Centrelink operate the largest call centre in the Southern Hemisphere, taking around 28 million call per annum. Like many other Government Agencies it has a critical need to improve the security and privacy of its call centre services as well as deliver increased efficiencies and service levels. Voice authentication was identified as a solution.

Before Centrelink could consider deploying these technologies, it needed to understand their performance for its own services and confirm vendors' accuracy and performance claims. After all if you are going to put 28 million call per annum through a voice authentication system, it is good to understand the potential impact on service quality.

The evaluation test cases developed by 3SH (in collaboration with University of Canberra) provided the most comprehensive evaluation of commercial voice authentication technology yet undertaken. The evaluations included understanding the performance of the technologies not only in land line telephone networks, but also in 3G mobile networks and in a variety of operating scenarios commonly encountered in Centrelink telephone services, including office, city and shopping centre noise environments.

The evaluations, performed along rigorous scientific lines, not only highlighted the performance differences between technologies, their robustness to different operating conditions but also uncovered potential security vulnerabilities in some products. What is more, the evaluation was not restricted to confirming the accuracy of voice authentication products, but also allowed 3SH (in collaboration with University of Canberra) to provide Centrelink with an insight into the effectiveness of voice authentication for addressing identity fraud in a broader range of Government Services.

The results of the technology evaluation are available as a public domain document from either 3SH or the University of Canberra.