Unisys and MediaSoft offer natural language understanding in IVR systems

Business Wire, Feb 11, 1997

MONTREAL and BLUE BELL, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 11, 1997-- MediaSoft Telecom and Unisys Computer Systems Group Tuesday announced forming an alliance to provide natural language technology solutions for companies looking to automate their call processing applications through intelligent, cost-effective and time saving methods.

This collaborative effort continues the growth and market adoption of the natural language understanding technology from Unisys.

This relationship has two components:

-- The first is a joint development agreement to integrate the

Unisys Natural Language Understanding (NLU) product, the NL

Assistant, with MediaSoft's IVS call processing application

generator and runtime platform creating a value added solution

for financial applications.

-- The second component is an Elite Reseller software license

agreement, allowing MediaSoft to embed the NL Assistant into

MediaSoft's IVS Builder and IVS Server in order to sell the

technology to third parties or end users.

"Unisys has been built on a reputation of high quality, mission critical, business oriented products," said Gabor Barta, executive vice president of MediaSoft.

"The Unisys NL Assistant is a perfect complement to the suite of telephony products that MediaSoft has to offer. The addition of Natural Language Understanding technology to MediaSoft's IVS software platform will increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs. Now, callers can get through services faster with NLU, reducing the length of the call."

MediaSoft's IVS platform automates access to customer services, allowing individuals to interact with information in a computer database using a telephone, through touch-tone input and speech recognition, or a computer via Internet access.

The MediaSoft IVS Server runtime platform can run on either the standard SCO UNIX operating system or Microsoft NT operating system. MediaSoft software is architecturally compatible with the Unisys NLU product, making this an ideal solution for customers looking to save time and money.

"MediaSoft is a leader in IVR tools and runtime platforms," said Joe Yaworski, general manager, Unisys Natural Language Understanding Group.

"MediaSoft delivers a sophisticated set of software tools that integrate voice recognition, fax response and text to speech. Now, natural language understanding will allow MediaSoft to deliver the recognition and understanding of complete sentences. This will keep the MediaSoft solution at the top of the industry."

What is Natural Language?

Natural Language Understanding goes beyond speech recognition, providing rules-based, context-sensitive technology that enables an application to engage in an intelligent dialogue with a user.

Applications can be built to understand a verbal conversation over the telephone, or a typed message over the Internet. With this technology, the NL Assistant takes everyday English, understands what it means, and translates it into computer language.

The speech or text-based input is converted into meaning, making interaction with complex computer applications much easier. The result is increased customer satisfaction through a more natural user interface, as well as shorter calls which deliver cost savings to clients implementing these systems.

How It Works

This solution is a combination of speech recognition and natural language understanding. For example, if you call your bank today for information about your account, an automated attendant will prompt you to press No. 1 for checking, No. 2 for savings, and No. 3 to transfer funds.

With a natural language solution, you can tell the system "I'd like to check my savings account balance" or, "checking account please" or, "savings account balance." The speech recognizer takes what is said, digitizes it and turns it into a sentence.

Unisys NL Assistant interprets the sentence through semantic parsing and selects out the nouns, pronouns and verbs to apply meaning. The intelligence of the natural language engine can detect the difference between "What's my checking account balance?" and "I want to check my savings balance." and provide the correct information.

About MediaSoft

Established in 1989 MediaSoft Telecom is a Montreal-based Computer Telephony (CT) software manufacturer and technology partner to OEMs, VARs, Telcos, System Integrators and large corporations around the world.

MediaSoft designs, develops, manufactures and markets innovative software platforms to build and operate powerful interactive communications systems that integrate leading-edge technologies in voice, data, fax, web, and multimedia.

Its IVS Builder & IVS Server software platform is installed in over 20 countries world-wide providing a wide variety of interactive voice and fax response applications ranging from simple audiotex services to sophisticated call centers.

MediaSoft IVS applications automate telephone access to customer services, enhance productivity and reduce overhead costs in industries such as telecommunications, financial services, universities and others.