Seismic shift in voice logging industry

A tremor is being felt around the world in the small but influential voice logging industry.

Voice logging is used extensively by call centres, finance houses, transportation hubs and emergency services (‘000’) to record what is spoken during telephone and two-way radio interchanges. Disputes are quickly settled and operator efficiency can be monitored for training purposes.

Two NASDAQ-listed, Israeli-headquartered companies (Nice Inc and Verint Inc) dominate the industry worldwide with turnovers of US$0.7bn each. In recent times, a third supplier, CyberTech International (headquartered in Holland), has emerged as an international player, offering competitive products at significantly lower prices.

CyberTech’s time in the sun appears to be short lived as Nice has just announced it will be acquiring the Dutch supplier for US$60m, effectively removing it as a competitor. Assuming this acquisition goes in the same way as previous ones (Racal Recorders Ltd, Dictaphone Inc), CyberTech customers might expect support for their recorders to be short lived.

This may have a significant impact in this part of the world where CyberTech recorders are built under licence by Addcom Pty Ltd. Fortunately, Australian customers have other choices. Arunta Pty Ltd and Electrodata Recorders Pty Ltd are both strong local suppliers of voice-logging recorders. Arunta’s offerings are at the smaller, low-cost end of the spectrum, while Electrodata covers a wide range of recording solutions, including the largest emergency centre in the Southern Hemisphere, ESTA in Victoria, as well as recent large orders to Metro Trains Melbourne and Maritime Safety Queensland.