March 2008

Magazine Features

Don't Spend It All at Once

How to get the most out of your speech tech budget

Secret Agents

The hidden value of someone behind the scenes.

What's the Use?

Testing early and often can find the hidden cracks in an IVR structure

Deployments

Picking Speech

Voice-based picking system brings order accuracy to a distributor's operations.

Retailer Is Sold on Hosted IVR

A speech application lets salespeople concentrate on closing sales rather than opening unnecessary phone dialogues.

Settling the Score

A consulting firm moves from paper to IVR

Editor's Letter

All the World's a Stage

Forward Thinking

Embedded Speech in China

The Chinese market for embedded speech is no longer wishful thinking

Industry View

The Next Small Thing

Many baby steps versus one giant leap

Inside Outsourcing

Avoid the Wrong Implementation

The right use of speech can help keep customers

Interact

Exploring VUI Designers: the Faces of Speech

Findings reveal unique characteristics that bind us as a profession.

Talking Tech

Keeping the User in Control

Giving callers a sense of power during a call increases the chances for task completion

Voice Value

Innovations: Apple's New TTS

Synthesized speech might seem like a misnomer

Standards

Introducing EMMA

The new standard for representing what the user said

Speech Solutions

VoIP Phone Services

A Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service consolidates all telephony and computer information over an Internet line. Not only does this save the geographical space consumed by old equipment, it also cuts costs significantly.

FYI

Asia's Contact Center Boom

Industry giants IBM and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories are bringing their contact center expertise to China

Market Spotlight: Gaming--Playing with Speech

Voice interfaces in video games are rare as developers try to figure out how and when to incorporate speech.

NPR For the Deaf: All People Considered

National Public Radio unveiled plans to offer the first readio service for the deaf and blind

Overheard/Underheard

Under-the-radar speech news

Replacing Text with Context

For media companies to ensure users are getting the right content, they must leverage image and voice recognition technologies

Speech in the Next 'Digital Decade'

Microsoft pledged to continue development of more natural user interfaces, including voice, as part of a new technical revolution