Voicing Approval

Global Finance, Jun 2005 by Bedell, Denise

Already recognized as a key element of any CRM strategy, speech recognition technology is, only set to grow in popularity as prices come down and products become increasingly sophisticated.

Speech recognition software is best known for its presence in the call center space, driving advancements in customer relationship management (CRM). Such software has matured to the point where it is the norm rather than the exception in this realm.

But there are a multitude of uses for voice technology-from speaking text messages into a mobile phone to doctors dictating reports and from investors getting stock quotes and making trades over their telephone to using voice-activated identity authentication.

The most recognized use of speech recognition technology is within call center applications. Richard Rosinski, a vice president atVoiceGenie, a Toronto-based company that provides the backbone to voice applications for telecom and enterprise firms, says the advantages are many. "Generally when people are interacting with voice recognition technology, they have far shorter phone calls, which leads to savings just in holding time and telecommunications charges," he explains.

Another saving is in headcount, adds Bruce Eidsvik, also at VoiceGenie: "An agent costs upwards of $30,000 a year plus benefits, whereas a speech recognition port costs around $3,000 a year. An average call center agent costs around $6 to $7 per call, and if you automate that call, you can bring it down to a dollar or less per call."

As call center technology becomes more standardized and the market matures, interest is growing, Rosinski notes: "We have seen really strong pickup in the speech automation business over the past nine months to a year."Total investment is expected to rise from $90 million in 2004 to $262 million in 2008, according to Datamonitor.

Dick Bucci, an associate with consulting firm The Pelorus Group, explains in a report that, as with other IT businesses, the contact center space is being hit by slowdowns in investment spending but adds that few technologies have the same power to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction while reducing operating costs as voice technology.

"The replacement cycle for theY2K-induced spurt of products purchased in 1998-1999 will provide a welcome bump in market growth," Bucci says. Driving this growth, he adds, is a wealth of new applications, new markets, a persuasive business case, modest penetration rates and corporate compliance and liability concerns.

Technology Speeds Data Input

While the heart of the business is in call center technology, interest in other uses for speech software is exploding. One area that promises greater efficiency is that of automated stock quotes and trades. UK telecom firm BT, for example, offers a speech-driven, collaborative trading system where trades can be entered, contacts dialed, emails sent through mobile phones or voice-enabled PDAs and customer relationship management (CRM) systems updated.

The group went live with such a system for the New York Mercantile Exchange in February this year, rolling it out to 740 trading positions across the exchange. John Barbara, director of telecommunications at the New York Mercantile Exchange, said in a statement, "They worked with us in blocks over a series of weekends, avoiding any disruption to our mission-critical trading operations."

Another growth area is document dictation. German group Philips Speech Recognition Systems, a subsidiary of global conglomerate Philips, is one of a number of companies offering software to handle document creation for case management systems. Marcel Wassink, CEO of Philips Speech Recognition Systems, says, "Whether it be dictating, brain dumping or what have you, our software offers complete hands-free document creation." Proponents of the technology note that it can allow customers or company agents to input complex data in a short period of time with great accuracy. The information input is then integrated with enterprise systems-giving greater automation to the entire data management process.

Open Standards

There are two major areas that are of critical interest both in the speech recognition market itself and for clients and potential clients. The first is the development of more flexible voice user interfaces-the prime subunit in the speech recognition hierarchy, and where speech meets data.

Peter Mahoney, vice-president of worldwide marketing for the Speechworks division of Scansoft, explains: "Applications are becoming more flexible, and this is really what clients are looking for. Instead of going through a hierarchical menu, as was the case with the original speech-activated systems, these solutions can handle a much more conversational exchange. Users, be they customers or internal stakeholders, just provide the system with as much information as possible about the request, and the solution can pull out the appropriate information and fill in the blanks."

The other big development involves what happens to the information once it is received-how a voice recognition solution can connect to back-end systems within the organization to provide seamless processing of information across the group. This is possible as a result of the development and use of open standards, such as voiceXML, that allow for voice applications to interact with other data applications.