Meridea's self-service front-end solutions enable banking firms to improve their level of customer service and sales capabilities through a variety of web-based and mobile software solutions. LignUp and Meridea will improve the ability of these firms to create a "personal touch" with customers through dynamic VoIP capabilities such as "presence" and "click-to-call".

"Organizations are looking for voice-enabled applications that enhance employee productivity and improve customer satisfaction at the business process level," said Steve Blood, Research Vice President, Gartner, Inc. "Much of the VoIP Revolution to date has been focused on reinventing the traditional telephone network. Businesses need to understand the potential of communications-enabled business applications to shape how organizations communicate and operate."

The companies will further strengthen customer relationships with capabilities such as two-factor authentication (2FA). By requiring two independent ways for banking customers to establish identity and privileges, 2FA reduces the possibility of online identity theft or fraud as a banking customer’s password will not be enough to give thieves access to their information.

"The priority of developing strong customer relationships in the financial services industry requires that firms provide a high level of security and interactive service to their customers," said Jukka Riivari, CEO and President, Meridea. "LignUp allows us to enhance this automated experience by easily integrating VoIP functionality into our offerings. LignUp-powered voice capabilities provide the human interaction essential to developing customer relationships within a highly-automated banking experience."

LignUp allows independent software vendors such as Meridea to easily build specialized IP telephony applications or voice-enable existing banking applications and services. The LignUp solution provides a communications application server platform, including a VoIP feature server and back-to-back SIP user agent. The platform can be deployed with hosted telephony, voice mail, unified messaging, auto attendant and other web applications.

"Financial services organizations must continue to extend their businesses by selling new services to existing customers," said Kevin Nethercott, President and COO, LignUp Corporation. "By voice-enabling its software offerings with LignUp, Meridea is demonstrating how IP telephony can enhance business processes to improve the end customer experience and actively grow the businesses of financial services firms."

LignUp-enabled Meridea solutions will be generally available by the end of 2006.