SandCherry Software Eases Mass Deployment of Next-Generation Services for Service Providers and Enterprises
BOULDER, CO - SandCherry Inc., a developer of media resource and applications broker software, announced version 2.3 of its SoftServer platform that allows affordable mass deployment of next-generation services such as voice dialing, voice-enabled customer service applications and multimodality. Building on the functionality of its predecessor, SandCherry's SoftServer 2.2 platform, it offers greater reliability and performance for speech platform solutions. Like the SoftServer 2.2 solution, SandCherry's latest version of the SoftServer platform utilizes standard servers and advanced software components to enable Communications Service Providers (CSPs) and enterprises of all sizes to incorporate and make enhanced services available to their subscribers. "There is growing excitement about voice and multimodal enhanced services revitalizing communications, generating new revenues for CSPs, and offering new and easier-to-use interfacing opportunities for the consumer," said Dale Hartzell, SandCherry vice president of marketing. "Incorporating these services into existing systems, however, can be extremely costly and time consuming. Solutions offered by many companies are hardware-centric or vertically integrated software solutions that are not only expensive and cumbersome to deploy, but also cannot be scaled/adapted as other service components become available in the future." SoftServer 2.3 Platform Allows Enhanced Service Mass Deployment SandCherry's SoftServer 2.3 software platform provides the key to integrating enhanced applications with existing services and networks. Available off-the-shelf, it requires less hardware and thus a smaller investment. Its key component - the Intelligent Control Module (ICM) - brings increased reliability plus improved resource accounting, management and integration capabilities. "With the SoftServer 2.3 platform, cost-effective mass deployment of carrier-grade enhanced services is now a reality," added Hartzell. "The SoftServer 2.3 platform provides a cost-effective, efficiently managed array of applications and resources needed to deploy the latest service innovations and it is scalable and flexible to allow adoption of other applications that become available in the future." Enhanced Services Advance Phone and Mobile Applications
Enhanced services include new advanced applications such as voice dialing and voice information portals, enhancements to existing applications such as voice-enabled customer service applications for stock trading or ordering airline tickets, and multimodal solutions that combine voice and data elements for mobile workforce and telematics applications. With the benefits of enhanced services realized, cell phones, PDAs and other mobile devices can be used for watching color video clips, hearing streaming audio clips, reading news, filling in online forms, accessing work-related applications, or downloading maps. "At last, the two billion wireless and wireline phones in the world can be used to provide the advantages of real voice-enabled services," noted Charles Corfield, SandCherry president, co-founder and CEO. "These enhanced applications, which were previously available only to a small fraction of the population, can now be opened up to anyone who has a phone." SoftServer 2.3 Features
Incorporating all the functionality of SoftServer 2.2 platform, SandCherry's SoftServer 2.3 solution also includes additional capabilities upgrades: ·Manages integration of disparate service elements such as speech recognition engines, Text-to-Speech (TTS) servers (now including AT&T Natural Voices and Elan Speech Cube and also upgraded versions of Nuance and SpeechWorks), media servers and conference bridge platforms dispersed on different hardware and different locations. This allows applications such as unified messaging, blast conferencing and Web content retrieval to be voice-enabled, integrated, deployed and managed through the SoftServer 2.3 platform. ·New advances in start-of-speech, end-of-speech detection, permitting new speech recognition services to be used in noisy wireless environments. ·International Language Support capability, which simplifies multilingual installation for speech recognition and TTS. ·Solaris Certification, providing a fully certified solution through Solaris, including Solaris-compatible VXML browser, speech recognition and TTS components from Nuance. ·SNMP support to help simplify monitoring, control and integration. SoftServer 2.3 Benefits
·Lower-cost Deployment: Rather than requiring a completely new hardware system, the SoftServer solution leverages existing Web applications, application servers and off-the-shelf hardware and software components while obtaining maximum utilization from each resource. ·Faster Service Rollout: Allowing for rapid deployment, the SoftServer platform simplifies application component plug-and-play to support complex service integration, management integration, and service/resource accounting capabilities. ·Carrier-class Performance: The SoftServer platform provides modularity, reliability and performance that can be configured for large, high-availability carrier applications or small enterprise applications. ·Single-platform Solution: Utilizing existing software and hardware components, SandCherry's SoftServer solution supports multiple applications on a single extensible platform. ·Full-service Support: The SoftServer platform supports a full range of services, including IVR, voice-enabled and multimodal. ·Future Adaptability: The SoftServer platform is scalable and flexible to adopt future hardware and software components that will offer additional service enhancements.