Fast-Talk Communications Inc. this week plans to introduce a telephony version of its audio-search technology aimed at call-center operators who need to quickly search databases of customer-service calls. But Fast-Talk Telephony may also prove beneficial to customers using the vendor's year-old audio search engine.

Fast-Talk Telephony is a search engine that can be integrated into applications such as call centers that should help operators find specific parts of conversations. Fast-Talk's ability to search all major forms of digital audio is an important plus, Meta Group analyst Earl Perkins says. But Fast-Talk's inability to read or convert existing analog files is a serious limitation, he says; it handles only digital audio files.

Advanced Legal Technologies and Court Reporting Consultants, two Stephenson, Va., sister firms that provide technology to attorneys and court reporters, may find the ability to search recorded phone calls useful for clients who log conference calls, telephone press conferences, and earnings calls.

The technology has helped transform the businesses, says Tonie Wallace, CEO of both companies. Obtaining transcripts of court proceedings has been a source of frustration for the legal community. With demand for searchable text logs of meetings, depositions, and trials at an all-time high, a backlog of up to 30 days is stalling attorneys' courtroom efforts and leaving defendants stranded in jail. Fast-Talk's search tool, which the vendor says can search 20 hours of audio files in one second with 98% accuracy, could eliminate the backlog and cut transcription costs by more than half, Wallace says.

Wallace's companies have integrated the Fast-Talk search engine into their SearchWAV service, which records legal proceedings onto notebook computers and provides a transmission of the recordings to clients. "This technology revolutionizes not only the court-reporting business, but the legal environment in general," she says. Wallace hasn't used Fast-Talk Telephony but says she'll consider adopting it if the demand is there.

Fast-Talk plans to market its telephony technology to call-center application vendors, though whether they'll buy is questionable. Israeli call-center app vendor Nice Systems Ltd., which has seen Fast-Talk in action, opted to continue using Philips' slower telephony-search technology, which general manager Lior Arussy says delivers accurate results fast enough to satisfy Nice's needs: "We didn't see the additional value to warrant going in and replacing our system."