New look at managing device convergence

Telecommunications Americas, Dec, 2004 by Ron Nieman

Let's face it: The only thing most people really need a PC for anymore is its full-sized keyboard. Beyond that, accessing information can be done just as easily through the vast number of mobile devices. But as these devices get smarter, so does the sophistication level of users.

The convergence of devices and services is creating a challenge for carriers. Services have become another information channel and customer touch point to be managed. Because of this, device and application convergence must be handled in a way that improves overall usability and provides opportunities to offer more services faster, preventing subscriber churn and providing high levels of competitive differentiation.

Speech can serve as a common user interface that masks differences between device types and services. By providing a comfortable and intuitive user experience, speech can drive customer loyalty. Because it can be applied to the automation of more complex transactions, it can easily bridge the communications gap between users and applications such as e-mail, sales force automation and scheduling.

Using speech automation, carriers can deliver new services in real-time, while keeping disruptions to a minimum. The inherent flexibility of speech helps carriers increase ARPU and service usage, and cement long-term subscriber loyalty.

The keypad on a typical phone offers limited options. With speech, any number of distinct services can be combined and packaged for different market segments and customized to meet individual user needs. Carriers can launch new or improved services without interrupting existing services. Speech automation can facilitate the quick deployment of emerging technologies to create new, near-term revenue opportunities. This flexibility will help carriers add the unique services required for increased usage and stickiness.

Speech also brings users and service providers one step closer to the Holy Grail: voice, video and data all on a single device of the user's choosing, through a single carrier, and customized to a subscribers' preferences. This is already happening. One California county is piloting a text-to-speech system for communicating emergencies to first responders anywhere, anytime, over any device. The system will send a text alert simultaneously to pagers, e-mails, and via voice to cellular phones--eliminating the risk of failure from any single device and speeding overall response times. There also are a variety of MMS-ready devices that allow content to be pushed to and stored on the device.

Speech automation also offers unique personalization and branding opportunities. Users can customize and personalize their service delivery with celebrity greetings, ring tones and voicemail personas.

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The cost/benefit of speech is well documented within the call center. However, innovative carriers are using speech automation to increase service usage. Rogers AT&T Wireless in Canada uses speech automation-enabled self-service for pre-paid wireless service activations. With it, it reached 73 percent of total pre-paid activations, marking the first time that customers activated cellular phone services without a live operator. The application reached clearance rates higher than 90 percent upon initial implementation.

There are, however, still a few obstacles before carriers can reap the complete benefits of speech-enabled technologies. One is standards; though common at the network level, they have yet to reach the handset as a universal mandate. A global standard that goes beyond CDMA and GSM is required to interconnect all devices and applications. Additionally, SALT and VXML development standards, designed to enable a speech interface to XML data for use when visual Web-based viewing isn't available, are important to provide a wider range of multi-device application options for carriers.

Basic technology infrastructure issues also must be in place--including adopting a Web-centric network architecture that can take full advantage of the technology. Broadband adoption rates must continue to rise to facilitate more data at the hand phone level and connect multiple device types. Download and upload speeds made possible with 2.5 and 3G broadband are good, but what's more important is the feel the user gets when using a 3G network. It offers the promise of providing the same experience as accessing the Web on a DSL line and is particularly impressive when using speech and other multi-modal applications.

Overcoming the final obstacles to speech automation as a bridging device has become easier with the improvement of ASR and TTS engines. Design improvements also help to create a more natural and intuitive interface.

The bottom line is, as user needs become more sophisticated, and demand for more service options grows, providers must deliver more useful, effective and responsive services that cater to individual market segments and unique user needs. Deploying speech automation is one method to meet these goals rapidly and cost effectively.