Transcript Slide 1

Bringing Speech Technologies to the
Enterprise
Ken Waln
C.T.O. and V.P. of Engineering
Edify Corporation
[email protected]
Agenda
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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:
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Systems
Software
Training
Application Components
Physical Infrastructure
Telco costs (including transfers)
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
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phone numbers to do ANI routing
CRM data
• Reduced transfers between automated
systems and between call centers
• Don’t reenter data (CTI)
Typical Situation
Incoming call
Network transfer
1 English
2 Sales
PSTN
ACD
Press 1 for English
Press 1 for service, 2 for sales, 3 for support…
Gets a store
location
Locator
Outsourced speech
Deep in menu –
press 1 for store
locations
Service
Support
Sales
Vendor 2 – DTMF
Router by product
Vendor 1 – DTMF
Router by product
Vendor 1 – DTMF
Router by function
So What Did The Caller
Experience
• Three Voices
• Two Ringing Phones
• Two “Your call may be monitored…”
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Or even three?
• Two DTMF systems
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Different instructions
• One speech system
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Outsourced
Generic voice, no branding
• Probably 60% of the call was getting to the
right place
And What About the Company?
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Toll charges for long call
Network transfer charge
Outsourcing fee
Many systems to maintain
Poor call tracking
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ACD says call completed with a transfer to locator =
success
Sales IVR says “call transferred” – may or may not log
why
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
PSTN
ACD
Only for live call center
Immediately route all calls to Portal
Locator
Built into Portal
Voice Portal
Web Service
Data Feed
VoiceXML to
Portal
Service
Support
Backend system feeds data to
app on Portal
Voice App Server
Supplies VoiceXML
Dialogs
Sales
3rd Party App
Server supplies
VoiceXML
Results for the Caller
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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 ends
o E.g. Can do a transaction after the locator
• Short call
o In and out – got what he needed
Results for the Company
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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
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Many functions will be shared between apps
Can’t share if they are on different platforms
E.g. Product identifier for sales and service,
store locator at main menu and in service
Also use available packaged applications and
modules
• Net result – speech used throughout
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Higher containment
Happier users
Competitive advantage
Voice Portal – Phase 2
ACD
Only for live call center
Immediately route all calls to Portal
VoIP
Network
Voice Portal
Locator
Built into Portal
Web Service
Data Feed
VoiceXML to
Portal
Service
Support
Backend system feeds data to
app on Portal
Voice App Server
Supplies VoiceXML
Dialogs
Sales
3rd Party App
Server supplies
VoiceXML
Additional Benefit of VoIP
• Portal in front of PBX/ACD
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Could do this with PSTN, but network transfer
charges apply
IP transfer to ACD (or IPACD) for live help
CTI data transfer simplified
Transfer between networks and internationally
if needed
• IP IVR with Speech
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Just another app server
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 success
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Tools for grammar development
Data collection
Usability testing
Expert designers
VUI Design -- A Web Analogy
• In the early days, programmers built the
web sites
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Often lackluster, not portraying the right image
of the company
• In the next stage, marketing took over
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The message improved
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
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Usually starts with marketing
Creative teams, consultants, graphics artists
Usability analysis
Focus groups
And finally the programmers implement it
Testing before rollout
• And the design is likely to be refined and improved
on a frequent basis
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Adding content
Refreshing look and feel
Give people a reason to return
Efficient and effective
Factors in branding and
Persona
1. Personality of the
System
2. Voice casting
3. Direction of voice
4. Non-Speech audio
(audio icons, music)
5. User Interface
6. Text of prompts
7. Technology
production
Retailer
Designing a Speech Application
• Persona
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Can become a logo of your company just like a visual
logo
Can provide consistency with other audio media
Applications can utilize multiple voices if carefully
designed (different voices for different purposes)
Different tones and moods are appropriate for different
applications
• It’s art, not technology
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Create the persona
Cast the voice
Write the script
Direct the performance
The importance of standards
• Platform -- VoiceXML 2.0
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Conformance tested
Allows interoperability of custom and packaged
applications
Also related standards for grammars (SRGS)
and TTS (SSML)
But it is not the answer, just a language
• Infrastructure -- SIP
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The VoIP standard
Note H.323 is widely deployed, but SIP appears
to be the standard going forward.
Reducing the cost of deployment
• Reusable components
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Reduce time to market
Consistent, tested user interface
• Packaged templates or kits
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Many reusable components for a vertical
application area
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Locator module
Name and address capture
Payments
Routing
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 application
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Fast ROI
Demonstrable value
• Implement it in an enterprise way
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Standards based platforms
Quality, branded interface
Enterprise-class infrastructure
• Partner with experts
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A wide range of skills will increase success
• Use the success to add more applications
and capacity
Questions?
Contact me by email --
[email protected]
www.edify.com