compliant with the latest release of the VoiceXML standard. Companies wishing to have their platforms tested may register on the Forum’s Web site at www.voicexml.org, or contact the VoiceXML Forum at voicexml-admin@voicexml.org. VoiceXML-certified platforms will be listed on the Forum’s Web site.

The general availability of this program follows the completion of a successful pilot program conducted with CT Labs, an independent certification laboratory contracted by the Forum, and member companies Nuance (www.nuance.com), VoiceGenie Technologies, Inc. (www.voicegenie.com) and Voxpilot Ltd. (www.voxpilot.com).

As in the pilot, the certification testing will be conducted by independent testing organizations chosen by the Forum. The VoiceXML Platform Certification Program test suite includes over more than 600 tests that cover the W3C VoiceXML 2.0 Recommendation and is based on the W3C’s VoiceXML 2.0 Implementation Report. To aid vendors in preparing for certification, the Conformance Test Suite to be used in the VoiceXML Platform Certification Program is available, at no charge, for public download from the Forum’s Web site at www.voicexml.org. Forum Sponsor and Promoter members also can download a Web-based test harness to aid in running the tests.

The VoiceXML Forum Conformance Committee manages the Platform Certification Program with support from the IEEE-ISTO (www.ieee-isto.org) and NCC Group (www.nccglobal.com). The Conformance Committee is currently at work on a program to test VoiceXML applications and tools for conformance to the standard. For more information about the VoiceXML Forum or the Platform Certification Program, please visit the Forum’s Web site at www.voicexml.org.

About the VoiceXML Forum

The VoiceXML Forum is an industry organization formed to create and promote the Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML). With the backing and contributions of its diverse membership, including key industry leaders, since its inception, the VoiceXML Forum has successfully driven market acceptance of VoiceXML through a wide array of speech-enabled applications. Currently, the Forum has more than 325 member companies, distributed across three membership categories (Sponsor, Promoter and Supporter). Membership in the Forum is open to any interested company.

The core activities of the VoiceXML Forum are driven by its five active committees: Accessibility, Conformance, Education, Marketing and Tools. The Forum publishes the VoiceXML Review, an electronic magazine dedicated to VoiceXML, featuring insightful articles written by industry experts. Its public website (www.voicexml.org) is a rich, one-stop source for information about VoiceXML and related technologies. The VoiceXML Forum is organized as a program of the IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization (IEEE-ISTO).

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