Keep track of what's going on in the SPEECH Community here:

05 January 2010 – Speech Community

Following the success of Speech Community on LinkedIn, and the worldwide attention it had received from speech technology experts and enthusiasts alike, Speech Community plans to shift its focus onto social networking. In just under a year since its establishment in early 2009, the Speech Community Group has attracted over 1700 members from a range of different backgrounds and professional fields. Speech Community has succeeded in gathering and sharing varying opinions and ideas and has also served as a platform for promoting speech technology related news, reports and events. Speech Community believes that this online forum can provide a vibrant platform for encouraging future debate and discussion. As a result, the Speech Review will no longer be published.

01 January 2010 – Speech Community

At the start of 2009, Spinvox was hailed as one of Britain’s leading technology start-up companies. Its speech recognition technology converted mobile phone messages to text. But by the summer, the company had run into claims of financial mismanagement and use of foreign call centres to transcribe phone messages. Whilst Spinvox fought back, holding an exclusive press conference at their headquarters in Buckinghamshire, the company later buckled under and sold to Nuance. It is reported that Nuance will pay approximately $103 million. Compared to the $200 million Spinvox have invested in recent years, this appears a great deal for Nuance. It will be interesting is to see what Nuance plans to do. Considering that Nuance is already one of the leading technological companies in speech recognition, it is likely that they are looking to take advantage of Spinvox’s contacts in the telecom market.

06 December 2009 – SPEECH Community

As the economy starts to recover, contact centers are being asked to continue to reduce their operating expenses while further optimizing the customer experience - without making major resource investments. Desktop screen analytics is a new, practical, easy-to-implement solution to this challenge. Enterprise and contact center managers who want to rapidly and cost effectively identify insights about business processes, Quality Assurance, customer needs and agent performance issues should seriously consider screen analytics.

08 December 2009 – SPEECH Community

As mobile phones have become increasingly advanced, the use of speech applications has played a vital role in providing customers better services. This week ParkMobile announced that it is the latest service that employs such speech recognition technology. This innovative service - powered by VoltDelta’s CrytsalWAVE speech recognition technology - lets drivers use their cell phone and credit card to pay for public parking, as opposed to other options, such as using a kiosk or digging around for change to put in a parking meter. Although the service is already up and running in Europe, it has just become available for commuters, shoppers and visitors using public parking in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the US. ParkMobile is a perfect example of just how beneficial speech technology can be.

24 November 2009 – SPEECH Community

The end of 2009 marks an auspicious event for SPEECH Community. In just over two years since its establishment, SPEECH Community has attracted more than 700 registered members and over 1600 LinkedIn members. The online portal has become the leading platform in Europe for promoting English-based speech applications. In conjunction with VOICE Community, SPEECH Community has also participated in VOICE Days 2009, the largest annual speech technology conference in Europe. As we approach the New Year, SPEECH Community aims to continue this success and attract more of the biggest names in speech technology development and expertise. Subsequently we are currently welcoming brand new sponsorship bids beginning January 2010.

22 November 2009 – SPEECH Community

Google is taking another major step forward in their bid to shake-up the mobile phone market. Recently they unveiled plans for a new Google-branded handset and the first comprehensive Google phone service. However it is the partnership between Googlephone and Google Voice, the Californian company’s high-tech phone service, which is attracting the most attention. Experts believe that Google Voice, which offers US customers a free phone number and unlimited free calls to any phone in the country, will play a decisive role. Google’s acquisition of Gizmo5, which had developed technology to connect Google Voice with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks such as Skype, demonstrates their intentions.

11 November 2009 – SPEECH Community

Speech Technology will be hosting a roundtable discussion on the topic of hosted versus on-premises speech solutions. What are your thoughts on subject? These are some of the key talking points to implementing either solution: How the incentives built into a hosted agreement impact the customer's long-term results. How the arrangement should be set up for you to realize maximum savings. The capabilities to look for when selecting a provider. The role of monitoring, reporting and tuning. The impact of service-level agreements on performance, availability and caller experience. We hope to see you at the round table discussion on November 12. It features the brightest minds from some of the biggest and most successful companies in the industry today discussing this exact topic!

07 November 2009 – SPEECH Community

Last week, Zig Serafin, general manager of the Speech at Microsoft Group, said in comment posted on Microsoft’s website: “Voice is the new Touch”. After having previously been touting touch enabled computers during the build up of Windows 7, this remark might appear somewhat odd. However Microsoft has always been exploring voice technology and now that Windows 7 is finally out, the company appears keen to integrate this as the next logical step in user interface. Given the impact Apple and Google have already had in mobile communications, and the fact that both boast voice recognition features, one can understand Microsoft’s eagerness to pursue this next step.

27 October 2009 – SPEECH Community

You’re invited to learn the proven best practices shared by hundreds of call center executives, managers and IT professionals from top organizations that participated in the 2009 Call Center Optimization Forum in cities throughout the world. We have assembled 50 of the top best practices being used by leading contact centers today to share them with you in this dynamic 60-minute Webcast.

25 October 2009 – SPEECH Community

Researchers at the University of Surrey have created an automatic system that identifies non-verbal social signals in natural conversation. The technology allows computers to better understand meaning in speech, which enables more intuitive computer interfaces. In terms of speech technology, this development marks a major step in detecting not just spoken words, but also social cues such as agreement, understanding, thinking and questioning; feelings and thoughts that have previously been undetected by automated systems.

14 October 2009 – SPEECH Community

Last week the biggest names in European voice technology gathered at Nuremberg for the annual VOICE Days conference. The two day event, held between 6 and 7 October, attracted around 800 visitors and some 22 exhibitors, with this year’s theme focusing on multimodal interaction and multichannel communication. Highlights included VOICE Awards ceremony and the VOICE Night Networking Party with around 30 speech-based service companies from Germany, Austria and Switzerland attending. VOICE Days plus 2009 was organised by VOICE Community: the partnering publication of SPEECH Community, which covers the German-speaking market in Europe.

14 October 2009 – SPEECH Community

The recent In-Stat primary research ‘The US Market for Converged Voice Services’ suggests that most US broadband consumers prefer a converged voice service (CVS) that offers a common set of functions across independent fixed and mobile network infrastructures. At a time when Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) revenues are declining, CVS could have the potential to eliminate fixed-line subscriber losses, and increase mobile Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) with a stable long-term voice revenue stream. Is this the future of Voice Communications? Could this trend spread to Europe?

26 September 2009 – SPEECH Community

When examining the speech technology market and the uses of speech-based applications in various consumer electronic markets, there is often a heavy focus on speech-to-text services. For example, transcribing speech to texts or emails. Yet we sometimes forget that text-to-speech has its own unique market demand; particularly in healthcare. Text-to-speech provides a powerful function for people who lack the ability to speak, perhaps due to ALS or Down Syndrome. This week, in the US, Medicare has attracted considerable attention after denying patients speech technology devices that multi-task in preference of higher-priced proprietary speech devices. The multi-task able devices in question include the iPhone or the use of a netbook. In a time when the US is struggling with economic pressures, and also looking to reassess their overall healthcare system, the significance of cost and facilities for healthcare insurance is extremely important.

15 September 2009 – SPEECH Community

VOICE Awards held at VOICE Days, is celebrating its sixth successive year as the leading awards ceremony in speech dialogue systems. Often regarded as the ‘Oscars’ equivalent for the speech technology market; this year welcomes nine new nominations in five categories. All submitted nominations undergo an intensive test procedure at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and then further examinations in practical tests. VOICE Awards will introduce the nominations and their partners who have implemented these systems in a practical environment.

02 September 2009 – SPEECH Community

This year’s SpeechTEK Conference, held in New York from 24 to 26 August, raised a number of interesting issues surrounding the use of speech technology and its incorporation into the communications industry; most notably the use of speech technology to create ‘digital personality’, speech solutions that can be delivered via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, as hosted or managed services, and voice-activated search applications for mobile and wireless devices. But whilst there is a great deal of potential for speech technology to be expanded into these respective markets successfully, barriers and problems still remain. Certainly, in regards to opinions; vendors, enterprises and consumers are not necessarily aligned. If the use of speech technology is to develop in the future, major players must be prepared to acknowledge these differences and take action.

