St.George Group addresses the needs of visually impaired ATM customers with VISTAatmSt.George Bank and subsidiary BankSA have successfully deployed audio lead through for visually impaired ATM users utilizing Phoenix's VISTAatm Text-to-Speech module.
Gary Figgins, St.George Senior Manager ATMS states, "We are pleased to be amongst the first banks globally to address the needs of visually impaired customers on a wide-scale basis. Our earlier decision to implement the Phoenix VISTAatm solution has again proven itself to be a wise choice and we are confident that the audio capability we have introduced on our ATM's will offer visually impaired customers a solution second to none." Brad Evans, Phoenix general manager - Asia/Pacific remarks, "It was just a short time ago that we announced the successful implementation of multi-language capability at St.George Bank/BankSA ATMs and here we are talking about yet another exciting new offering that VISTAatm has helped to facilitate for the Bank and it's customers. Again, VISTAatm is designed to be flexible and ensure far better time and cost efficiencies than have ever been seen before in our industry. St.George Group's introduction of ATM Text-to-Speech audio capability is a perfect example of this!" About St.George Group Australia's fifth largest retail bank, the St.George Group, occupies a unique position in the Australian financial services industry. With assets of more than AUD $100 billion (at 31 March 2007) and 9,000 employees, St.George is well placed between Australia's four major banks and the country's smaller regional banking groups. About Phoenix Interactive Design, Inc. London, Ontario-based Phoenix Interactive Design, Inc. provides a Windows™ based, multi-vendor ATM operating software to the financial services industry that, because it successfully interfaces with the major ATM hardware manufacturers, maximizes profitability in self-service channels by providing financial institutions with software independence. Phoenix's software provides its customers with the ability to separate purchasing decisions, allowing for greater negotiation power at the vendor level. For more information, please contact: Marlene Goncalves, Phoenix Interactive Design @ (519) 679-2913 or email marketing@phoenix-interactive.com. 
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St.George is one of Australia's leading financial institutions and is recognized by both its customers as well as its competitors for delivering a superior retail bank offering. The introduction of audio lead through is just another of the Bank's ongoing focus on making a difference in the community and giving all customers the opportunity to complete their banking quickly and easily.
As background, the Bank awarded Phoenix an exclusive contract several years ago to provide VISTAatm as the software solution to drive their multi-vendor NCR and Diebold ATM Network. Rollout of the software was completed at both St.George Bank and BankSA in 2006. The original initiative which focused on moving from OS/2 to a Windows based application has been supplemented with the addition of audio capability to address Australian Disability Act requirements. The VISTAatm Text-to-Speech module uses an advanced technology computer generated synthetic voice - otherwise known as a text-to-speech engine - as opposed to the old method of WAV files being deployed by some financial institutions. Text-to-Speech was selected because of the flexibility and clear advantages offered. For example, audio is easily changed or added and does not involve the expense and time to market involved with human audio recordings (WAV files).
