Bringing Speech Technologies to the Enterprise

Ken WalnC.T.O. and V.P. of EngineeringEdify Corporationkenw@edify.com

Agenda

• Why Enterprise Speech?• Branding• Routing• Economies of scale• Single-number Access• How Technology can help

What do I mean by “Enterprise Speech”?

• Employing speech for multiple applications and organizations

• Providing consistency across applications

• Pushing speech down to smaller applications

• Branding your Speech Interfaces• Making Speech an Enterprise

initiative, not just solving a problem

Current State of the Market

• Few implementations are truly enterprise focused

• Many companies have multiple IVRs in many silos and several speech initiatives

• The customer experience in many cases is horrible

• Total Cost of Ownership is often unknown (and probably higher than many realize)

How an Enterprise Initiative Can Help

• Cost:o Systemso Softwareo Trainingo Application Componentso Physical Infrastructureo Telco costs (including transfers)o Back-office connectivity

• Why not share the burden?• Makes it practical to do more applications• Customer satisfaction

How it helps the customer

• One phone number, easy to find• Enter information once• System has access to more data

o phone numbers to do ANI routingo CRM data

• Reduced transfers between automated systems and between call centers

• Don’t reenter data (CTI)

Deep in menu – press 1 for store

locations

Typical Situation

ACDPress 1 for English Press 1 for service, 2 for sales, 3 for support…

ServiceVendor 2 – DTMFRouter by product

Support Vendor 1 – DTMFRouter by product

Sales Vendor 1 – DTMFRouter by function

LocatorOutsourced speech

PSTNPSTN

Incoming call1 English2 Sales

Network transfer

Gets a store location

So What Did The Caller Experience

• Three Voices• Two Ringing Phones• Two “Your call may be monitored…”

o Or even three?

• Two DTMF systemso Different instructions

• One speech systemo Outsourcedo Generic voice, no branding

• Probably 60% of the call was getting to the right place

And What About the Company?

• Toll charges for long call• Network transfer charge• Outsourcing fee• Many systems to maintain• Poor call tracking

o ACD says call completed with a transfer to locator = success

o Sales IVR says “call transferred” – may or may not log why

o Outsourcer says “caller got what he wanted” but did he?

• What if the nearest store is too far or he asked out of curiosity but had a real question?

• No chance to transfer back or complete another transaction.

Voice Portal – Phase 1

ACDOnly for live call centerImmediately route all calls to Portal

ServiceBackend system feeds data to app on Portal

Support Voice App Server Supplies VoiceXML Dialogs

Sales 3rd Party App Server supplies VoiceXML

LocatorBuilt into Portal

PSTNPSTN

Voice Portal

VoiceXML to Portal

Web Service Data Feed

Results for the Caller

• One Voice, One Brand• One Disclaimer (if needed)• One set of Instructions, etc.• One Dialog

o “How can I help you?”o “Briefly tell me the reason for your call”

• Transfer and go back always available (no transfers)o No dead endso E.g. Can do a transaction after the locator

• Short callo In and out – got what he needed

Results for the Company• Positive Brand Reinforcement• No Network Transfer charge• No charge for locator• Shorter call• Real statistics of call• Transaction possible after locator app

o What if system asked “can I locate a product for you at that store” and fulfilled the order online?

• One system to maintain• Sharing of ports

• Happy customer!

Other Benefits• Smaller applications can be cost justified once

the infrastructure is in place• Speech easier to cost justify• Reuse applications

o Many functions will be shared between appso Can’t share if they are on different platformso E.g. Product identifier for sales and service,

store locator at main menu and in serviceo Also use available packaged applications and

modules• Net result – speech used throughout

o Higher containmento Happier userso Competitive advantage

Voice Portal – Phase 2ACDOnly for live call centerImmediately route all calls to Portal

ServiceBackend system feeds data to app on Portal

Support Voice App Server Supplies VoiceXML Dialogs

Sales 3rd Party App Server supplies VoiceXML

LocatorBuilt into Portal

VoIP Network

VoIP Network

Voice Portal

VoiceXML to Portal

Web Service Data Feed

Additional Benefit of VoIP

• Portal in front of PBX/ACDo Could do this with PSTN, but network

transfer charges applyo IP transfer to ACD (or IPACD) for live helpo CTI data transfer simplifiedo Transfer between networks and

internationally if needed

• IP IVR with Speecho Just another app servero Can be located anywhere on the network

What Makes it Work?

• Routing Front End

• Compelling Voice User Interface

• Robust Open Platform

• Applications and Components

The Routing Front-End

• Key to having a one number access is accurate routing

• Use open prompting with a Statistical Language Model Grammars

• Keys to successo Tools for grammar developmento Data collectiono Usability testingo Expert designers

VUI Design -- A Web Analogy

• In the early days, programmers built the web siteso Often lackluster, not portraying the right

image of the company

• In the next stage, marketing took overo The message improvedo But sometimes usability suffered

• Big graphics on dial-up lines• Complex menus• Too much “fluff”, substance missing

The Web Site Today

• How is a company’s web site designed today

o Usually starts with marketingo Creative teams, consultants, graphics artistso Usability analysiso Focus groupso And finally the programmers implement ito Testing before rollout

• And the design is likely to be refined and improved on a frequent basis

o Adding contento Refreshing look and feelo Give people a reason to returno Efficient and effective

Factors in branding and Persona

1. Personality of the System

2. Voice casting3. Direction of voice4. Non-Speech audio

(audio icons, music)

5. User Interface6. Text of prompts7. Technology

production

Retailer

Designing a Speech Application

• Personao Can become a logo of your company just like a

visual logoo Can provide consistency with other audio mediao Applications can utilize multiple voices if

carefully designed (different voices for different purposes)

o Different tones and moods are appropriate for different applications

• It’s art, not technologyo Create the personao Cast the voiceo Write the scripto Direct the performance

The importance of standards

• Platform -- VoiceXML 2.0o Conformance testedo Allows interoperability of custom and

packaged applicationso Also related standards for grammars

(SRGS) and TTS (SSML)o But it is not the answer, just a language

• Infrastructure -- SIPo The VoIP standardo Note H.323 is widely deployed, but SIP

appears to be the standard going forward.

Reducing the cost of deployment

• Reusable componentso Reduce time to marketo Consistent, tested user interface

• Packaged templates or kitso Many reusable components for a vertical

application area• Locator module• Name and address capture• Payments• Routing

o Range from a good starting point to complete applications

• Complete application should come with configuration tools, management reports, complete out-of-the-box VUI

– But customizable and brandable

How to get started

• Pick the best initial applicationo Fast ROIo Demonstrable value

• Implement it in an enterprise wayo Standards based platformso Quality, branded interfaceo Enterprise-class infrastructure

• Partner with expertso A wide range of skills will increase success

• Use the success to add more applications and capacity

Questions?

Contact me by email -- kenw@edify.comwww.edify.com