14 August 2009 – SPEECH Community

VOICE Days is the leading event for speech technology in Europe. Continuing from the success of VOICE Days 2008 in Wiesbaden, which attracted more than 1000 registered visitors and over 80 leading experts, VOICE Days 2009 is due to be held this year in Nuremberg, 6-7 October 2009. The two day event will include a congress, exhibition, live contest, demo forum, guided tours and a networking party. In addition to promoting the use of speech applications in call centre processes, the program will also include mediums – SMS, PDA and web applications. Tickets for the event, as well as general information, can be found on the VOICE Days website. SPEECH Community members wishing to attend are eligible for a 100 Euro discount.

19 August 2009 – SPEECH Community

It has been almost a month since allegations against Spinvox, in regards to the legitimacy of their voice-to-text services, broke out. The BBC received claims that voice mail calls were actually transcribed by call centre staff rather than converted automatically. And whilst Spinvox were quick to deny such rumours, the saga continued; a dossier, alleging financial irregularities, was circulated to shareholders, followed by the resignation of Patricia Russo, after only two months of being named one of the six directors. The question remains to be seen how this will impact not just the future of the company, but the wider technology market in general, particularly speech technology. Could this it make it harder for other technology entrepreneurs looking for funds to kick-start their ideas for changing the world? What about the call centre staff and their alleged roles in the company? Yet perhaps most interesting, what really is the truth behind these allegations?

05 August 2009 – SPEECH Community

You don’t have to have a big contact center to perform like one. The person on the other end of the line does not know if your contact center has 10 agents or 1000. They expect top quality service. By providing not just good but memorable customer service you can make your business stand out from the crowd. If you are just starting out, don’t expect to become a best-in-class contact center overnight. You will learn from experience and make necessary adjustments. You can also learn by becoming involved in one of the many associations of contact center professionals and by attending industry events to meet experts and peers. Many of the practices this whitepaper describes require little or no additional investment. However, deployment of superior interaction recording and related performance management tools such as Interaction Voice Recognition can make the job a lot easier.

download whitepaper!

05 August 2009 – SPEECH Community

For years Apple and Google have both happily coexisted; even sharing the same directors. However the relationship between the two has recently taken a turn after Apple rejected Google Voice to be included in the iPhone App Store. Even before the news was published, Apple had raised questions in regards to its application approval process. But after hearing that Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt is stepping down from Apple’s board and that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is now investigating the situation after a complaint from Google, there are signs of a war brewing between the two companies. Does Apple feel threatened by Google’s recent entry - as a provider of mobile software - into the telephony industry? Is Apple designing their own search engine to compete against Google, Bing and Yahoo?

17 July 2009 – SPEECH Community

Automatic Speech Recognition and Text-to-Speech devices provide hands-free and eyes-free solutions for in-vehicle users, so that vehicle drivers can concentrate better on the road and surrounding traffic. A Speech User Interface enables a safer and less distracting measure than a Graphical User Interface, for example, a visual keypad or keyboard, whereby instructions must be entered manually into the system; whereas speech allows the vehicle driver to simply give voice commands. Since a voice-controlled system would be the second most important task for the driver to deal with (the first obviously being the handling of the vehicle itself), it is imperative that the speech technology employed meets an excellent standard of quality. The system must incorporate a simple form of dialogue in order that such cognitive pressures are handled. Ideally this could be achieved by reducing the steps of interaction and effectively providing a ‘One-Shot’ option for users to navigate the system.

17 July 2009 – SPEECH Community

The purpose of this research project was to investigate the usage of in-car voice user interface (VUI) systems. Key focus areas of the survey were usage, acceptance of systems, motivation for using in-car voice interfaces and the main challenges that arise while using these systems. This study offers a better understanding of current usage while pointing to desired improvements for the next generation of in-car voice user interfaces. Therefore, questions were included that help developers determine additional areas where natural language voice control can be used.

Download Survey!

08 July 2009 – SPEECH Community

Speech analytics is not a new concept; the idea of automatically plotting telephone data is as old as speech recognition research itself. Yet there remains great hype behind this technology, particularly in regards to the implementation of quality management in call centres. So what do call centre operators and supervisors need to know about calls between agents and customers and how can this call information be attained?

08 July 2009 – SPEECH Community

The multi-functional capabilities of the mobile phone are phenomenal: increasingly superior devices, innovative applications and faster networks. And whilst the touch screen provides an incredibly user-friendly interface for viewing displays, entering texts and operating the device in general, there is a potentially huge opportunity for speech-enabled applications to fundamentally change this current market. We are seeing the beginnings of this technology being used in Smartphones, for example, the recent release of the Apple iPhone 3GS. But are we the customer prepared to start using speech interfaces on our mobile phone? Using speech commands would effectively mean ‘talking’ to your mobile. How far are we ready to go with the idea of using voice activated applications or would we always like to retain the physicality of the touch-screen?

08 July 2009 – SPEECH Community

We know that speaker recognition researchers and developers are always asking for new and wider speech database. Here you have the opportunity not only to get a quite huge database, but also to participate in a very interesting event. We invite you and your colleagues to the EVALITA ’09 Speaker Identity Verification (Application) campaign. By participating to the campaign you have the opportunity to get (for research purpose) a 200 speakers database for free until 2011. Although participation to the final workshop is welcome, you do not necessarily need to attend the workshop if you want to participate to the campaign. Your (short) paper and results will be published also if you do not attend the workshop.

08 July 2009 – SPEECH Community

We are hiring for a leading contact centre systems vendor for their Voice platforms development groups in UK and US (Connecticut). An overview of the role is below, however we are really looking for a strong VXML Systems Developer as a core. Paying up to £50K/full benefits, located in Reading, Berkshire, we have a few roles open, so should you know of a suitable VXML developer, please pass on my contact details. We offer a referral scheme.

19 June 2009 – SPEECH Community

After years “behind the curtain,” a number of voice biometrics-based applications are moving from the pilot stage to full-scale deployments. Longterm growth will depend on how well solutions providers address issues of usability, affordability and integration with existing IVR and security infrastructure. Their track record is definitely improving.

download report summary!

23 June 2009 – SPEECH Community

Google is entering the telephony business and the news is creating a stir amongst the telecom community. Google made the announcement earlier this year in March that it plans to re-launch GrandCentral - the telephony service it acquired in July 2007 - as Google Voice. After Google reserved 1 million phone numbers in the US with Level 3 - a communications and information services company - rumours ran rampage that the long-awaited public launch of Google Voice service was imminent. However these were quickly dispelled by Craig Walker, Google Voice Product Manager, on Twitter. And so the wait continues. But what is all the fuss about? What exactly does Google Voice offer? And what impact is this likely to have on the telecom industry?

10 June 2009 – SPEECH Community

Contact centres are facing a dilemma as they battle to reduce operating costs whilst, simultaneously, increasing service levels to cater for an increasingly demanding customer population. The biggest challenge for operations managers is to recruit and retain appropriately qualified but cost effective contact centre advisors.

download whitepaper!

10 June 2009 – SPEECH Community

After some lacklustre years, last week’s E3 - the world’s largest videogame trading show - marked a return to form with the announcement of several new gaming products that experts predict should keep the industry on track for another record breaking year. Amongst these products from industry giants Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, is Microsoft’s Project Natal Xbox 360, which offers advanced motion and speech based peripheral in replacement of more traditional control based interfaces. Although demos of Natal and the accompanying Milo - an AI child that players can interact with using voice recognition - have raised inevitable doubts and queries, critics have generally been impressed by what has been shown.

10 June 2009 – SPEECH Community

Twitter is seen by many as an information source for voices, opinions and preferences. Indeed companies have already acknowledged the potential of Instant Messaging Services and Microblogging for optimisation and individualisation of their customer services. Such services are not only seen as trendy and a new preference for customers, they also provide cost saving measures and individualised customer communications. “The cost of interaction via Instant Messaging is on an average a tenth of the cost of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and only a thousandth of the cost of a call made to Live-Agent,” state Voxeo, during the take-over of IM-Plattformbetriebers IMified.

