ScanSoft Delivers Solutions for VoIP

PEABODY, Mass. - ScanSoft, Inc. delivered a portfolio of solutions, services and technologies optimized for Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) that enable next-generation speech-based applications.

VoIP technologies take advantage of existing IP infrastructure, which allows businesses to deploy applications and services.  ScanSoft's conversational speech solutions, designed for contact centers and enterprise services, use the convergence of voice and data to provide self-service options for customers without sacrificing quality or personalized service. 

VoIP made great strides among US-based businesses in 2004, according to In-Stat/MDR, as the percentage of companies using the network technology grew from three percent in 2003 to 12 percent in 2004.  In-Stat/MDR found higher rates of penetration within the larger business segments and forecasts that VoIP penetration will be at 43 percent in the large business segment by the end of 2005.  There are now over 400 service providers and 450 VoIP Carrier Network and Equipment Suppliers in the U.S. and Canada alone.

ScanSoft's speech solutions are designed to be easily deployed within a VoIP environment, and comprise a host of technologies, services and partner resources:

• Standards-based Speech Technologies - ScanSoft's foundation speech technologies, including OpenSpeech® Recognizer, RealSpeak™ text-to-speech and SpeechSecure™ speaker verification, are optimized for VoIP implementations across a range of codecs including G711, G723 and G729. 
• Open Solutions - ScanSoft® solutions are designed to be open and interoperable for all major VoIP platforms.  The proliferation of VoIP deployments is being driven by ScanSoft channel partners including Aspect, Avaya, Cisco, Edify, Genesys, Nortel, VoiceGenie and a host of others. 
• Standards-based Dialog Technologies -ScanSoft's suite of dialog technologies are software modules that can manage natural language conversations and enable the development of applications in a VoIP environment. 
• Multimodal Support - Through X|mode®, ScanSoft's VoIP-based multimodal applications platform, customers and partners can extend speech applications to the mobile environment and enable user interactions that combine speech with visual capabilities on many of today's mobile devices, over mobile IP networks such as GPRS, 1xRTT, and 1xEVDO.  X|mode can be combined with ScanSoft's OpenSpeech Dialog solution and VoiceXML platforms available from ScanSoft partners to enable applications such as multimodal directory assistance, customer care and location-based services.