Confronted with very real risk of fraud, companies have no choice but to impose tough security measures to protect customers' accounts and personal information. In many cases, this comes at the expense of the customer experience. Before they can access their accounts, customers often need to provide passcodes, personal identifiers, and answers to
several rounds of security questions. And to speak to a customer support agent they endure a similar process.

Yet, in the age of the customer, customers increasingly demand frictionless authentication across all of the channels they engage with companies. Biometrics solutions have emerged as a means to providing frictionless authentication, and have gained attention for their potential to streamline the customer experience and prevent fraud. Enabled by the
prevalence of web self-service and mobile applications, behavioral, fingerprint, facial, and retina are among the modalities used today to verify customers’ identities via digital channels. Voice biometrics is another modality and is an integral part of the way contact centers approach security in many parts of the world.

With the Nuance Security Suite, Nuance Communications provides a biometric security solution for fraud prevention and authentication across all of the channels companies engage with customers. The following are among the core components of the Nuance Security Suite:

› Voice biometrics authenticates a customer when they provide: 1) a voice-based password or 2) by recognizing a voice during the course of natural conversation. Callers' voices can also be compared to voices of known fraud callers to identify fraud attempts in real time.
› Behavioral biometrics analyzes patterns of behavior — i.e., how an individual holds a device, interacts with a web or mobile application, or uses patterns of words in speech or writing — to authenticate customers and identify attempts at fraud.

For added security, the Nuance Security Suite includes modules to verify users by the device, phone network, and geographic location from which they log in to an app or call for support. It also includes features to detect synthetic speech and playback of recorded voices.

Nuance commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying the Nuance Security Suite. The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of the Nuance Security Suite on their organizations. To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed a multinational bank with several years of experience using the Nuance Security Suite to securely authenticate callers into its contact centers and to monitor calls for fraud attempts.

Prior to deploying the Nuance Security Suite, the bank used industry standard processes to authenticate customers calling into its contact centers along with systems it developed in house to monitor for fraud. However, the efficacy of these methods was limited. As customers increasingly turned to digital channels for account services, they called into contact centers less frequently. When they did call for support, many couldn't remember their phone banking passcodes and answers to security questions they set up upon opening the account. Each time this  happened, an agent had to verify the caller's identity through a series of knowledge-based authentication (KBA) questions. This was a frustrating experience for customers, but it also drove up average call times and increased operational (call handling) costs. Meanwhile, losses tied to fraud originating in the contact center also continued to climb.

While the bank uses the Nuance Security Suite in its contact centers in several markets around the world (and plans to complete a broader global rollout over the next several years) this case study focuses on its UK deployment. Based on interviews with the customer, and a subsequent analysis of aggregated data, Forrester concluded that deploying the
Nuance Security Suite had the following three-year financial impact: $24,314,327 in benefits versus $8,350,049 in costs, resulting in a net present value (NPV) of $15,964,278 and an ROI of 191%.