The relationship between IBM and Nuance Communications continues to evolve, with Big Blue’s naming Nuance a “Preferred Business Partner.” The public courtship began back in January, as noted in this post, when Nuance almost unilaterally announced that it had licensed IBM’s core speech processing portfolio. At the time, a spokesperson for the group at IBM that markets WebSphere Voice Server assured us that Big Blue would continue aggressively marketing its speech processing products and services.

Six months on, the relationship has morphed into a Joint Initiative Agreement (JIA). This means that the companies are closely collaborating on development efforts and accelerating the rate at which they can respond to demands that are uncovered or generated by IBM’s Global Business Services business unit. As Steve Chambers, president, Mobile-Enterprise Division at Nuance, explained to us in an interview, the new relationship adds another dimension to the IP and technical relationship – “real commercial umph,” a view that was affirmed by Frank Kern, senior vice president for IBM Global Business Services, in a press release.

On the product front, the fruits of the collaboration between Nuance and IBM engineers will be baked into Nuance’s core software in calendar year 2010. It is premature to ask for a precise roadmap, but Chambers assured us that the future products will be the product of rigorous comparative evaluation to determine where one excels or the excels in terms of fulfilling customer and partner requirements. And it is important to note that those requirements will be seen through the lens of the professionals at Global Business Services.

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Tags: Nuance, IBM, speech processing