22 May 2009 – SPEECH Community

The movie “Slumdog Millionaire” contains a poignant scene in which the main character attempts to convince a Scottish caller that he is physically located in a call center right down the road from her rather than in Mumbai, thousands of miles away. Beyond meeting such surface challenges of intercultural communication, effective call center offshoring to India also needs to consider the country’s dynamic macroeconomic, demographic, and technological environments and strive to find an optimal combination of technology, onshore, and offshore resources. This paper will describe one possible approach to geographically blended call distribution based on customer segments using intelligent call routing through natural-language speech recognition.

download whitepaper!

27 May 2009 – SPEECH Community

The Virtual Communication Centre facilitates the network of Call Centre Agents and the Communication Centre. The heart of the system is the Contact Net Router embedded in the grid of Deutsche Telecom; this is responsible for processing inbound customer calls from all locations and mediums and optimising maximum efficiency and capacity. For example, if a Call Centre were to become overloaded with inbound customer calls, the Intelligent Network could be activated to ‘free-up’ the system. It connects the caller directly to the suitable Call Agent and links various call locations to a single communications centre.

27 May 2009 – SPEECH Community

Datamonitor and Strategy Analytics have both released market reports predicting substantial growth in the speech technology market: ‘Proliferation of Innovative Speech Applications in Mobile Computing’ and ‘Automative OE Voice Recognition Market 2007-2015’ respectively. Datamonitor predicts the global market for advanced speech recognition (ASR) in mobile handsets will increase from $32.7 million in 2009 to $99.6 million in 2014. ASR in in-vehicle telematics is expected to grow at a similar rate, from $64.3 million in 2009 to 208.2 million by 2014. Meanwhile Strategy Analytics predicts that the global automotive OE market for voice recognition will reach $1.2 billion in 2015 of which 47% will found in new vehicles produced.

13 May 2009 – SPEECH Community

The mobile phone is changing and its impact is being felt in the phone-based self-service industry. No longer are mobile phones being viewed as merely ‘telephones’; they are now essentially multi-functional wireless devices that are distributing contact centre functions across the globe. The smartphone is the latest and most technologically advanced mobile product on the market. SPEECH Community had the opportunity to speak with Karl-Heinz Land, founder and chairman of GrandCentrix, about how his company is working to turn the smartphone into a self-service terminal.

13 May 2009 – SPEECH Community

Multimodal dialogue systems offer users the opportunity to communicate and interact with computers or machines. This means that in addition to more traditional manual interfaces such as the mouse, keyboard or touch screen, voice commands can be used to activate and control the device.

07 May 2009 – SPEECH Community

In today’s dynamic and evolving consumer marketplace, consumers are becoming active, vital participants in the corporate value chain. Today’s paradigm is not merely about “listening to consumers.” It’s about integrating consumers into your business model so that they actually take over some of business’ traditional functions. It involves co-opting consumers to create a part of the value they desire.

28 April 2009 – SPEECH Community

The agent is becoming increasingly central to the delivery of customer experience within the contact centre. However, with customers becoming more demanding and less satisfied with the contact centre experience, the agent often gets caught in the management of contradictions as they try to balance the demands of the organisation (increase efficiency) with the needs of the customer (get service).

28 April 2009 – SPEECH Community

Using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system can at times be a frustrating experience for customers having to deal with traditionally high-structured menus and common speech recognition errors. As businesses continue grow and the number of inbound customer calls becomes increasingly larger, the demand for better equipped and more efficient IVR systems will inevitably follow. Agent-assisted Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) could provide the answer in providing the next level in ‘smart’ telephone self-service. This unique concept bridges live agents to automated sessions with the aim to maximise the performance of the automated self-service system.

24 April 2009 – SPEECH Community

In this whitepaper, Auraya describes the application of its speaker adaptive voice authentication technology. The solution allows the contact centre agent to take a call and using the speech provided by the caller during the conversation compare their voice in the background against a “black-list” of known fraudsters and suspicious callers to see if the voice matches. Where there is a close match the agent or call centre manager can be notified and appropriate action taken

24 April 2009 – SPEECH Community

Self-service should ideally produce a Win-Win-Situation; customer services become less bogged down by inbound enquiry calls and customers are free to select their own service options in their own time. In order to ensure this, it is important that self-services not only reflect the flexibility concerning the content of the company - but also guarantee that the customer reaches their desired destination in their own manner (formal flexibility).

15 April 2009 – SPEECH Community

Is the healthcare and pharmaceuticals sector a new market for service providers and suppliers of speech technology? Or are medical facilities already fully equipped with digital dictation software? The good news is that there certainly is a great potential for the implementation of speech recognition applications, particularly for example, in the use of clinical documentation. In doctor practices, hospitals and clinics there is an enormous demand for voice operated documentation and communication solutions in order to prepare essential documents such as reports, statements or letters of discharge.

15 April 2009 – SPEECH Community

Fragvergence describes two trends in the marketplace which are converging and fragmenting. As communication devices, networks and software converge in capability, consumer use of such technology is increasingly fragmented – in the channel chosen, the occasion of interaction and how the device is used. While some experts state that consumers will migrate to use one all powerful channel for all customer contact – eg the Internet with VOIP or a fully enabled mobile handset– research evidence suggests that fragmentation is the more likely future outlook.

09 April 2009 – SPEECH Community

Experts are talking about a nifty idea for mobile customer services: combining voice recognition with enterprise and web services. If a VoiceXML-based user interface could be used to activate the content and transactional capabilities of multiple enterprise and web services, such applications could be applied to contact call centers for incoming-based customer calls. For example, when a customer makes a call and identifies him or herself, their account details or background could be immediately displayed for the call center agent to view in order handle the needs of the customer more effectively.

31 March 2009 – SPEECH Community

Modern platforms consisting of voice browsers and speech recognition engines make the recognition result and additionally the recognition confidence level available at the voice application level. By working with the absolute value instead of simply distinguishing between match and no match cases a much more efficient dialogue flow can be realized. But how about setting the confidence level thresholds dynamically? 1. Auto tuning: An application that logs "confidence level" values and in a "Low Confidence Match" case additionally whether the caller confirmed the recognized input or not. This allows the application to automatically tune itself by adjusting the confidence level threshold between low and high at runtime. 2. Caller-Specific Thresholds: In case an application needs multiple entries by the user and at the first input a "Low Confidence Match" classified recognition result was subsequently confirmed by the user, the confidence level threshold between low and high could be reduced within the following recognition states.

31 March 2009 – SPEECH Community

Besides the obvious advantages of text-to-speech transcription capabilities offered by automatic speech recognition, it is important to point out that the tone and pattern of the voice itself also provide valuable characteristics of the speaker; characteristics, such as gender or age, which cannot be captured in transcription. These paralinguistic notes in the voice can offer a second use for speech dialogue systems: identification. The question is how reliable is the underlying technology and how practical would it be in application?

26 March 2009 – SPEECH Community

A government employee pension program serving 1.5 million people in the Philippine Islands has become a showcase for voice biometric-based authentication to enable loan applications and payment distribution. At Voice Biometrics Conference London 2008, Jean Bengo, vice president of the Government Service Insurance System, shared the organization’s experience and delivered insights into both its origins and technological underpinnings.

26 March 2009 – SPEECH Community

The use of speech technology by the government and public sector is becoming increasingly popular in two distinctive areas. Firstly, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems: usually installed in order to manage high volumes of incoming-based calls for payment transactions, county tax matters, emergency care services or any other general enquiries. Outgoing-based calls are also being used by county councils in the United Kingdom to conduct real-time customer surveys. Secondly: the use of voice biometrics. Such applications provide easy and efficient means for identification and have recently attracted great interest by the US government. Identification-based programmes plan to be deployed on a large scale by government services in the Philippines and Australia.

26 March 2009 – SPEECH Community

In this report, commissioned by Genesys Labs, Opus Research enumerates the steps it takes to install and maintain an intelligent Customer Front Door (iCFD). A key finding is that virtually every firm that has invested in resources to improve their customers’ self-service and agent-assisted experiences has already started along a well-blazed and relatively short path to measurable improvements in the quality of customer care and, ultimately, profitability.

17 March 2009 – SPEECH Community

The Voice Search Conference, held March 2-4, in San Diego, California, reflected the maturing of speech technology through its emphasis on applications, driven by rapid adoption of services for mobile phones. The conference co-organizers were AVIOS (the Applied Voice Input Output Society) and Bill Meisel, president of TMA Associates and Editor of Speech Strategy News. The general mood of the conference was upbeat, particularly considering the economic situation, as speech seemed to be an essential part of many trends that will drive growth in the technology sector.

