Nuance Communications today announced that the company has been recognized by Opus Research as the world’s leading provider of voice biometrics solutions, according to a new report published by the independent analyst firm. The market survey provides a strong validation of Nuance’s voice biometrics solution portfolio, and follows an accelerating number of Nuance deployments with some of the world’s largest and most innovative companies. Nuance Voice Biometrics solutions have over 23 million enrolled voiceprints, more than the rest of the industry combined.

Nuance Voice Biometrics solutions allow customers to verify their identity simply by speaking, making it easier and faster to gain access to secure banking, insurance and travel services via mobile apps, phone and web channels. The Nuance solutions eliminate the need for pin-password or interrogation-based authentication methods, or can be used to add another level of security to those systems. Companies that deploy voice biometrics to automate the login process not only enhance customer satisfaction levels, they dramatically reduce their customer care costs through increased automation rates.

Ideal for a wide range of markets, including financial services, telecommunications, government and others, Nuance powers the world’s five largest voice biometrics deployments, including Turkcell Global Bilgi, the largest voice biometrics deployment in the world.  Nuance VocalPassword™ is used to implement user authentication systems; Nuance FreeSpeech™ is used to identify various speakers by listening to conversational speech; and Nuance FraudMiner™ is used to identify suspected bad actors for fraud prevention applications. Nuance also has solutions for public security, including Nuance Identifier™ and Nuance Monitor™.

“In addition to having 23 million of the total 28 million voiceprints worldwide, Nuance has demonstrated that the company is in the best position to meet the challenges of strong user authentication in the age of mobile, multichannel customer interactions,” said Dan Miller, senior analyst of Opus Research. “The breadth of Nuance’s product line enables them to provide a secure user interface that includes voice biometric authentication, speech recognition, synthesized speech, natural language understanding, artificial intelligence, and mobile user interfaces.”

In its Voice Biometrics Market Outlook and “IntelliView” 2012 report, Opus cited several key differentiators for Nuance, including:

• Its scalability in delivering voice biometrics capabilities in systems with millions of voiceprints and millions of annual verifications;
• Nuance’s accuracy in delivering a 99.6% successful authentication rate while surpassing industry security requirements; and
• The company’s breadth of products for delivering solutions across a number of enterprise channels such as the Web, contact center, and mobile touchpoints; solutions used to enhance public security; and solutions to provide secure access to mobile devices.

“The time for voice biometrics has arrived, due in part to the proliferation of mobile devices and apps, but also in large part because Nuance has developed technology that works – on the device and in the cloud,” said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager of the Nuance Enterprise Division. “Nuance is in a unique position to deliver global solutions that leverage voice prints across applications, and across IVR, phone, web and more. We fully expect to see our solutions incorporated into ATM and kiosk applications, leveraging that same exact infrastructure across all channels.”

Nuance Voice Biometrics Solutions have become the de-facto standard in identifying and authenticating people simply through the sound of their voice – eliminating the need for touch-tone and agent-assisted passwords, PINs and security questions. Nuance Voice Biometrics Solutions enhance security every day at leading organizations, including those in financial services, customer service, healthcare and government sectors.