TRANSVERSAL STRIKES DEAL WITH PLAYSTATION

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) set to use Internet 'brain' to give help and technical support to PlayStation® users through its website

Transversal, a web services company based in Cambridge, England, announced today that SCEE is to use its technology to help manage and answer the 1500 pre sales, technical and service enquiries it receives every day regarding its PlayStation games consoles and associated equipment and software.

Transversal's Metafaq product utilises artificial intelligence enabling any organisation to answer questions posed to their websites automatically. It can be used to reduce the amount of calls made to customer helpdesks as answers to questions can be found using Metafaq on the website without the need for a phone call. It also vastly reduces incoming emails and improves speed of response. Metafaq can be deployed on internal as well as external websites.

When a website visitor asks a question, Metafaq's Memory Engine finds appropriate responses from a knowledge base of frequently asked questions (FAQs). Only questions that cannot be answered automatically are forwarded to an authorised person and their response is emailed back and added to the knowledge base to be used to answer future enquiries. The more questions that are asked and answered, the better the system becomes at handling enquiries. The system ensures a dynamic and up-to-date knowledge base of FAQs and this becomes an organisation's 'memory' as it builds a permanent record of its employees' expertise.

SCEE will be using Metafaq to manage the large amount of queries it receives via its helpdesk and website regarding its PS one® and PlayStation 2 games and games consoles. Through using Metafaq, frequently asked 'troubleshooting' questions or those such as: 'Can I play DVDs on my PlayStation 2?' and 'When will Tekken 4 be released for the Playstation 2?' can be answered quickly and easily without the need for a phone call. *

Ray Maguire, MD of Sony Computer Entertainment UK Limited said: "With over two million PlayStation 2 and six million PlayStation/PS one games consoles in the UK, we are committed to making sure our users have the best possible customer service available. Many of the queries are of a very similar nature and we can save our customers a lot of time and effort by providing immediate answers, 24/7. Metafaq ensures that our people can have maximum enjoyment from their PlayStations with the minimum amount of fuss."

Dr Davin Yap, founder and CEO of Transversal, said: "This is a great example of the flexibility and scalability of Metafaq. With nearly one in five homes in Europe owning a PlayStation or PlayStation 2, Sony has an enormous customer base. Research shows that by 2005 over 70 per cent of customer service interaction for information and remote transactions will be automated. Many of the queries people have are very simple to answer and it makes sense to use an automated system for FAQs. By using artificial intelligence, Sony can save its customers' time and frustration by turning information into instant answers."

Metafaq will be available in Summer 2002
*Answers to the questions:
Yes - provided your DVD and console are regionally compatible
Tekken 4 is released for the Playstation 2 on September 20, 2002.

For more information go to www.transversal.com

ENDS

About Transversal
Transversal was founded in 1998 by two researchers from Cambridge University. Transversal provides cost efficient, web-based customer support and information management solutions through its Metafaq™ products. Transversal aims to transform the Web from a passive information-sharing channel into an active knowledge-creation environment. To support this goal it has combined the sophisticated concept matching of its Memory Engine™ technology with a modular infrastructure for web-based communications and content management. Transversal currently employs 22 people and is based in Cambridge.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, based in London, is responsible for the distribution, marketing and sales of PlayStation, PS one and PlayStation 2 software and hardware in 102 territories across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania. At the end of March 2002, over 36 million PlayStation units had been shipped across these PAL territories, over 89.6 million worldwide. Between its European debut on 24 November 2000 and the end of March 2002, 8.4 million PlayStation2 units have been shipped across the PAL territories, over 28.5 million world-wide, making it one of the most successful consumer electronic product launches in history.

PlayStation and the PlayStation logo, PS one and PS2 are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

More information about PlayStation products can be found at http://www.scee.com and www.playstation.com



Further information

Pirate Communications
David Pincott/Lis Walton/Alex Crawshaw
Tel. 020 7760 7050
david@piratecomms.com
lis@piratecomms.com
alex@piratecomms.com

www.piratecomms.com

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