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Below is our recent interview with Beate Zimmermann from ASC Technologies:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to your company?
A: ASC is a worldwide leading provider of software and cloud solutions in the field of omni-channel recording, quality management and analytics. Among our target groups are all companies that record their communication, especially contact centers, financial service providers, and public safety organizations. We record, analyze, and evaluate interactions across all media, including fixed line and mobile voice, chat, video, screen, SMS and meetings. The content of communication becomes accessible and critical information and trends are revealed, providing real-time business intelligence for immediate management action. ASC offers its entire portfolio either as a service from the cloud or as on-premise. We believe in cloud, and thus offer a truly multi-tenant, highly scalable family of products and services – giving our customers full flexibility, allowing them to invest as they grow, always leveraging our latest technology. Headquartered in Germany, ASC is the #1 Europe-based player in its industry with local sales and service units in currently twelve countries – Subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Switzerland, Romania, Dubai, United States, Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore as well as certified and experienced system integration partners represent ASC in over 60 countries. As a family-owned company with more than 50 years’ experience in the telecommunications field, ASC exemplifies both stability and entrepreneurship.
Q: Any highlights on your recent announcement?
A: ASC Recording Insights is the certified app and one of the market’s first compliance recording solutions for Microsoft Teams. The app captures and stores interactions in Teams (audio calls, chat conversations and video meetings), allowing companies of any size to easily comply with legal requirements. All recorded data is encrypted tenant-specifically and saved in Microsoft Azure in freely selectable geographical regions. By offering the possibility to configure access rights on tenant level, the solution ensures that only respectively authorized users may access the data.
The analytics functionalities of ASC Recording Insights coupled with the innovative AI features of Microsoft’s Cognitive Services offer a proactive approach to compliance management. All recorded interaction in Microsoft Teams can be transcribed from audio to text using speech-to-text services. On top of that, Natural Language Processing facilitates automated categorization as well as emotion detection and translation directly in the app. Communication content can be categorized, extracted, transcribed, tagged, translated, and analyzed without human involvement. Potential compliance risks can thus be detected in real time proactively. This is much important for financial market regulations regarding recording solutions. ASC is facing this every day.
Q: Can you give us more insights into your offering?
A: ASC meets users’ requirements for even more convenience and enhanced security. ASC Recording Insights now includes enhancements such as compliance chat recording, options for encryption, extended analytics, flexible licensing etc.
Recording Insights supports companies worldwide in implementing legally compliant recording and archiving of the recorded data. The need for highest levels of security is reflected in this new feature set, as one central enhancement are two new options for encryption. First of all, encryption by means of customer key management is now possible – the customer is the exclusive administrator of the encryption keys and thus has unrestricted control of the access rights. On top of that, so-called key rotation allows changing the encryption key automatically in predefined intervals. Secondly, customers can now choose from the new licensing options Smart Voice Recording and Compliance Voice Recording. These options for audio and chat recording are of special interest for customers without a need for video or screen recording. The certified Microsoft Teams recording solution offers encrypted data exchange, quick onboarding via Azure Active Directory, and omni-channel recording according to compliance regulations such as MiFID II, Dodd-Frank or FinVermV by default. In addition, by means of Microsoft Cognitive Services, users can transcribe, translate, and analyze audio and video data.
Q: What can we expect from your company in next 6 months? What are your plans?
A: ASC Technologies develops its solution constantly. The company responds to its customer’s requirements and is expanding its services. Therefore, we are about to implement more and more of the Microsoft’s Cognitive Services within our solution Recording Insights. The user benefits from even more functionalities in the integrated app. Also, the steady increase in cloud users is very pleasing and confirms our cloud strategy. The so called New Normal is not just a buzzword. It is changing the way we are working. This development is cross-sectoral. The financial sector as well as healthcare and contact centers will need and benefit from compliance recording solutions to meet future regulations.
Q: What is the best thing about your company that people might not know about?
A: ASC is a worldwide cloud company focused on innovation and on the customers benefit with their solutions. ASC is working on services with an ease of use and ease of deployment to meet customers’ requirements. The key UC technology providers integrate ASC for legally compliant recording solutions and additional services.
