Thanks to a Tweet from my Alma Mater pointing to this blog post, I’ve learned about an initiative to use smartphones as a transformative tool for small businesses in so-called emerging markets. The article provides some background into the growth of mobile applications for shopping and e-commerce; primarily through the use of text messaging protocols. However, the post’s authors – the co-founders of Frogtek – are more interested in the proliferation of smartphones as platforms for business management applications.
Articles
Cast A Vote to Port your Phone Number to Google Voice
You may be able to signal to Google that you’d like them to accelerate the introduction of BYON to Google Voice by casting a vote here. We’ll monitor developments as the service is refined in the coming months.
National Australia Bank Launches Customer-Facing Voice Biometric Service
Australia continues to be a hotbed for the latest in voice biometrics announcements. In another widely rumored deployment, National Australia Bank (NAB) has officially launched a voice verification service, making it available to the company’s 3.3 million personal banking customers.
Aimed at “delivering enhanced customer experience and security,” the public deployment comes after NAB ran a successful internal pilot involving 2,000 branch staff in May. The voice biometrics-based service is part of a multi-million dollar effort to upgrade a range of new security functions available to NAB personal banking customers.
According to a company statement, “With identity theft related fraud increasingly moving to the phone channel, the use of voice biometrics enables the effective identification, authentication and verification of customers, offering an extra layer of protection,” said Warren Shaw, executive general manager with NAB Personal Banking.
Successful authentication pilot programs have longed been rumored for financial services organizations, but NAB’s official launch marks the first bank – both in Australia and globally – to go public with a large-scale, customer-facing service. More to come…
Aviva Launches Voice Biometric Capability
Speaking at last month’s Voice Leadership Forum in Sydney, Australia, Paul Magee, managing director with Salmat VeCommerce, predicted “an insurance company and bank are going live with its biometrics technology in the next few weeks.”
True to MaGee’s word, Australian life insurance and wealth management provider Aviva today announced the deployment of a voice biometric service to expedite the process of routing customers to appropriate resources over the phone. Utilizing Salmat VeCommerce’s VeSecure service, callers to Aviva can be quickly verified in order to access all insurance, investment and superannuation products. Enrollment to the service takes approximately two minutes, but Aviva guarantees “subsequent calls will be a faster and better experience.”
In a statement, Frank Lombardo, Group Director Operations at Aviva said, “Voice biometrics is yet another way in which Aviva is improving [customer] experience for both our customers and financial planners.”
Aviva has set up a website page to address frequently asked questions about the voice verification system and includes a prominent mention on the company’s home page.
Aviva Australia, combined with funds management arm Aviva Investors, manages or administers more than AUD$19.2 billion in funds for more than 350,000 customers. Both are part of the global Aviva group, the world’s fifth largest insurance group.
Get Involved in the FCC’s Inquiry into Our National Broadband Policy
David Isenberg is joined by an illustrious roster of signatories in filing this comment pursuant to the Commission’s Notice of Inquiry (NOI) in reference to Docket No. 09-51.
Voice Control for Mobile: Hands Free or Not Hands Free?
That is the Question. Whether it’s driven by state strictures surrounding drivers’ safety or simply a matter of convenience, a growing number of mobile devices have added automated speech. The iPhone GS, which was demo’d at the Apple WorldWide Developers… Read More ›
Genesys’ UC-Connect Debuts Today
Genesys has formally launched UC-Connect, a software suite that tightly links Genesys branded Customer Interaction Management (CIM) resources with IBM SameTime, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Siemens OpenScape and parent company Alcatel-Lucent’s MyInstant Communicator.
Convergys Offers “On Demand” Solutions For Loan Issuers
Citing statistics showing that the home loan industry is ramping up to handle 130,000+ requests for mortgage adjustments each month, Convergys now offers Convergys Loan Modification Solutions.
Google Wave: Say “Hello” to Real Unified Communications
Amid a mass of hype and hooplah around so-called Unified Communcications (UC), Google has launched a pre-beta program for developers to build new applications around Google Wave.
Microsoft’s Bing: Branded Search Extends to Free DA
Monday also marked a much lower key launch for a rebranded (and renumbered) free automated Directory Assistance service, Bing 411. Details on the revamped service can be found here. There are many similarities between Bing411 and the erstwhile “Live Search 411” (which was accessed through the toll-free number 800-CALL411/800-225-5411) which, in turn, had leveraged much of the heavy lifting and automated speech application development that Tellme Networks had undertaken over the past five years or so. Yet there are many noteworthy, incremental and evolutionary improvements.