Four features for a frosty February

Philips Speech Processing, a unit of Royal Philips Electronics, recently made available a new version of its speech recognition engine for telephony systems. The SpeechPearl 2000 engine is designed to enable interactive voice response (IVR) systems to understand people as they speak naturally, without

having to use a specific sentence structure. Supporting 20 languages, the SpeechPearl engine is the heart of the company's SpeechMania voice platform. The host-based SpeechPearl engine integrates speech recognition technology into voice and IVR platforms, and is intended for telecom applications (e.g., automated directory assistance, voice access to White and Yellow Pages, messaging systems, voice portals and customer service call centers). It is also designed for use in call centers for a range of vertical markets, particularly ones with high customer service or transaction activity. This version includes support of open and closed grammars, allowing developers and integrators to build applications that either recognize any and all ways a request or statement can be phrased, or that only recognize specific sentence and question constructions.

The SpeechPearl 2000 engine can now interpret the meaning of a callers request. Called "attribute semantics" by Philips, this capability focuses on associating a meaning with a request or statement, rather than just recognizing the individual words. The product has an ability to "accumulate confidences:' Through this technique, words that have the same meaning can be assigned the same attribute, and then the systems confidences for each attribute can be accumulated. The result is that an application is very certain when it recognizes a statement and interprets its meaning. The SpeechPearl 2000 engine also enables systems to use "mixed models" (whole-word and phonetic recognition methods employed simultaneously) to better understand complex statements. The technology also incorporates the acoustic patterns of speech samples from both landline and mobile phone environments, mixing the two to enhance recognition and improve accuracy. The use of these technologies is transparent to the application developer and does not require any extra programming. The engine can support vocabulary sizes up to 200,000 words per "lexicon," and can switch among lexicons during calls as needed. The SpeechPearl product family also includes a set of modules geared toward easing and streamlining certain development tasks and applications. www.speech.philips.com

The application service provider (ASP) model for hosted services and solutions holds great appeal for small- to mid-size ebusinesses. Often overlooked are operational advantages that larger business-tobusiness companies could attain by Webenabling their sales forces. NewChannel Inc. describes its solution as more than a "buy it and use it" sales tool, however. It provides a rapid deployment program designed to enable companies to utilize the solution in just a few days. NewChannel e-sales consultants work with clients, reviewing business models, examining Internet sales strategies and determining how best to utilize NewChannel to increase customer conversion rates. After developing a baseline view of a client's Internet business, it assists clients in developing proactive sales strategies and helps create customized qualification criteria that can help clients sales forces quickly identify prospects most likely to become customers. During setup of the application, NewChannel provides assistance to ensure smooth integration with clients existing systems, defines an Internet sales approach and develops associated tactics (phrases, scripts, customizing sales consultation invitations, etc.) based upon the established qualification criteria. Comprehensive training is provided along with regular reviews to ensure that positive results are realized from the customized long-term strategy.

www.newchannel.com