1. Bringing Speech Technologies to the Enterprise
Ken Waln
C.T.O. and V.P. of Engineering
Edify Corporation

2. Agenda Why Enterprise Speech? Branding Routing Economies of scale
Single-number Access
How Technology can help

3. What do I mean by “Enterprise Speech”?
Employing speech for multiple applications and organizations
Providing consistency across applications
Pushing speech down to smaller applications
Branding your Speech Interfaces
Making Speech an Enterprise initiative, not just solving a problem

4. Current State of the Market
Few implementations are truly enterprise focused
Many companies have multiple IVRs in many silos and several speech initiatives
The customer experience in many cases is horrible
Total Cost of Ownership is often unknown (and probably higher than many realize)

5. How an Enterprise Initiative Can Help
Cost:
Systems
Software
Training
Application Components
Physical Infrastructure
Telco costs (including transfers)
Back-office connectivity
Why not share the burden?
Makes it practical to do more applications
Customer satisfaction

6. How it helps the customer
One phone number, easy to find
Enter information once
System has access to more data
phone numbers to do ANI routing
CRM data
Reduced transfers between automated systems and between call centers
Don’t reenter data (CTI)

7. Deep in menu – press 1 for store locations
Typical Situation
Incoming call
1 English 2 Sales
Deep in menu – press 1 for store locations
Network transfer
PSTN
ACD
Press 1 for English Press 1 for service, 2 for sales, 3 for support…
Gets a store location
Service
Vendor 2 – DTMF
Router by product
Support
Vendor 1 – DTMF
Router by product
Sales
Vendor 1 – DTMF
Router by function
Locator
Outsourced speech

8. So What Did The Caller Experience
Three Voices
Two Ringing Phones
Two “Your call may be monitored…”
Or even three?
Two DTMF systems
Different instructions
One speech system
Outsourced
Generic voice, no branding
Probably 60% of the call was getting to the right place

9. And What About the Company?
Toll charges for long call
Network transfer charge
Outsourcing fee
Many systems to maintain
Poor call tracking
ACD says call completed with a transfer to locator = success
Sales IVR says “call transferred” – may or may not log why
Outsourcer says “caller got what he wanted” but did he?
What if the nearest store is too far or he asked out of curiosity but had a real question?
No chance to transfer back or complete another transaction.

10. Voice Portal – Phase 1 PSTN ACD Locator Voice Portal Sales Service
Only for live call center
Immediately route all calls to Portal
Locator
Built into Portal
Voice Portal
Web Service Data Feed
VoiceXML to Portal
Sales
3rd Party App Server supplies VoiceXML
Service
Backend system feeds data to app on Portal
Support
Voice App Server Supplies VoiceXML Dialogs

11. Results for the Caller One Voice, One Brand One Disclaimer (if needed)
One set of Instructions, etc.
One Dialog
“How can I help you?”
“Briefly tell me the reason for your call”
Transfer and go back always available (no transfers)
No dead ends
E.g. Can do a transaction after the locator
Short call
In and out – got what he needed

12. Results for the Company
Positive Brand Reinforcement
No Network Transfer charge
No charge for locator
Shorter call
Real statistics of call
Transaction possible after locator app
What if system asked “can I locate a product for you at that store” and fulfilled the order online?
One system to maintain
Sharing of ports
Happy customer!

13. Other Benefits
Smaller applications can be cost justified once the infrastructure is in place
Speech easier to cost justify
Reuse applications
Many functions will be shared between apps
Can’t share if they are on different platforms
E.g. Product identifier for sales and service, store locator at main menu and in service
Also use available packaged applications and modules
Net result – speech used throughout
Higher containment
Happier users
Competitive advantage

14. Voice Portal – Phase 2 ACD VoIP Network Voice Portal Locator Sales
Only for live call center
Immediately route all calls to Portal
VoIP Network
Voice Portal
Locator
Built into Portal
Web Service Data Feed
VoiceXML to Portal
Sales
3rd Party App Server supplies VoiceXML
Service
Backend system feeds data to app on Portal
Support
Voice App Server Supplies VoiceXML Dialogs

15. Additional Benefit of VoIP
Portal in front of PBX/ACD
Could do this with PSTN, but network transfer charges apply
IP transfer to ACD (or IPACD) for live help
CTI data transfer simplified
Transfer between networks and internationally if needed
IP IVR with Speech
Just another app server
Can be located anywhere on the network

16. What Makes it Work? Routing Front End Compelling Voice User Interface
Robust Open Platform
Applications and Components

17. The Routing Front-End
Key to having a one number access is accurate routing
Use open prompting with a Statistical Language Model Grammars
Keys to success
Tools for grammar development
Data collection
Usability testing
Expert designers

18. VUI Design -- A Web Analogy
In the early days, programmers built the web sites
Often lackluster, not portraying the right image of the company
In the next stage, marketing took over
The message improved
But sometimes usability suffered
Big graphics on dial-up lines
Complex menus
Too much “fluff”, substance missing

19. The Web Site Today How is a company’s web site designed today
Usually starts with marketing
Creative teams, consultants, graphics artists
Usability analysis
Focus groups
And finally the programmers implement it
Testing before rollout
And the design is likely to be refined and improved on a frequent basis
Adding content
Refreshing look and feel
Give people a reason to return
Efficient and effective

20. Factors in branding and Persona
Personality of the System
Voice casting
Direction of voice
Non-Speech audio (audio icons, music)
User Interface
Text of prompts
Technology production
Retailer

21. Designing a Speech Application
Persona
Can become a logo of your company just like a visual logo
Can provide consistency with other audio media
Applications can utilize multiple voices if carefully designed (different voices for different purposes)
Different tones and moods are appropriate for different applications
It’s art, not technology
Create the persona
Cast the voice
Write the script
Direct the performance

22. The importance of standards
Platform -- VoiceXML 2.0
Conformance tested
Allows interoperability of custom and packaged applications
Also related standards for grammars (SRGS) and TTS (SSML)
But it is not the answer, just a language
Infrastructure -- SIP
The VoIP standard
Note H.323 is widely deployed, but SIP appears to be the standard going forward.

23. Reducing the cost of deployment
Reusable components
Reduce time to market
Consistent, tested user interface
Packaged templates or kits
Many reusable components for a vertical application area
Locator module
Name and address capture
Payments
Routing
Range from a good starting point to complete applications
Complete application should come with configuration tools, management reports, complete out-of-the-box VUI
But customizable and brandable

24. How to get started Pick the best initial application
Fast ROI
Demonstrable value
Implement it in an enterprise way
Standards based platforms
Quality, branded interface
Enterprise-class infrastructure
Partner with experts
A wide range of skills will increase success
Use the success to add more applications and capacity

25. Contact me by email -- kenw@edify.com
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