Saltaire
based company utilises latest technology to put sophisticated telephone-based
speech recognition systems within the reach of many more organisations.
Saltaire based ICR Speech Solutions and Services (ICR), a long established
supplier of automated, speech-based self-service solutions into
major companies such as Vodafone, Yorkshire Building Society, and
United Utilities has announced that it is now able to offer VoiceXML
based solutions. This exciting development makes automated speech-based
services available to a much wider range of organisations.
Key Account Manager Darren Mills says: “Many companies have
seen the benefit of web sites which provide company information
to customers, and enable automated sales transactions to take place. |
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However,
despite the growth of these web-based services, they still only
account for a small proportion of total business transactions globally
– more traditional means, such as the telephone are still
crucial for the vast majority of companies.”
VoiceXML systems can leverage existing application server infrastructure
(i.e., running VoiceXML applications off the same servers that Web
services run on) allowing for reuse of investments in a flexible
distributed architecture to deliver automated services.
The VoiceXML open standard, which uses "tags" to define
a call flow, (i.e. the dialog that occurs between a person and a
computer via the telephone), was established in March 2000 by AT&T,
Lucent Technologies, Motorola and IBM. VoiceXML 1.0 was subsequently
evolved by the W3C to the current standard, VoiceXML 2.0. |
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This
standard provides a really cost-effective way to get more value
out of investment in web services, by opening up a voice channel
via the telephone. Applications can also make use of the latest
technologies, such as speech recognition, text-to-speech and biometric
speaker-verification, as well as the familiar touch-tone input method.
In addition these platforms can be used within a traditional call
centre to provide cost effective IVR services, synchronised with
web services, and able to take advantage of the latest customer
interaction technologies.
ICR offers a full range of services to companies wishing to exploit
this technology, including provision of entry or enterprise level
platforms, application development and integration, to advice and
consultancy. The company can also provide hosting services to allow
companies to explore the use of this technology, without major capital
investment. |