13 March 2009 – SPEECH Community

Internet is a moving target. A website that 15 years ago was only providing one way information is now at least reactive if not pro-active towards customers. Websites are gaining in complexity: in terms of offering, in terms of accessibility, in terms of detail level. The idea being, “you have a problem? we have the solution”. But where is this solution to my problem will ask the customer? How can I find it? Just like yourself entering a super market looking for Olive Oil: where will I find olive oil? Is it in the exotic food department, is it in the organic food department, is it in the Mediterranean food department or is it simply in the oil department? And anyway, where are these departments?

13 March 2009 – SPEECH Community

At the VOICE Community meeting in CallCenterWorld 2009, the VOICE Community Market Indicator 2009 survey results was presented. The study, conducted prior to the CCW event, collected opinions from VOICE Community members and readers regarding the state of the European voice market. Member and readers were asked a series of questions including their expectations for 2009, what challenges lay ahead, and which factors are likely to drive or slow market growth.

04 March 2009 – SPEECH Community

Unified Communications is often seen as a solution for contact centers looking to cut costs and improve service quality and customer satisfaction. UC software programmes and infrastructure restructuring can unify telephony, instant messaging and web conferences, and integrate them in ‘real time’. In an effort to examine how UC could assist European contact centers, Aspect commissioned a research study on the topic. In November and December 2008 STRATECO interviewed 270 experts from public and private sector organisations across France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom.

26 February 2009 – SPEECH Community

Windows Mobile 6.5, the latest Windows Mobile Operating system, may have stolen the show at Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, but the unveiling of new speech technology driven software and products still gained their fair share of attention. Both voice-activated search engines and voice SMS have become hugely popular as speech technology driven applications.

26 February 2009 – SPEECH Community

This year’s CallCenterWorld in Berlin attracted 250 exhibitors and over 7500 visitors; a 5% increase in attendance compared to last year. Organizers of the event, Management Circle AG, and visitors, heralded the conference as a great success. “Every year the programme improves and is a real highlight for the call centre industry” says Lars Völkering, director of product management for Deutsche Telekom AG. Under the motto “Best Service – Best Innovation – Best Value”, the significance of quality was highlighted as an integral factor in the world of call centre management. “Quality is the criteria of the future”, asserts Sigrid Bauschert, founder of Management Circle AG.

18 February 2009 – SPEECH Community

AVIOS (the Applied Voice Input Output Society) and Bill Meisel, president of TMA Associates and Editor of Speech Strategy News, announce the second Voice Search Conference, following the conference's successful initial year in 2008. The conference will be held March 2-4, 2009, at the Marriott Hotel and Marina, San Diego, California. The conference theme is "Say what you want and get it!"

13 February 2009 – SPEECH Community

On 3rd March 2009, the largest information and telecommunications conference in the world – CeBIT – will be opening their doors. The exhibition features a wide range of products from enterprise-software to entertainment electronics. Information technology and telecommunication experts and enthusiasts are encouraged to visit market place number 1. CeBIT invites you to claim a complimentary e-ticket and attend the event!

13 February 2009 – SPEECH Community

Last week a member of the SPEECH Community LinkedIn Group posed an interesting question on speech technology: Is it possible to reproduce speech based on a voice sample of a given person? For example, if a customer were to speak into a voice recording device, could this sample be used to recreate an entire set of dialogue as if the same customer were speaking again? The response from the SPEECH Community Group was overwhelming.

04 February 2009 – SPEECH Community

VOICE Community will be meeting this year at CallCenterWorld 2009. All VOICE Community members and speech technology enthusiasts are warmly welcome. The Meeting will be held in the NIZZA room at the Estrel Congress Centre, Berlin.

Programme Plan
17:00-17:30 Trends and Theme-Roadmap in 2009
-Highlights from the recent VOICE Community poll
-New editorial team and Theme-Roadmap 2009
17:30-18:00 Vendor Registration
-Vendor Registration for VOICE Community
-Additional partnership schemes
18:00-19:00 Networking
-with drinks and snacks

04 February 2009 – SPEECH Community

Between 16th and 19th February two of the largest European conferences in telecommunications, the GSMA Mobile World Congress (formerly 3GSM World Congress) and CallCenterWorld, will be held in Barcelona and Berlin, respectively. Both events are widely recognised and renowned in their respective industries for attracting a wealth of international experts and exhibitors as well as media and press representatives.

21 January 2009 – SPEECH Community

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is perhaps the largest electronics trade show in the world. However in the face of the current global economic downturn, the event suffered from a drop in number of attendees. Nevertheless speech technology applications continued to be successfully exhibited, with a number of headline grabbing products.

15 January 2008 – SPEECH Community

The Apple iPhone reportedly has over 10,000 applications available, and there are apparently over 450 already for the newer Google Android-based phone. This abundance suggests that the mobile phone is becoming more like the PC. Good news? I don’t think so. The PC (including the Mac version) already suffers from too many options, a problem that many users address with large monitors and a number of tricks to help find applications and data quickly (including ever-expanding menu bars, bottom-of-screen docks, and floating application palettes). Yet, the user interface designs for advanced mobile phones—despite some clever innovations—are closely modeled on the PC Graphical User Interface.

18 December 2008 – SPEECH Community

Providing outstanding customer service, both pre and post sale, is one of DSGI’s core values. Dixons has an extensive product offering and sales and service teams are specially trained in optimising the customer experience in their respective areas. With 22 stores in Ireland and plans to expand that number by 30%, Dixons were faced with the challenge of maintaining the high customer service levels that they expected as part of their core values.

18 December 2008 – SPEECH Community

Voice biometrics is often referred to as speaker recognition or verification, covers the three aforementioned groups. Recognition verifies the users’ knowledge and possession, while verification tests who the users actually are. Like many biometrics techniques (like verifying fingerprint, iris scanning or face recognition) voice verification appears to be the most natural way of proving a users identity in a certain circumstance, as the verification is performed literally as users speak into the phone. Voice biometrics is also considered the least invasive verification technology, as it does not require any additional devices on the client site and the authentication procedure can be accomplished simply and quickly over the telephone.

18 December 2008 – SPEECH Community

If you build IVRs for call centers, hosting multiple applications or for mission critical applications – or want to target these markets – the Pronexus’ Modularity feature set can help you succeed. The Modularity feature set enables VBVoice developers to distribute or “break apart” their application into separate yet cooperating processes under what we have termed a master / slave architecture.

18 December 2008 – SPEECH Community

Last month Google released their voice-activated search engine for the Apple iPhone; a new application which aims to cater directly to the next generation of internet search users. Instead of typing in a search term or query, users can simply speak into the handset as they would for a normal telephone. The speech data is then sent to servers and converted to text, before the results are finally generated and resent back to the user by Google.

05 December 2008 – SPEECH Community

Given the current economic downturn of global markets and the affects on gas prices, stock prices, real-estate prices, etc. it may come as a surprise to know that the speech automation and analytics market have been prospering. One aspect of this unexpected economic upturn can best be described in regards to the use of these applications in the call centre market.

05 December 2008 – SPEECH Community

The Voice Biometrics Conference in London was held last month and featured an array of leading telecommunication firms, exclusive case studies and top experts, all sharing a real-world insight into speaker verification and voice biometric solutions. Like last year, the event provided an international venue for major players in voice biometrics to present and discuss important opportunities and challenges currently facing the market today.

18 November 2008 – SPEECH Community

“Call centers” became “contact centers” partly in response to the growth of Internet-based customer service, to include customer emails as well as their calls. Customer service calls by all reports haven’t declined as a result of growing web use, as some expected. One could even argue that calls will become increasingly important as usage of mobile phones grows. So the “call” part of “contact” is critical, but should managers postpone any updates until they can make their call center a multi-functional contact center? What about serving all those callers more effectively?

11 November 2008 – SPEECH Community

Strateco, an independent business consulting company, are conducting a market survey for Aspect Software in an attempt to throw light on what Unified Communications really means for us – today and in the future. To participate online please click here, and to begin the survey enter the following code: 888888. All participants will be entered into a prize draw to win 1 of 3 Nintendo Wiis. Results will be available early 2009.

