By 2007, businesses of all sizes will already be a long way down the transformative path toward a Service-Oriented Architecture. And the contact center will remain a showcase for the best practices that meld speech processing, call processing, workforce management and customer relationship management on an SOA-conformant infrastructure.
Featured Research
Last Man Standing: The Future of Independent Application Development Tools
With Cisco’s recent purchase of Audium, the number of independent, voice-application development tool providers in
the market has been reduced to one: Vicorp. As the independent tool market dissolves, the focus shifts towards providers of niche functionality and service differentiation that hasn’t been addressed by the classic tool vendors. Being the last man standing, Vicorp is now positioned to build OEM relationships with Nortel, Intervoice and Genesys – the three voice self-service platform vendors with multiple platforms and without an appropriate developer tool strategy – or even become an acquisition target. As the last of the independent tool providers, Vicorp still has plenty of value.
Cisco Announces Acquisition of Audium and Metreos
Cisco’s announced acquisition of venerable VoiceXML development tool vendor Audium and five-year-old VoIP application vendor Metreos creates one of the first global players equipped to supply its customers a complete servicesoriented stack. These new acquisitions reflect renewed emphasis on opening up the Cisco platforms, focusing on standard protocols and interfaces and fulfilling Cisco’s promise to add applications and value to its offerings.
Spain’s Ydilo Hosts “Vodafone Interactive Care”
Vodafone Spain’s groundbreaking portal provides a real-life glimpse into the new generation of customer-care platforms that combine voice, text-messaging (SMS), and multimedia messaging (MMS) to better respond to emerging customer needs in real-time.
VoiceXML Platforms: Criteria for Platform Selection Study
Since 1985, Opus Research has been tracking the drivers of platform selection for Voice Self-Service platforms. Earlier this year, VoiceGenie commissioned a project to update the current criteria used by implementers when selecting a VoiceXML platform. This report reflects the results of the four-month survey process.
A Host Media Processing Primer: When Going Cardless Makes Sense
Host Media Processing eliminates the need for special purpose network interface cards to support voice, fax and even video processing by replacing hardware with software. Moving media processing from specialpurpose interface cards makes it possible for more applications and servers to share those resources.
The ‘Free DA’ Phenomenon: Is the Business Model Sustainable
Free, advertiser-supported Directory Assistance services hold promise as media for local, mobile search and e-commerce. To succeed they must morph beyond the DA model to become a more wide-ranging portal for multimodal access to a portal of local businesses and mobile services.
Spotlight on Speech Enabled Search: Mobile Applications Gaining Legitimacy
Mobile subscribers are poised to help consummate the marriage between speech recognition (aka “dictationâ€) and local, Web-based search. Nuance, VoiceSignal, InfoNXX have used venues in Europe and the U.S. to show the power of automated speech and multiple modalities to enhance mobile search and messaging services. When the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Google a patent for speech-based search, it added legitimacy (and a working business model) to the business plans for mobile search.
CAT’s Vertical Leap
Horizontal applications — such as self-service, call steering and dictation — propelled Conversational Access Technologies’ past growth. But it’s increasingly evident that a deeper understanding of the requirements, grammars and business processes underlying specific verticals are key to future success.
Conversational Access Technologies: Forecasting Application-Driven Growth
After reaching $800 million in 2005, enterprise spending on hardware, software and services to support automated handling of telephone based transactions, queries and interactions (primarily voice-based) will exceed $2.5 billion by 2009.