Smart Talk: Speech-enabled apps deliver bottom-line benefits

Computerworld - When TV Guide subscribers want to notify the magazine about a change of address, they simply call customer service. But the friendly voice on the other end of the line isn't a human call center representative. It's a virtual agent -- a speech-enabled application that can understand and respond to requests from the customer.
If TV Guide's 40 million customers have any qualms about speaking with a machine, they aren't complaining. One reason may be that using the system is easier and faster than talking to a live representative, says Steve Martin, executive director of fulfillment operations at the New York-based publication. The system, purchased from Tuvox Inc. in Cupertino, Calif., halved average call times, from four minutes to two. That improved customer service while also reducing telecommunications and staffing costs, Martin says.
Long considered overly expensive and complicated, speech-enabled applications are finally beginning to deliver bottom-line benefits, says Daniel Hong, an analyst at Datamonitor PLC in New York. Today, the systems can eliminate the old, stilted voice recordings used in interactive voice response (IVR) systems and add a more friendly voice-user interface (VUI) that understands natural, conversational language. The VUI accepts verbal input rather than requiring the caller to enter information from a touch-tone keypad.
State-of-the-art speech-enabled systems can cut through complex and confusing touch-tone menu hierarchies used in traditional dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF) systems by allowing users to say exactly what they want and then jump directly to that function. Speech-enabled systems are faster than touch-tone IVR systems for more advanced transactions and are more efficient at tasks like accepting alphanumeric serial numbers.

Steve Martin, executive director of fulfillment operations at TV Guide Image Credit: Scott Nibauer

Competition in the speech-enabled applications market has increased, and prices have dropped by 30% over the past five years, according to Datamonitor. The emergence of open platforms built around standards such as VoiceXML and Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) has fostered the competition, spurring new entrants such as Microsoft Corp.'s Speech Server, which debuted last year.
The proprietary IVR system hardware and software in common use today are gradually being replaced with industry-standard servers with plug-in telephony cards. Vendors of speech-enabled IVR applications typically work with multiple speech engines, which provide basic speech-recognition, authentication and text-to-speech technology. Most offer prebuilt components that can be assembled into custom and packaged vertical-market applications.

The trend toward the use of prebuilt modules and reusable components has made the construction of speech-enabled applications easier. "Right now, we're on the brink of going from the early adopter to the