In The
Press
n Contact Center World Interview with Mark Levinson, President,
VoxMedia Consulting
ContactCenterWorld.com.
July 2004
Mark Levinson
discusses current issues and future trends for speech technologies in the
contact center.
n Voice Automation or Outsourcing? Make the Cost-Cutting
Strategy Fit the Call
Supportindustry.com,
June 2004
"Call center managers today are under enormous pressure
to drive down costs. The two main weapons in their arsenal are outsourcing and voice automation... But choosing between them
is not simply a matter of comparing return-on-investment. It turns out that
the types of calls and transactions that are best suited for voice automation
are not necessarily the same as those that make sense for outsourcing...
So, when making decisions about automation or outsourcing (or not), it's
instructive to take a look at them from the point of view of the types of
calls you have to handle...“
n Let’s Get Creative! Speech Applications
Can Do More Than Impersonate Agents
Speech Technology
Magazine, July/August 2003
“The prevailing concept of voice user-interface design
today is to replicate, to the greatest extent possible, the experience of
speaking with a friendly, helpful human agent. While the intent is fine,
it misses a much greater potential made possible by new speech technologies:
to transform the interactive voice response (IVR) system into a powerful
new customer communications and branding medium. “
n
Voice
XML and SALT. A three-part series giving real-world assessments of the
hot new voice application standards.
Making Sense of Voice XML and SALT
TMCnet.com,
An overview
of the Voice XML and SALT standards: how their heritage in Web technology
yields big plusses for voice applications and systems; downsides and pitfalls;
what you need to know for successful design, development, and maintenance.
TMCnet.com,
A closer
look at Voice XML: what it covers, application design and development issues,
what skills are needed, what kinds of development tools are available.
SALT Sets the Standard for Web-Based Voice Applications
TMCnet.com,
More in-depth
coverage of SALT: the motives behind its design, requirements for multimodal
applications, where it makes sense and where it doesn’t, its components
and capabilities, design and development issues.
n Voice Technologies Offer Higher Potential
for Better Service, Lower Costs
Call
Center Management Review, September 2002
A
discussion of speech recognition, text-to-speech, and speaker authentication
technologies and the best ways to put them to work.
n Voice Technologies Complement Call Center Agents, Web Sites
TMCnet.com,
A look at
which kinds of applications benefit the most from speech recognition and
text-to-speech technologies, and how they can be integrated most effectively
with live agents and web contact methods.