Nuance Communications announced today that its speech technology has been selected by Avaya to supplement the latter’s unified messaging offering.  Leveraging Nuance’s speech recognition, Avaya’s one-X Speech, which allows users to interface and manage email, voicemail, and scheduling tasks over the phone, is now a standard component in the company’s Modular Messaging 4.0.  One-X Speech was designed to safely increase employee productivity in eyes-busy, hands-busy environments like driving. 

Modular Messaging 4.0 provides speech access for IBM Lotus Domino 7.0 and upgrades compatibility with Microsoft Exchange 2007 and Internet Explorer 7.  Users can manage messages using text-to-speech, launch calls by uttering the names of the relevant parties, create or review appointments, and record up to nine optional greetings—each in up to three different languages using the multilingual call answer feature.  

"Avaya Unified Communications gives workers the right tool for the right job, so the user interface has to be easy-to-use and provide seamless access,"  Mary Dunlop, Avaya’s vice president of unified communications product management, said in a statement.  "Nuance’s speech recognition technologies are acutely attuned to the natural way of speaking, which allows mobile workers [to] comfortably interact with communications and productivity tools even when they can’t get connected by any other means." 

Villanova University recently upgraded its voicemail system to Avaya Modular Messaging to accommodate the travel schedules of the school’s administrative staff and faculty.