Biographical Information

Articles by Steve Chirokas

The 2016 Speech Industry Implementation Awards: Encore Capital Group

The 2016 Speech Industry Implementation Awards: Open English

Speech and J2EE - A Foundation for More Creative Dialog Design

Repurposing existing data for speech is frequently a new concept for IT managers whose expectations have been shaped by the proprietary speech systems exclusively available in pre-VoiceXML days.  Speech industry standards such as VoiceXML can take full advantage of J2EE to allow designers of speech applications to more easily leverage data that already exists with protocols considered by most organizations to be standards-based. 

Speech Applications Security: Protecting Your Business and Your Customers From Hackers

With unauthorized access to and theft of customer information on the rise, speech-enabled customer care systems present a new set of security parameters for companies to address. If ignored, a security breach in these systems could be devastating from both an economic and customer trust and loyalty perspective.

What Happened to Voice Portals?

What is – or, more accurately – what was a voice portal? One definition offered by the “Computing Dictionary” describes voice portals as “an interactive voice response (IVR) front end to a data retrieval system … being positioned mainly by carriers as wide-scale applications, offering things like specialized audio ‘infotainment’ services, real-time news, and stock quotes.” These sites offered engaging speech-enabled dialog available 24/7 from any standard telephone. …