West Corporation announced that the West VoiceXML Platform has been awarded 2.0 certification by the VoiceXML Forum. West Corporation joins an elite group of companies whose platforms have been recognized as 2.0-compliant by the Forum.

"Achieving VoiceXML 2.0 Certification further reinforces West Corporation's leadership in speech technology," said Todd Strubbe, president of West Interactive and West Direct. "This significant achievement demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing high quality speech solutions built on open standards. Our clients recognize that flexibility and adaptability are vital in creating robust speech-enabled customer care applications."

The VoiceXML Forum is an organization formed to create and promote the Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML). VoiceXML is an open-standards language that is used for creating voice user interfaces within speech-enabled applications. Unlike proprietary code, VoiceXML standards allow interoperability of platforms, tools and applications. In addition, VoiceXML also provides reusable code and portability to other speech platforms. West Corporation currently chairs the Board of Directors of the VoiceXML Forum.

"VoiceXML-based technologies benefit corporate customers by enabling smoother integration with existing infrastructure and providing flexibility to work with a variety of speech partners while ensuring compatibility between applications and platforms," stated Ken Rehor, Vice Chairman of the VoiceXML Forum. "End users are increasingly viewing VoiceXML compliance as a vendor requirement, giving 2.0-certified companies like West Corporation a clear advantage in today's competitive marketplace."