New voice recognition software created by Siemens claims to be able to boost productivity within IT departments by automating certain help desk features. It is estimated that twenty percent of help desk calls are for lost or forgotten computer passwords, and fixing that problem can take roughly thirty minutes per request.
By storing employee voice data and characteristics, an automated answering service is able to match up the voice on the phone with one in its records, through what Siemens calls biometric speaker recognition, and give out a new password over the phone. This process takes about three minutes. Siemens IT Solutions department implemented this system in December 2007 and has reported that ninety percent of their employees have been very happy with the new procedure. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/secureidnews-4.gif)
