New Contract Win

Eckoh Technologies PLC
07 July 2005


For immediate release                                               7 July 2005





                               Eckoh Technologies



                Eckoh wins 2-year exclusive Speech Contract with

                            Ideal Shopping Direct



  • 2-year exclusive contract to supply Ideal Shopping Direct with speech
    recognition based data collection solutions
  • Eckoh to take over all Ideal Shopping Direct's inbound telephony
    requirements



Eckoh Technologies ("Eckoh"), one of Europe's leading speech application service
providers, today announced an exclusive 2 year contract to supply Ideal Shopping
Direct ("Ideal Shopping"), the UK's leading independent home shopping TV
channel, with speech recognition based data capture solutions.



Ideal Shopping required a speech application provider that had the necessary
hosting capacity and was robust enough to manage many thousands of orders while
simultaneously processing these using speech recognition. Eckoh's large call
processing platform, with over 6,500 lines of speech recognition capacity,
combined with their track record of operating high volume speech applications,
made Eckoh the natural choice.



The highly advanced speech recognition service to be designed and hosted by
Eckoh, will be an end-to-end solution which will allow a caller to place an
order, pay for a product and participate in a bespoke customer questionnaire
relating to the product they are purchasing, without needing to speak to a live
agent at any point. The service is expected to launch in the Autumn as part of a
major new live show.



In addition to the agreement which commenced in late May, Eckoh will also
control the management of all inbound call traffic on behalf of Ideal Shopping
with call volumes expected to be around 15 million minutes per annum.
Furthermore, Eckoh will also supply Ideal Shopping with ad hoc IVR and SMS
competition line services.



Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer for Eckoh, said: "Ideal Shopping has grown
enormously in recent times consistently showing an innovative approach to their
target audience and we are excited to partner with them on this new ground
breaking project. This speech recognition solution will clearly demonstrate that
our speech platform is not only capable of performing extremely complex tasks
but can do so under the pressure of live television, catering for thousands of
simultaneous users."



Andrew Fryatt, Chief Operating Officer for Ideal Shopping Direct, commented: "
Once it became apparent that it would be both impractical and hugely costly for
Ideal Shopping to fulfil this project without call automation, we started
looking for a suitable long term partner in this area. We were hugely impressed
by Eckoh's credentials having proved that they can successfully deliver a
variety of speech solutions in many market sectors and having a depth of
experience in managing live television formats.  We look forward to launching
our new show in conjunction with Eckoh and seeing the benefits first hand of
what speech can deliver".



For further information on Eckoh Technologies, please contact:
Martin Turner, Chief Executive Officer               Tel: [phone]

Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer


Buchanan Communications                              Tel: [phone]

Mark Edwards/Jeremy Garcia



For further information on Ideal Shopping Direct plc, please contact:
Reputation Inc                                       Tel:  [phone]

Tom Wyatt










Notes to Editors



About Eckoh Technologies:

Eckoh Technologies plc designs, builds, hosts and manages Speech Solutions for
large corporations and organisations using ASR (Advanced Speech Recognition) and
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technologies. It is a leading UK service
provider and infrastructure owner/operator, and intends to exploit the
anticipated growth in demand for Speech Solutions across Europe.



Eckoh has a speech alliance with BT to provide hosted speech recognition
solutions to their corporate client base. BT and Eckoh have previously announced
significant contracts with UGC Cinemas, TD Waterhouse and the Association of
Train Operating Companies (ATOC) and now have live services with over 17 clients
including Lloyds TSB, Three Valleys Water, Abbey at Work, Communisis and BSkyB.



In addition to those above, Eckoh has direct contracts to supply hosted Speech
Solutions to clients including Vue Cinemas, William Hill, 02, Virgin Mobile and
The London Stock Exchange.



Eckoh has a call processing platform of 10,000 lines (capable of handling over
500,000 calls an hour) of which over 6,500 lines incorporate speech recognition
technology making it the largest speech enabled call processing platform in
Europe.



Eckoh also operates the following businesses:



•          IVR - Eckoh is one of the largest providers of managed IVR and SMS
services in the UK to media clients including ITV, BBC, Trinity Mirror, Channel
4, Endemol, IPC and EMAP.



•          Network Services - under the "Symphony" and "Anglia" brands, Eckoh
supplies fixed line and mobile telephony services, broadband and data services
to SMEs in the UK and Ireland. Following the acquisition of Anglia Telecom
Centres Limited in April 2005,  Network Services now has an SME customer base of
over 15,000.



•          Freecom.net - selling a full range of complementary internet products
and data services, including web-site design, e-commerce solutions, e-mail
services, connectivity (dial-up and broadband), search engine submission and
directory services, and hosting to SMEs.





In the year to 31 March 2005 Eckoh Technologies plc generated a turnover of
£79.7 million and had a cash balance of £13.3m. Further information can be found
at www.eckoh.com.



About Ideal Shopping Direct plc:

Ideal Shopping Direct plc is Britain's leading independent home shopping TV
business, with its Ideal World channel broadcasting 24 hours including 16 hours
of live programmes daily on Sky digital satellite channel 634, digital cable NTL
channel 855 and, since April 2004, on Freeview channel 22.

Ideal World can currently be accessed by an estimated household population of
approximately 14 million households. In addition, the company operates two niche
channels, Create and Craft on Sky digital satellite channel 664, a dedicated 24
hour channel specialising in craft products, and Ideal Vitality on Sky digital
channel 661 focussing on health and beauty products. Both these channels have
interactive transactional websites, offering a wide range of complementary
items.

Ideal Shopping Direct serves the "direct to home" market via TV home shopping, a
market which is estimated to be worth over £800 million per annum. With 2004
sales of £60 million, Ideal has a current market share of approximately 7.5% but
expects to continue to grow at a faster rate than the market. It will shortly
launch a new channel under the "Jewellery Vault" label, offering jewellery and
accessories in a bidding format.

Ideal Shopping Direct plc has been listed on AIM since February 2000. Its market
capitalisation is currently approximately £80 million. 35% of the shares are
held by the founder directors, Paul Wright and Val Kaye, with the rest owned by
a variety of institutional and private investors.




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