It has long been clear that voice biometric-based speaker identification and verification technology providers will ride into government IT infrastructure on the coat-tails of approved vendors. As a case in point, Raytheon Company is integrating Loquendo’s Voice Security Library into Redwolf(TM), its “one-stop” suite of solutions for collection, storage and analysis of digital audio and VoIP (Voice over IP) communications.
Voice biometric-based authentication and security took one step deeper into ‘The Cloud’ as Voxeo and Trade Harbor announced a partnership. Voxeo is a provider of both premises-based and hosted platforms for standards-based interactive voice response (IVR) applications. Trade Harbor launched its efforts to expand the reach of voice-based authentication using a Software as a Service (SaaS) model back in 1999. The two companies are joining forces at a time that Opus Research believes will be looked back on as an inflection point in the adoption voiceprints for customer-facing services offered over the phone
Alcatel-Lucent’s Genesys Telecommunications Labs is making some very interesting announcements today at G-Force, its annual customer forum. The overall announcement is centered a key initiative called Cross Channel Conversations (CCC). It is a customer care solution which treats email, voice, Instant Messaging and SMS text as part of a single conversation.
While I would like the acronym “VAS” to stand for “Voice-Activated Services”, it really stands for mobile “Value Added Services.” In Vodafonese, it refers to the set of VAS include ring-back tones, voice portal and speech enabled services that will now be based on a VAS server from OnMobile Global, one of the largest providers of “white label” mobile services.
AT&T has stepped up efforts to offer medium-sized companies a pay-as-you-go option for contact center operations. Under the Hosted Integrated Contact Services (HICS), AT&T provides a way for companies to have inbound calls “take advantage of intelligent call routing, IVR applications and/or web-media capabilities (email, chat, fax).” To accomplish these objectives on its customers’ behalf, AT&T is deploying the major components of GCIP, the Genesys Customer Interaction Portal, which was fully integrated into the Genesys platform with the acquisition of SDE (a spin-off of German telephony application development specialist, VoicInt).
Add MetroPCS’ 6.1 million subscribers throughout the U.S. to the group of wireless customers who with more on device options for customer care and self-service. Nuance Communications and MetroPCS announced an agreement whereby Nuance Mobile Care will serve as the platform for self-service reached by dialing 611 on a mobile handset.
A group of technology executives with representatives from Citigroup, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, among others, has launched a research initiative to study various biometric technologies and how they could be used to discourage fraudsters’ efforts at identity theft or account take-over. While a number of banks around the world are already trialing or piloting biometric-based authentication for both online and call center-based access, as evident from this report in SearchFinancialSecurity.com, adoption and deployment has been plagued by a lack of understanding.
As reported by Greg Sterling in Opus Research’s LocalMobileSearch site, Verizon Wireless has established a service that makes the response to a Directory Assistance query into the “destination” used by the VZ Navigator service. This is yet another way for… Read More ›
As part of its long-standing plans for global expansion, Enghouse Systems Limited, parent company for Syntellect, completed its acquisition of Trio AB, an enterprise solutions provider founded in 1992. Trio provides voice processing and call processing platforms for enterprises in Scandinavia. While it was founded in 1992, it had been acquired by Teligent AB in 2006 as a premises-based offering from a value added service provider. Teligent put Trio up for sale in late 2008.
We were glad to see that Movidilo – a subsidiary of Spanish hosted speech services company Ydilo – had a booth at the Cellular Telephone and Internet Association (CTIA) convention in Las Vegas this year. It was more interesting to note that Movidilo had forged a relationship with West Interactive, one of the largest providers of automated customer care services in the world. According to a company press release, the two companies will work together to enhance the suite of customer care offerings to mobile phone subscribers.