20 April 2023

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Eckoh plc

("Eckoh", the "Group", or the "Company")

Launch of new cloud Secure Call Recording solution

- Enterprises can record, transcribe, and analyse thousands of calls on demand

- Sensitive payment and personal data is automatically redacted from conversations

- AI-powered solution unlocks valuable business intelligence and simplifies agent monitoring

- Launch underpins expected growth in cross selling revenue and new client contracts

Eckoh plc (AIM: ECK) the global provider of Customer Engagement Security Solutions, announces the launch of a ground-breaking new cloud-based Secure Call Recording ('SCR') solution for contact centres, that delivers business insight at speed and scale using artificial intelligence ('AI') and the ability to instantly monitor and improve agent performance to suit an increasingly hybrid working environment.

In development for over a year and designed primarily as a cloud-based solution (but also available to existing on premise clients), Eckoh's SCR integrates seamlessly with Genesys, Cisco, Avaya, Twilio and other leading telephony platforms and is intended to meet the growing demand from enterprises who are re-evaluating their existing legacy call recording solutions.

From market research, 24% of US contact centres have said they are looking to update their call recording solution in the next 12 months*. Eckoh believes that this new solution will appeal to existing and new clients alike who are seeking to unlock the huge amount of business intelligence contained within their call and chat records.

Eckoh's vision is to make the world more secure, and our global cloud platforms are already trusted by some of the largest global enterprises to protect their customer engagement payment processes. SCR is a highly complementary and quick addition for those existing CallGuard and CardEasy clients and is expected to underpin the anticipated growth in cross selling revenue as well as generating new client contracts.

At Eckoh, we're on a mission to set the standard for secure interactions between consumers and brands and this new addition to our portfolio includes several innovations:

·   Certain sensitive data will be redacted automatically, while companies can build specific business rules for eliminating other types of data or dialogue they do not wish to store.

·   Calls and text-based conversations are handled securely, in line with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard ('PCI DSS') and other relevant data protection regulations.

·   Improved monitoring of agent quality and performance especially from remote locations - a critical challenge now most contact centre operations are operating a hybrid workplace model.

·   AI-powered transcription, sentiment, and emotion recognition tools are embedded within the SCR solution as standard, enabling the client to easily analyse, identify, and address business and agent issues, without needing to listen to thousands of calls or manually review text-based conversations.

·   Machine learning technology automatically highlights the red flag conversations that matter most. Contact centre managers or supervisors can immediately examine contentious moments in calls or transcripts - and respond with greater agility - making training, compliance, and dispute resolution a simpler, quicker and more efficient process.

·   Organisations can analyse thousands of transcripts using keyword tags to spot emerging trends in conversations and identify wider business issues around new products, services, or operational problems. Teams can react quickly to protect the customer experience and strengthen loyalty.

Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer at Eckoh, said:

"Eckoh has transformed the traditional, passive process of recording calls into a dynamic AI-powered solution that delivers high value insight back to the business, secures customer data and simplifies the task of managing agent performance. Companies can save valuable time and resources performing common tasks, while gaining actionable insights to enhance the customer experience, improve the wider business and achieve a competitive advantage.

In line with our stated strategy of broadening our cloud offering into other highly complementary data security solutions, this launch is a huge milestone given its widespread applicability and timeliness with current client demand.

Given our position as a trusted security vendor to large enterprises and based on their feedback gathered before and during development, we expect Secure Call Recording to be really well received by our existing clients.  We also expect interest from new clients who are attracted to a highly cost-effective and fully featured alternative to aging or more basic recording solutions, which will then give them visibility of and access to our broader data security portfolio."

In summary, Secure Call Recording offers a broad range of business advantages including:

·   Enables enterprises to automatically redact sensitive customer information

·   Saves organisations from maintaining legacy, low value recording equipment or solutions

·   Secures and streamlines call recording and management

·   Brings recordings and text-based messaging conversations from multiple tools, contact centres, hybrid workforces and outsourcing partners into one place

·   Automatically analyses customer and agent sentiment to highlight operational issues

·   Simplifies quality monitoring, training, and compliance processes

·   Speeds up audits, disputes, investigations, and consumer data privacy access requests

* Source: Contact Babel - US Contact Centers 2022-2026 the State of the Industry

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About Eckoh plc

Eckoh is a global provider of Customer Engagement Security Solutions, supporting an international client base from its offices in the UK and US.

Our Customer Engagement Security Solutions enable enquiries and transactions to be performed on whatever device the customer chooses, allowing organisations to increase efficiency, lower operational costs and provide a true omnichannel experience.

We help our clients to take payments and transact securely with their customers through all customer engagement channels. The solutions, which are protected by multiple patents, remove sensitive personal and payment data from contact centres and IT environments and are delivered globally through our multiple cloud platforms or can be deployed on the client's site. They offer merchants a simple and effective way to reduce the risk of fraud, secure sensitive data and become compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards ("PCI DSS") and wider data security regulations.

Eckoh has been a PCI DSS Level One Accredited Service Provider since 2010, and our extensive portfolio of typically large enterprise clients come from a broad range of vertical markets and includes government departments, telecoms providers, retailers, utility providers and financial services organisations.

For more information go to www.eckoh.com or email MediaResponseUK@eckoh.com.