29 October 2008 – SPEECH Community

In this white paper, Nuance examines a problem facing an increasing number of enterprises and institutions as they try to enhance user services over the phone. In an age when privacy and security are growing concerns, how can you assure that your callers are who they claim to be?

29 October 2008 – SPEECH Community

With over 300 customers using its voice biometrics technology, Nuance is uniquely positioned to advise businesses how to effectively plan and deploy a voice verification solution. This paper addresses some of the key topics and makes high level recommendations around best practice in voice biometrics.

24 October 2008 – SPEECH Community

Nuance Verifier 4.0, Nuance’s advanced voice authentication software, enables businesses to provide secure access to sensitive information over the telephone. Like a fingerprint, Nuance Verifier voice authentication software creates individual voiceprints to authenticate callers and customers with just their voices, enabling secure access to information. Read the following two exclusive whitepapers about the Nuance Verifier and frequently asked questions.

24 October 2008 – SPEECH Community

Financial institutions and others are seeking to improve security for financial solutions over electronic channels in order to provide superior customer service and reduce their reputational and regulatory risk. Speaker verification and speech recognition solutions support a highly secure, cost effective approach to customer authentication over the voice channel. Nuance’s proven approach to supporting two-factor authentication using speech biometrics and recognition provides highly secure access to sensitive information while presenting a low user burden.

24 October 2008 – SPEECH Community

This paper addresses the topics and areas of uncertainty that are most common for organizations beginning to consider voice biometrics as a security option for their business. The goal is to inform, to provide insight as to the possibilities of voice biometrics, and to help decision-makers answer initial questions. This paper does not provide an in-depth view of the Nuance Verifier technology, as that is available via other collateral on the Nuance web site at www.nuance.com. The topics discussed in this paper include use cases, common questions, important terms and concepts, and key considerations.

07 January 2008 – SPEECH Community

Customers use multiple communication channels — phone, email, Web, fax, in person — depending on the nature of their interaction. For example, a customer may look for product information online but make a phone call when registering a complaint. Customers want more than responsive service and expect companies to be proactive in providing them the services they need on their channel of choice. However, customers’ initial point of contact is often navigating rigid touchtone IVR menus that provide little in the way of support services. IT managers need to consider the value of customer experience and effectively position IVRs as a means to deliver higher-value, proactive interactions.

23 October 2008 – SPEECH Community

People who run customer interaction and customer service environments face two seemingly contradictory mandates: reduce costs, while at the same time increase customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. The tension between these two ideas can cause friction in how those managers define and measure success. It can also affect the way they justify and procure technology. But this tension does not just impact decisions around high-touch, agent-assisted interactions; the dynamic created between cost-control and service quality is critical to understanding how contact centers approach their selfservice operations, as well.

23 September 2008 – SPEECH Community

Remember Life magazine? (If you’re under 30 years old, chances are you don’t.) Its parent company, Time Inc., developed one of the best lines in advertising history: “Life… Consider the alternative!” This bold promotional message equated any upstart picture magazine competing with Life with the grim prospect of Death. This verbal bravado led me to a similar tag line for the Opus Research’s 2008 Voice Biometrics Conference London: “Voice. Consider the alternatives!” In reality people already have. Thousands of enterprises around the world already deploy alternative methods for authenticating customers or identifying imposters.

23 September 2008 – SPEECH Community

A differentiated customer experience is critical for business success. Companies that consistently deliver positive customer experiences across all touchpoints maintain customer loyalty, build stronger brands, and are better able to avoid competition on price alone. They therefore grow faster and earn healthier profits than companies that don’t keep their customers happy. Download this whitepaper and learn 4 key service factors that drive customer loyalty, 7 technical service capabilities required to deliver an effectively differentiated experiences, and a practical approach on how to get there.

08 September - SPEECH Community

During the last five years, VOICE Days has become the leading event for speech technology in Europe. This year the international conference VOICE Days 2008 will be held on the 15th and 16th October at the Rhein-Main-Hallen, in Wiesbaden, Germany. More than a 1000 visitors are expected to attend the convention and exhibition, as well as around 80 respected speakers and more than 50 exhibitors including Cisco, Deutsche Telecom, Genesys, Microsoft, Siemens and SAP. In addition, many top players from customer services, call centre and IT management use VOICE Days to learn more about the latest speech technology solutions and how market trends are evolving.

08 September 2008 - SPEECH Community

The telephone is the most important connection to the customer and remains a dominant form of contact that must not be ignored. Three out of every five customers are still using the telephone to contact a call centre. Whilst the significance of the internet as an interactive medium may have grown in recent years, it makes up only a twelve of all customer contacts. Meanwhile the use of post and fax has been steadily declining.

17 July 2008 - SPEECH Community

Does speech really work? Tell us what you think. Dimension Data (publishers of the annual Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report) and Cisco are conducting a Speech 360° Review investigating how well speech is delivering customer service for call centres. If you’re a speech solutions or services provider, we’d like your opinion! Take part in the survey from the 14th July to 8th August 2008 and receive a free copy of the results, which will also be debated at SpeechTek in New York in late August.

A Genesys Whitepaper

As a primary touch point for customers, it’s imperative that the contact center take on a strategic role in order for a business to succeed. Executives across the organization should recognize that now is the time to re-examine existing interactive voice response (IVR) systems, and discover how the customer experience can be transformed by moving to an intelligent Customer Front Door (iCFD) - a solution that revolutionizes the experience of entering a company’s “virtual front door.”

download whitepaper!

An Envox Whitepaper prepared by Opus Research

Contact centers increasingly rely on voice self-service solutions to automate customer service inquiries without compromising caller satisfaction. That's because voice self-service solutions are designed to provide better customer service by shortening wait times and providing callers with 24x7 access to their accounts. Plus, they help customer service organizations lower contact center costs by reducing the need for customer service agents.

download whitepaper!

An Envox Whitepaper prepared by Opus Research

Today’s voice self-service solutions are complex systems, in that they combine hardware and software components which are integrated with call processing, database processing other systems in the IT infrastructure, most commonly customer relationship management (CRM), order processing, billing, and scheduling applications. Needless to say, no two systems are exactly alike. This document serves as a guide through the process of drafting a RFP to solicit bids from vendors of premises-based, voice self-service platforms.

download whitepaper

By Dan Miller, Opus Research

Mass acceptance of Voice Signatures as valid proof of identity for mobile commerce is on the horizon. It reflects successful integration of biometric engines with pre-existing, established standards for authentication and non-repudiation in the context of mobile payments leveraging lessons learned and standards in place for card processing.

3 July 2008 - SPEECH Community

Mike had been active in the speech technology world for over twenty years prior to starting Vlingo in the summer of 2006. SPEECH Community sat down to talk with Mike about speech technology, how he sees the market developing in the near future and what his vision for Vlingo is.

A Genesys Whitepaper

AT&T had 22 contact centers handling up to 500,000 calls per day. This volume - and the disparate nature of its center operations - made it difficult to understand and correlate the data necessary to determine whether performance and customer service levels were satisfactory. Download a new industry case study and learn how AT&T implemented a Genesys Informiam Product Line solution to handle increasing numbers of calls and meet service level goals—resulting in:
• A cumulative net benefit of $6.4 million
• Annual ROI of 201% and payback in 10 months
• Problem recognition in 20 to 60 seconds versus 30 to 45 minutes

download whitepaper!

10 June 2008 - SPEECH Community

Since 2003, the Web 2.0 and Social Web applications have emerged as major forces in the online world. In the US, YouTube has a market share of 73 percent. Everyday as much as 65,000 videos are uploaded and 100 million videos downloaded. That equates to 10 percent of the total internet traffic in the country. MySpace worldwide has approximately 180 million users. StudieVZ in Germany has 8 million users and has around 10 billion visits to its site every month. Business-to-business XING brings in about 2.65 million users. Given these statistics, it is no surprise that mobile providers have expressed such interest in broadening their services through mobile Web 2.0 applications and Social Webs.

