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.
Continue Reading July 2nd, 2008 Dan Miller
Last week, longtime Microsoft watcher Mary Joe Foley opined that Microsoft has a “grand plan to eliminate phone numbers.” She cited direct quotes from speeches that Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer have made among the international carrier community. Foley refers to a new software “platform” called Echoes designed to enable telecom service providers to sync diverse address books, seamlessly send messages between IM and SMS and assign a local telephone number to people using Windows Live Messenger.
Rather than concentrating on Echoes, Microsoft would have a better chance of eliminating phone numbers with “voice dialing.” It would involve speech-enabling the contact list, associating multiple “namespaces” (meaning phone numbers, IM user names, aliases on social networks, etc.) with an individual’s identity and then replacing dial-tone with a spoken prompt like, “what’s up?”
Continue Reading June 3rd, 2008 Dan Miller
The concept of unified communications (UC) is so overused it crowds out expansive thinking about the services that enterprises and wireless subscribers will use every day. The real deal is more accurately called “contextual communications,” and refers to intelligent handling and support of communications, interactions and transactions in the most appropriate manner based on analysis of each caller’s situation, including support of voice, text, graphics, video in real-time or asynchronously.
Continue Reading May 19th, 2008 Dan Miller
Sales of voice biometric-based solutions took a trajectory that was bound to disappoint in 2007. While there continue to be solid sales of enterprise solutions (primarily password reset) across multiple verticals and business sizes, the breakthrough to mass market, customer-facing solutions has been elusive. In the coming years, stepped up security requirements, coupled with the growth of mobile data access and commerce, will propel demand for voice-based authentication solutions and services. Thus far the speed of adoption has been slowed by confusion over technical approaches and concerns about competition or compatibility with existing infrastructure and protocols.
Continue Reading May 5th, 2008 Dan Miller
Genesys Labs is enlisting a multiplicity of partners into its intelligent Customer Front Door™ program. The iCFD is more than a metaphor because it calls for the integration of hardware, software and professional services that amount to big business for solutions providers across the boards.
Continue Reading April 22nd, 2008 Dan Miller
The rebranding of Aspect’s core product line (as UC for the Contact Center) along with an investment from Microsoft invites skepticism. IP-based contact centers are multi-vendor domains. Microsoft expects its prospects to toss out old gear to move to an Aspect-based solution, it is bound to be disappointed.
Continue Reading April 8th, 2008 Dan Miller
Yahoo’s $20 million investment in Vlingo and the rollout of a speech-enabled flavor of Yahoo One Search 2.0 signal an important epiphany for mobile service providers. They have confidence that mobile subscribers will readily embrace reliable speech recognition as the fastest, safest, most convenient way to find, interact, and transact with their favorite applications.
Continue Reading April 4th, 2008 Dan Miller
No blockbuster announcements were made at last month’s VoiceCon event in Orlando, FL. This reflects the maturity of the Unified Communications (UC) marketplace where key components of hardware and software have achieved commodity, building-block status.
Continue Reading April 1st, 2008 Dan Miller
Unified Communications has entered into the silly season. After massive re-branding and promotional efforts by major communications and IT infrastructure providers, the term has lost all meaning. The UC landscape today is more like one of those multilevel, Plexiglass chess boards. But providing communications and content in a context that directly benefits end-user is the point and is the root of Contextual Communications.
Continue Reading March 18th, 2008 Dan Miller
The metric for success for customer care voice self-services should not be based on automation rates but rather on task completion. And whether it’s for directory assistance, voicemail transcription or voice self-service applications, it has become increasingly clear that human beings will always have a role to play in the call workflow.
Continue Reading February 27th, 2008 Dan Miller
