Recent Posts - page 148

  • Genesys’ UC-Connect Debuts Today

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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.

  • Speech Rec Expected To Spur Use of NYC’s Trip Planner

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    mta-logo-150The New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) will deploy an automated speech recognition from Nuance to shorten wait times, with hope, expand the reach of its “Trip Planner” service to the thousands more New Yorkers dialing 718-330-1234.

  • Webcast: “Recombinant Telephony: Conversations from the Cloud”

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    This on-demand webcast discusses the opportunities that arise at the intersection of VoIP, SIP, Web 2.0 and Social Networking and looks into how cloud-based models simplify self-service, customer care and person-to-person communications. Speakers: Dan Miller – Senior Analyst, Opus Research… Read More ›

  • Centrelink Unveils Voice Authentication System

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    In a widely anticipated deployment, Australian social services agency Centrelink has officially launched a biometric speaker verification system used to authenticate customer access to welfare services. The $2 million system has been in development for more than two years, including a pilot program for students and families, and is now available to up to 60,000 Centrelink customers.

    Because customers were having trouble remembering passwords for phone access, speaker verification was implemented as “the only thing that might work beyond a PIN,” said Ross Summerfield, Project Manager with Centrelink. Additionally, the voice self-service system frees up Centrelink to handle more complex cases and hopes to improve staff efficiency in handling some 28 million calls per year.

    While the opt-in system is initially targeting “customers without complex lodging requirements and who may need to routinely update simple information,” Summerfield says they have no intention of rolling it out to all Centrelink customers. To recruit the initial customers, employees have been actively calling and inviting prospective users.

    Summerfield says enrollment takes about five minutes, with a customer repeating an access number three times, their name twice and counting “1 to 9” a minimum of two times. Once authenticated, the user has access to all telephone self-service offerings.

    Telecommunications provider Telstra has managed the service delivery, while KAZ provided project management for connecting the system components to Centrelink’s security services. As well, KAZ built dual, text-independent speaker verification engines, with Nuance providing an additional text-dependent engine.

    Though the program is only officially available to Centrelink customers this week, Summerfield said measurements during the 2007-2008 pilot showed that 90% of callers would prefer to use speaker verification over a PIN, with 95% finding the system friendly and easy to use and 98% saying they would use it the next time they accessed Centrelink.

  • SpeechCycle Opens “Grammar Factory” for Rich Speech Applications

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    Featured Research
    A new hosted offering by SpeechCycle (“nRich Grammar Factory”) puts data in the hands of companies to build new grammars, ensuring better recognition rates and higher levels of caller satisfaction with voice self-service. The solution marks a milestone in Recombinant Telephony by moving grammar development into the cloud.

    Advisories are available to registered users only.

    For more information on becoming an Opus Research client, please contact Pete Headrick ([email protected]).

    Registered CAS Clients – Click Here to View the Advisory

  • IM-inent Success for Voxeo’s Latest Acquisition

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    logo_voxeoToday Voxeo is acquiring IMified, a company which operates a hosted platform that provides its clients simplified ways to off automated Instant Messaging services regardless of protocol or proprietary service provider. It’s all part of Voxeo’s efforts to support what it refers to as “Unified Self-Service” as part of a broad suite of Unified Communications services.

  • The Palm Pre and Voicemail Services: Feeding Speculation

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    picture-1Now that we know the price and release date of the Palm Pre, I’d like to pour some fuel on the flames that are illuminating Palm (and Sprint’s) strategy for voicemail and other speech-enabled services.