By Tim Moynihan, VP of Global Marketing and Channels at Envox Worldwide

Speech has come along way since its introduction. No longer are callers startled when asked a question by an automated system, nor are they unsure how to answer. They simply speak to the system as they would to a live representative. The technology has evolved to the point to enable precise recognition of extremely large grammars, making it possible for the system to understand the answer with the same level of comprehension as that of the agent. This makes it an ideal time to re-think how to use speech. Following are a few trends to watch:

An Envox whitepaper

Even though cost is a powerful and legitimate motivator for switching to VoIP, these conversions also open up broad possibilities in customer service and contact center efficiency that will ultimately surpass economy as their primary benefit. VoIP enables companies to implement service improvements that have been technically possible but economically unrealistic until recently. The Internet as a voice infrastructure replaces expensive and inflexible leased lines with a low-cost, ubiquitous infrastructure.

download whitepaper!

By Dan Miller, senior analyst & founder, Opus Research

The purpose of this column is two-fold. First is to endorse the concept of the intelligent Customer Front Door (iCFD, as trademarked by Genesys Telecommunications Labs), as the foundation for rapid deployment of contact center applications that benefit from Contextual Communications. Genesys conceived of iCFD as a marketing and packaging umbrella under which multiple partners can deliver highly configurable but largely complete customer care applications. By design, it is not alone in its efforts. The list of partners already includes Voxify, Tuvox and Nuance. My second, and more self-serving, intention is to raise the topic of voice biometric-based authentication of callers as it relates to the iCFD. And it will take most of this column - and perhaps a session or two at the upcoming Voice Biometrics 2008 Conference in New York City - to provide sufficient background.

9 May 2008 - SPEECH Community

BT Global Services recently joined as a partner of SPEECH Community. We sat down with Sven Klindworth, senior marketing manager for BT Global services, to discuss his views on the development of the speech technology market and how BT aims to attract more customers in the future.

A BT Global Services whitepaper

Customers today are changing more than the organisations that serve them. As customers gain access to more channels and increasingly sophisticated technologies, they are becoming armchair researchers, using multiple channels to get access to the best value propositions, information and advice. They naturally exploit the various strengths and weaknesses of the channels given to them. They are, however, technology agnostic – they interact with companies rather than channels and expect the web channel, contact centre and face-to-face channel to have an awareness of their actions regardless as to which channel they have used before.

download whitepaper

By John Joseph, president of corporate marketing at Envox Worldwide

A few years ago, the IVR industry was revolutionized by an emerging technology standard. The popularity of VoiceXML was driven by its promise to rid the world of proprietary hardware and software solutions, and specifically to separate the application from the underlying infrastructure thereby eliminating vendor lock-in. Now that VoiceXML has become the defacto application development standard, it’s time to check in on whether it has fulfilled that promise and just how portable VoiceXML applications have actually become.

An Envox whitepaper

Self-service solutions improve satisfaction ratings by providing customers with instant access to information and services. When self-service solutions are used in conjunction with live agent services, they reduce hold times, help balance call loads and reserve agents for callers that need extra attention. Adding speech is a proven method for improving self-service solutions by heightening caller satisfaction, increasing automation rates and lowering overall call time.

download whitepaper!

8 April 2008 – Speech Community

“It is important to educate people about the reality of speech technology and provide them with real examples of successful implementations. Speech technology is a very viable and economic tool for developing automated speech services for a range of industries. Speech Community’s approach to display valuable content on this subject – free of charge – will serve to improve future speech solutions. We are proud to be among the supporting partners of this publication,” states Leo Casey, president and CEO of Envox Worldwide, commenting on the recent partnership between Envox and Speech Community.

27 March 2008 - Speech Community

There is a general myth that people should be able to converse with a system - either by phone or on the web - just like they were talking to a human. In fact certain voice applications even go as far as to name their personas. The idea is that by combining advanced personas and natural language understanding - the ability for a caller to interact with a platform using normal speaking patterns - you’ll create a better user experience.

27 March 2008 - Speech Community

Since the mid-90s, the enterprise voice world has been stuck in a rut. By 1997, every call center or large enterprise had chosen its primary carrier, its PBX supplier and its IVR vendor. During this time, it was all about proprietary technology. If you bought a Lucent (now Avaya) G3R switch, you did all your internal wiring based on the Lucent specification. You also bought Lucent phones which only worked with Lucent’s proprietary line-side protocol. You configured your Lucent switch to work with the carrier’s signaling, and either you purchased Lucent’s Conversant IVR platform or dealt with a third party IVR which had limited capabilities to pass caller entered data back to the switch. Not that I’m picking on Avaya here. Nortel, Alcatel, Ericsson, NEC and Siemens all contributed to this vendor exclusive model.

27 March 2008 - Speech Community

If you have ever given demos of speech-enabled IVR applications, you know how stressful the experience can be. You have put on your best Sunday suite, have behaved yourself impeccably, have given a great PPT presentation, have definitely impressed your prospect with your client list and the reference quotes, have demonstrated full and sensitive understanding of your prospect's problems. But all that, you fear as you get ready to give the demo, could be wiped out -- or at so it feels when it happens -- with a cruel, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand that!" Here's a list of tips to maximize chances of success and minimize the agony when failure takes place.

March 6th, 2008 - SPEECH Community

Attrition will be the number one managerial issue for UK call centres in 2008. Can IVR provide the solution? Last year the attrition rate of UK call centres was reported to have risen for the fifth successive year. At a time when consumer relationships are becoming increasingly complex, resulting in a higher demand for better skilled workers, retaining agents is usually perceived as the best means to ensuring a high return on investment. The reality is that Interactive Voice Response (IVR) application presents a far better solution.

27 February 2008 - SPEECH Community

What is the Customer Front Door, and why is it important? For most customers the first impression is formed when they come through the front door of your business – and in many cases the “front door” is a Web site, an e-mail, a text message (SMS), or a phone call to a call centre. But the impression it makes on the customer is as lasting as ever. In this whitepaper, Genesys looks at the state of customer service today, how technologies such as voice self-service can help (or hurt) relationships, and how some companies have successfully blended automation and personalised service. Find the whole brochure in the SPEECH Community’s library – exclusively for Members!

14 February 2008 – SPEECH Community

"Please listen carefully as our options may have changed!" perhaps 9 out of 10 of the IVRs these days have this phrase right there upfront, proudly played as if to signal that callers are dealing with a company so dynamic and so cutting edge that its menu options are constantly changing – so, you'd better pay attention lest you get hurt. The sad thing is that almost 100% of the time the phrase is played, nothing had really changed in the IVR menu for months – and in some cases, the phrase is inserted from the very beginning of the IVR deployment. “So wherefore the horrid little habit?” asks Dr. Ahmed Bouzid, Senior Product Manager at Angel.com in his recent article.

11 February 2008- Speech Community

Enhanced speech technology is the future of top-level customer service. Voice-enabled self-service combines efficiency and cost-effectiveness that benefit the companies and accurate responsiveness that helps build customer loyalty. The variety of mature, fully featured speech platforms on the market right now gives companies a rich range of choices for meeting their individual needs. Companies considering speech-enabling their service offerings should make their decision through a process that includes: gathering grassroots input from business users; measuring business needs against technical resources; defining and testing the project.

14 January 2007 - SPEECH Community

In this Q&A Bruce Balentine, EIG, and SPEECH Community Editor Sebastian Paulke discussed the paradigm shift in application tuning towards more business goal driven VUI-strategies and looked at the interfaces of the future.

To find out why Bruce Balentine believes that successful speech design is not at all about creating a "flashy" user experience but merely about meeting a business goal, and which features will be part the user interfaces of the future, click...

10 December 2007 – SPEECH Community

On November 5, Google announced a software platform for mobile phones - in effect, the rumored “Google phone,” but in a form that it can be offered by multiple vendors. The software, called Android, is open-source, under a liberal license that allows developers to use and modify the code. Android is offered through a group Google initiated, the Open Handset Alliance. T-Mobile has committed to offering a handset using the software in the second half of 2008, probably built by Alliance member HTC Corp. Nuance Communications is one of the more than thirty companies in the Alliance, and contributed a basic open-source speech recognition module. In the current article, first published as an editor´s note in the December issue of Speech Strategy News, Bill Meisel discusses the new Google phone, it´s ability to provide broad speech-focused applications, and the resulting advantages.

