Press Releases

SunGard Enhances Voice Authentication Capability of its Omni Retirement Platform,Offering Customers Greater Privacy and Security Measures

September 18, 2008 — Wayne, PA

 SunGard (http//:www.sungard.com) is extending and refining the voice authentication capability in its Omni 401(k) platform, to help enterprises and service providers use voice identity authentication in order to reduce the risk of unauthorized access to personal information. Omni is incorporating IBM’s Web-service-based Speaker Verification (SV) and IBM Websphere Voice Server (WVS) for voice authentication into its Intervoice IVR/voice portal solution, giving its customers the ability to authenticate someone’s identity based on their unique voiceprint. It can also be used as part of a multi-factor authentication strategy, to add a risk assessment aspect to the solution.

SunGard has been using the Intervoice platform for its Omni 401(k) IVR application since 1995. IBM’s speaker verification is web services-based, which allows the Omni IVR application the ability to use the new speaker verification engine. Intervoice, which is now part of Convergys, added IBM’s technology to its portfolio in March, and SunGard integrated the capability into Omni to enhance security and provide two factor authentication for it telephony callers.

Identify theft is a major concern for consumers and financial service providers. Single factor authentication, based solely on something you know, is quickly becoming obsolete. The ability to provide multi-factor authentication, based on something you know and something you are, substantially increases the level of security that service providers can provide.

“The ability to use one's voice for authentication adds an extra layer of protection to sensitive information,” said Craig Hayman, vice president, IBM WebSphere.“ IBM’s solution was easily added to SunGard’s Intervoice application for Omni, largely due to IBM’s Web-service-based solution that supports industry-standard SOA environments through the WebSphere Applications Server.”

Don Mackanos, president of SunGard’s Benefits Administration business, said, “The addition of IBM speech solutions to the Intervoice IVR in SunGard’s Omni retirement platform provides our customers an important opportunity to enhance the way they address privacy and security concerns in offering participant access to retirement plan data.”

About SunGard
With annual revenue of $5 billion, SunGard is a global leader in software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector. SunGard also helps information-dependent enterprises of all types to ensure the continuity of their business. SunGard serves more than 25,000 customers in more than 50 countries, including the world’s 50 largest financial services companies. Visit SunGard at www.sungard.com.

Trademark Information: SunGard, the SunGard logo and Omni are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.