Intelleca SA`s voice recognition system was named SA`s top innovation at the T-Systems Age of Innovation and Sustainability Awards.
The awards unified the previous T-Systems Age of Innovation and Sustainability Awards and the Standard Bank CPSI Public Sector Innovation Awards.
Several ICT companies were among the award-winners at last night`s ceremony in Midrand.
[VIDEO]Both the organising companies said this year`s winners demonstrated the ingenuity with which South African government, business and charitable organisations are attacking economic, social and environmental challenges.
Entries encompassed the creation of new business processes, technologies, products, methodologies and organisational structures, through to new approaches to business, marketing and service delivery.
Grand winner
The Grand Prix Winner, Intelleca SA`s English Acoustic Model for Advanced Speech Recognition, is the product of collaboration with US-based ScanSoft and the CSIR.
The system has already been deployed in the public and private sectors. The new model reduces the error rate of the currently used UK speech recognition engines by between 60% and 70%, enabling a broad roll-out of commercial natural speech applications in call centres and other service industries, says the company.
Intelleca`s solution also helped it scoop the Economic and ICT section award, with CregaLink (Credit Guarantee Insurance Corporation of Africa) and Data Recovery Services (Computer Storage Services Africa) as runners-up.
SARS single view recognised
[VIDEO]The South African Revenue Services (SARS) and Accenture were joint first runners-up in the Public Sector Innovator of the Year award for the SARS "single view" application.
The application integrates information from eight legacy systems into a consolidated picture of each taxpayer. The systems give call centre agents, tax advisors and case workers at SARS complete access to taxation status records.
SARS and Accenture also scooped first prize for the solution in the Innovative Enhancements on Internal Systems within Government category.
The Department of Heath was joint winner in the Innovative Partnerships for Service Delivery award for its strategy to leverage ICT to cater to underserviced areas.
To this end, it has introduced a closed health broadcast channel. The satellite-based service targets health workers and patients with content about critical health issues.
The Western Cape Department of Education scooped the Innovative Service Delivery Institutions award with its Khaya project, whose goal is to empower every educator in every school to use technology to deliver curriculum to learners in the province by 2012.
The Innovative use of IT for Effective Service Delivery award was jointly won by the South African Post Office (SAPO), Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and DigitalMall.
[VIDEO]SAPO`s paymaster to the nation project aims to make life easier for recipients of pensions, particularly those in rural communities. This system uses smart card and fingerprint identification technologies to speed up payment procedures.
The IEC was rewarded for the IT infrastructure it put together to streamline processes during the elections earlier this year.
DigitalMall also played a role in voter registration for this year`s elections as the IEC used the contact centre solution supplied by a consortium led by the company.
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