06 December 2007 – SPEECH Community

The Hartford insurance company offers a range of insurance products to a variety of customers. The AARP (American Association of Retired Peoples) makes up The Hartford's largest, and fastest growing, customer group. Nuance Professional Services was contracted to help The Hartford reduce costs and improve service to this population. So the Nuance user interface designers focused on building an automated speech recognition system that fit the needs and preferences of elderly callers.

29 November 2007 – SPEECH Community

Dr. Ahmed Bouzid heads the Partnerships program at Angel.com and is working on a concept called the Automation Quadrant. It´s a high-level visualization of the interplay between task complexity, levels of task automation, and the possible resulting combinations of agent and user satisfaction levels. Now Dr. Ahmed Bouzid has posted a request for some feedback in the Forum of the SPEECH Community. Get to know his concept and start discussing in the forum!

29 November 2007 – SPEECH Community

Genesys commissioned a survey of over 4,200 consumers in the Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States, in order to better understand consumer attitudes toward call centres and customer service. This survey highlights the importance of the contact centre experience and the direct impact it can have on revenue and consumer loyalty. It also reveals some interesting trends in consumer expectations, as it is that 89% of consumers have indicated they would like to receive pro-active communications from their suppliers. Perhaps surprisingly 84% of consumers would also like to hear about a company’s additional products and services, giving companies the opportunity to up-sell and cross-sell to customers while engaging them at the
same time.

21 November 2007 - SPEECH Community

A key feature of unified communications, as the name suggests, is the integration of various forms of communications. Microsoft, in particular, emphasized the use of presence detection (a feature from instant messaging) and click-to-call or drag-and-drop to call or conference as key benefits of the movement to software-based systems. Both of those features are most easily used with a relatively large screen and a Graphical User Interface (GUI), and the Microsoft demonstrations used a PC. At the same time Bill Gates highlights the importance of more natural ways of input such as speech. That is why Bill Meisel in his recent article has chosen to discuss how Unified Communications challenge the apparent choice of a GUI as a primary user interface for a telephone application, and where the VUI is the better solution.

14 November 2007 – SPEECH Community

Technology and the emergence of social computing and media has changed business and communication, but it´s also empowered consumers to give them more control and higher expectations of customer service. What it requires from companies is a shift from the Care 1.0 world, which tended to gauge customer interaction in terms of containment, to a Care 2.0 era, where the consumer is free to drive the interaction and ultimately get what he or she needs when and how they want it. The “when and how” is increasingly important as consumers can communicate in more ways and from more places than ever before. But the telephone stays the top-option for consumers to contact companies – with speech systems providing great chances for the companies to automate and leverage their customer service.

07 November 2007 – SPEECH Community

We have all experienced the Care 1.0 world, where companies wield the power in the relationship with the customer. Technology, however, is accelerating change in the world of customer care and is shifting power to the customer. The concept of anywhere, anytime is being taken to a whole new level, bringing today´s customer to feel entitled to great service. The shift in power from businesses to consumers necessitates a change in the way companies approach care and respond to customers: the transition from Care 1.0 to Care 2.0! Find out more exclusively in this new Nuance whitepaper in the SPEECH Communityý library section!

31 October 2007 –SPEECH Community

T-Mobile Czech Republic operates a mobile phone network on the GSM standard providing mobile telecommunications services to around 3.9 million customers. The company has established network signal coverage for 99% of the Czech population and has negotiated roaming partner deals with over 300 operators in 126 countries. Before implementing the Genesys/NextiraOne solution in 2001,the contact centers could deal with calls and e-mails, but there was no integration between the sites or the media. Working alongside NextiraOne, T-Mobile Czech Republic decided to implement Genesys Enterprise Routing straight away, in order to handle the multi-site environment. This was the first of the two key steps of the implementation.

25 October 2007 – SPEECH Community

As a regulated utility, the primary goal of the Tampa Electric Company (TECO) is to effectively and safely serve its over 1 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in West Central Florida. While this aim is shared by many utilities across the nation, it is especially challenging at TECO, which operates in a part of hurricane country that is also the lightning capital of the United States. TECO keeps its customers informed through a news-letter and web site, but recently felt the need to further its proactive outreach to customers. To reduce the number and cost of storm season calls and improve customer service, TECO decided to become proactive in its customer outreach. Instead, TECO decided, they would call their customers before power outages occurred. TECO installed Genesys Proactive Notification, a system specifically designed to implement an automated outbound calling program and deliver voice communications to individuals, answering machines, and voice mail systems.

17 October 2007 - SPEECH Community

Volkswagen Financial Services AG (VWFSAG) is Europe’s largest automotive financial services provider with a staff of approximately 5,200, including 3,400 in Germany. The company’s previous contact center system was simply no longer sufficient. It lacked functionality and was not able to react quickly to the changing requirements of the dynamic automotive industry. VWFSAG needed a solution that was proven in a real-world environment, would provide supreme flexibility, deliver robust service, and stay within budget guidelines. After a rigorous selection process with a number of vendors, Genesys and Alcatel won hands down. Read exclusively about why they were chosen in this new Best Practice Case in the Speech Community´s library.

11 October 2007 - SPEECH Community

Established in 1992 as one of the largest post-war investments in Greece TIM Hellas was the first company to launch mobile phone services nationally. Today, TIM Hellas’ 2G network covers 99% of Greece’s population. To maintain its position as the leading telecommunications services provider in Greece, TIM Hellas had to focus on the needs of its customers and deliver superior quality products and services. As the company aimed to continuously improve its customer service, it looked for a technological solution that would allow it to further reduce queues and call abandon rates, while increasing agent occupancy at the same time. That´s why they have chosen a Genesys solution that covers a dual-site environment in Athens and Salonica with 240 agent positions with access to Enterprise Routing, 120 on Outbound, plus 240 VTO ports (Voice Treatment Option) and 30 GVP channels (Genesys Voice Portal).

03 October 2007 - SPEECH Community

PWN is a Dutch utilities company delivering approximately 100,000,000 m3 of water each year. The company services 730,000 connections, comprising both domestic households and businesses based in the north-west of The Netherlands. To improve the level of service and streamline operations, PWN decided to create a centralized customer contact center with a single technical service organization. The logical extension of this policy was to replace the existing IT system with an integrated infrastructure. Following a review of the solutions available, Genesys emerged as the stand-out choice for both PWN and its preferred systems integrator Accenture.

26 September 2007 – SPEECH Community

The type of application under discussion is one that most people have called at least a few times: flight information (FLIFO). These applications are generally directed dialog, and generally ask a similar set of questions, such as departure city, flight number, arrival city, and departure or arrival time. It’s this last which concerns in this whitepaper. If the caller does not know the flight number, then collecting the expected departure or arrival time is critical. However, what was determined when performing during pilot deployment analysis is that of the roughly 5000 daily calls, approximately 60% did not know the flight number, and about 5% of those callers were failing out of this time collection. A VUI Design based on social psychological findings might help in this situation.

26 September 2007 - SPEECH Community

Oklahoma Gas and Electric, the state’s largest electric company, serves nearly 700,000 businesses and residences in Oklahoma and western Arkansas, as well as a number of wholesale customers throughout the region. 100 customer service representatives handle the 12,000 calls the utility company receives each day on topics such as new service requests, setting up payment schedules for past-due accounts, and taking service outage reports, among other things. OG&E consulted with industry analyst firms META Group and Gartner, and then proceeded to evaluate new self-service, computer telephony integration (CTI) and outbound dialing solutions. The company selected Genesys, choosing Genesys Voice Platform to replace the self-service functionality of its existing IVR. Genesys Framework was chosen to provide CTI and Genesys Outbound Contact for its predictive dialing capabilities.

19 September 2007 – SPEECH Community

Mature applications for speech recognition are beginning to appear on multimedia desktop computers. This paper proposes a working environment based on a “soundspace” – a multimedia illusion created by sound cues – which may be conceived as an audio space to the left and right sides of the video display. Interactive speech objects deposited within this space are available to the user, who may command the objects by pointing or talking.
Enter the SPEECH Community´s library section to find out more about this amazing conception of a revolutionary user interface!

12 September 2007 – SPEECH Community

New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development (MSD) manages the delivery of social welfare services for the entire country of New Zealand, providing support to over one million citizens nationwide. Six years ago, MSD had separate voice (PABX-based) and data networks covering 150 sites. MSD had about ten contact centres which were all managed separately. Costs tended to run high at the separate locations and were often hard to quantify. Service levels were difficult to manage. When MSD begin their IP project, only two organizations were able to prove they could work together to provide a solution that worked. Only Genesys could provide the superior application functionality that MSD needed and Cisco provided a viable IP infrastructure.

10 September, 2007 - SPEECH Community

No matter how solid today’s speech recognition works, too many times voice applications are not convincing, according to Tom Houwing who warns: Keeping on like this, in time, a truly prosperous future of speech automation is getting constructively destroyed, with future decision-makers shaking their heads evaluating the results of their colleagues.

"So, good morning, this is your wake-up call. Please take my advice and start with respecting that voice projects require specific project set-ups and several professional skill-sets to meet the various disciplines in order to bring speech automation to a success."

10 September, 2007 - SPEECH Community

Mike Cohen, Manager, Speech Technology Group, Google, presented a keynote speech at SpeechTEK in New York on August 20, outlining Google’s interest and current offering in speech technology. Mike himself is evidence of Google’s interest in speech technology, having done a decade of speech research at SRI International before co-founding the original Nuance Communications (since acquired by ScanSoft, which adopted the Nuance name).

Learn more about Google's speech strategy in Bill Meisel's analysis written exclusively for the SPEECH Community and the September edition of Bill's Speech Strategy News!

SPEECH Community representatives welcome companies and speech professionals at Genesys stand F30

Companies that would be interested in supporting the SPEECH Community in creating an information hub for and promoting the use of speech technology, along with speech professionals interested in publishing in the SPEECH Community, are invited to meet project manager Matthew Johnson on Genesys' stand F30 at Call Centre Expo!
To schedule your appointment with the SPEECH Community please:

05 September 2007 - SPEECH Community

SPEECH Community talked to Geraldine Wilson, Vice President of Connected Life Europe at Yahoo! Europe, about the impact of mobile search technology for the development of the mobile market and the role that speech technology plays in that context. Geraldine Wilson explains the role that mobile search will play in the future; differences between mobile search and desktop search; Yahoo!´s strategy to deliver mobile search to it’s customers; and interdependencies of mobile search and mobile marketing, as well as the role that usability plays for the success of the mobile internet.

05 September 2007 - SPEECH Community

With Italy’s population aging rapidly, the Montedomini Healthcare Center needed to bring healthcare services into the home, while reducing costs. To meet this need, Alcatel deployed an innovative video assistance solution that provides round-the-clock help to the elderly and disabled. A video assistance system was initially deployed in the homes of 500 patients, who could make video calls to 25 medically trained operators and receive calls from them. A videoconference system enabled four-way calls between patients, family members and medical specialists. Sensors were installed in patient homes to monitor the gas and electricity, triggering an alarm to the contact center in the event of an anomaly. A touch-sensitive sensor can transmit the patient’s pulse in real time.

29 August 2007 – SPEECH Community

Empire Medicare Services is one of the largest Medicare contractors in the United States providing services under contracting arrangements with the Federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) (formerly the Health Care Financing Administration). Faced with a 50% call blockage rate, Empire Medicare’s call center was finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the rising volume of calls from doctor’s offices and hospitals. With call volumes rising almost 30% every year and budgets shrinking commensurately, Empire Medicare needed to find a way to streamline operations and automate call processing. As a result Empire Medicare Services selected MicroAutomation to design and implement a state-of-the-art, speech-enabled, IVR solution that would allow complete voice self-service functionality for its users.

23 August 2007 - SPEECH Community

eircom is Ireland’s leading communications provider, delivering telephone, dial-up and broadband services to over one million customers. In 2003 eircom undertook a business restructuring initiative - the eVr programme - that looked to drive down costs while maintaining and improving CRM effectiveness, with a key objective of improving inbound customer contact management efficiency. eircom identified speech recognition self-service as the ideal solution. Find out more about this Case in the Best Practice section of SPEECH Community!

15 August 2007 - VOICE Community

The term “voice search” is being used for a wide range of applications. How should we understand the term? All of these are a form of search initiated by a voice request, with confirmation or information delivery possibly using text-to-speech synthesis. A distinguishing characteristic of these core applications is quick access to information, minimizing complex navigation. The motivation for using voice is often because the device being used is a wireless phone, where text input is inconvenient or dangerously distracting and where it is difficult to scroll through long lists because of the small screen. The business model for the applications can span free services to maintain loyalty or build brands, subscription-fee services, ad-supported services, usage-based-fee services, and services resulting in a sales transaction.

15 August 2007 – SPEECH Community

A company’s interactive voice response (IVR) system speaks volumes about an organization’s brand – as the literal mouthpiece for the business, it can provide customers with a positive experience or, it can completely frustrate them. Today’s harsh and unforgiving competitive environment makes it imperative that every customer touch-point deliver fully on the brand promise. That’s why the IVR system choice is no longer merely a technology or telecommunications question. Rather it is a strategic high-level decision with far-reaching consequences for the company.

July 8, 2007 - SPEECH Community

At the Nuance Conversations Customer Event in Cannes, Lynda Smith, VP Care Business, presented the Nuance Care 2.0 Concept for the Service Organisation of the Future. SPEECH Community editor Sebastian Paulke talks to Lynda about the significance of Care 2.0 for today´s Contact Centers and the role speech technology plays in that context.

July 23, 2007 - SPEECH Community

Voice biometrics have a lot of market potential. To find out how this market can be characterized now and where it is developing to, SPEECH Community talked to Dan Miller, Senior Analyst, Opus Research, who is going to publish a market report on voice biometrics soon.

08 August 2007 – SPEECH Community

In this whitepaper,Nuance shares the results of a recent Harris Interactive poll that explored consumer attitudes toward customer service and asked consumers: What constitutes a positive customer experience? What customer interaction channels do consumers prefer? When are consumers willing to use automated customer self service? What type of automation do consumers prefer over the phone? Today’s consumers are more savvy,more knowledgeable, and have louder voices than ever before.Companies interested in gaining market share, building their brand, and reducing churn would be well advised to listen to what these consumers are saying.

July 5, 2007 - SPEECH Community

By taking only 3 minutes of your time to participate in this month’s SPEECH Community poll – you can help us offer more content that matters to you! Please let us know which case studies you would like to read, which authors we should sign-up, and which market reports you think are missing from our Survey area. By participating in this poll, you stand the chance of winning an i-Pod Nano sponsored by Genesys.
PS: The results and winner will be published in next months SPEECH Review newsletter!

July 3, 2007 - SPEECH Community

Since the SPEECH Community began it's "friendly user" test to identify system bugs and collect information on how to optimise the community’s offering, a lot of new content has been published on the site.
Be inspired by more than 15 case studies from various industries, and learn the real “tricks” by reading our expert author's articles!

	new case studies in the best practice-area!
	expert's articles in the SPEECH Community!

July 5, 2007 - SPEECH Community

Automated voice search is in its infancy. While many directory assistance calls are at least partially automated, consumers have only just begun to realize they can make free directory assistance calls and can find companies by category (as they do in print “yellow pages”). As such services improve and become better known, the volume of such calls will increase. One effect is that it will be much easier to find classical customer service numbers, which now often require searching on a Web site or finding a communication from the company such as a bank statement.
This will increase the number of calls to contact centers. Thus, companies may find themselves with rapidly increasing call volume as these services become better known and widely used.
Read Bill's analysis on the impact of voice search on call centers here - exclusively in the SPEECH Community!

featuring: Peggy Salz, Analyst & Publicist, MobileSearchGroove.com

June 27, 2007 - One of the key findings of the new „Market Report Voice Business 2007 in Germany“ was that Mobile Search will be a major driver of the voice business in the next years as well as a key factor for the development of a mobile mass market.
SPEECH Community editor Sebastian Paulke asked Germany based Peggy Anne Salz, analyst and publisher with a track record of more than three years of ongoing research and publication on the topic of Mobile Search, why this technology and these services are gaining so much attention and why several industries are so excited about the various promises of a voice enabled mobile world.