Voice Portals: Once Seen As Fads, Now A Must-Have For The Enterprise

BY RON ELWELL

A year ago the concept of a voice portal was decidedly consumer-oriented, a perception that is reaffirmed daily by people who use voice portals to get delayed stock quotes, sport scores, or news. Portals within the consumer framework are fun to play with, but they are not essential to daily life.

However, these applications have given consumers a chance to get familiar with using voice portals. Analysts say that the residual benefit from the consumer market is enabling enterprises -- especially those with customer service centers -- to deploy voice portal technology more easily. Consumers, already familiar with the voice portal concept, find it acceptable to talk to portals instead of more expensive customer service representatives when resolving problems.

It is this acceptance and the use of voice portals in the enterprise that will make voice portals really flourish. Though the technology behind the voice portal is still a new and complex undertaking; it is absolutely changing the way communications and speech are being used to gain access to and manipulate corporate data. Today, enterprise workers are maximizing a host of converging technologies (telephony, wireless technology, the Internet, speech technology, group calling features, e-mail and more) to stay connected anytime, anywhere.

New Business Models For The Enterprise
Instant group conversation technology exists today. It makes it easy for an outside sales person to access his corporate network using a voice portal and a mobile phone, so that the system can tell him which members of his buddy list are available for a call. Once he determines the group of people he wants to talk with, he can quickly direct the system to get those people on the phone to discuss a crucial delivery. Or, he can send an SMS or e-mail message to his team to schedule a call for later that day.

Additionally, an executive is able to use a voice portal to hear that he has three expense reports waiting to be approved. He can review the reports over the phone, verbally approve them, or ask to be connected to a staff member to verify information in one of the reports.

The SOHO and SMB markets are also starting to use voice portals. Today, 16 percent of U.S. households have home businesses, six percent are considered telecommuters, and 22 percent are office workers who work at home. Since this segment has more limited resources to devote to staying connected, it is likely they will turn to service providers and application service providers (ASPs) for low-cost, value-added services that ensure greater customer loyalty. Voice portals for this market are being offered by wireless carriers and are mimicking Microsoft Outlook to include news, access to applications, voice conferencing, and other services. Some are already providing revenue streams for wireless service providers outside the U.S. And Internet-based businesses without brick and mortar operations are looking at voice portals that include these features as a way to reach out to the millions of customers who don't have access to the Internet.

Examples like these represent the next phase in expansion of the corporate LAN and the Internet. In essence, the enterprise is closing the loop by enabling the untethered user to access corporate information anywhere and anytime. Wireless carriers are looking at the benefits of moving applications to the network so they can offer similar services to small and medium businesses. Then, even one-person shops will have access to anywhere, anytime features once only available to large enterprise workers.

What do all these possibilities mean to the enterprise? Employees will be able to tap the support of their company at all times, regardless of where they are. This will help alleviate the problems caused by obsolete inventory reports, pricing, and other constantly changing variables. Analysts at Yankee Group say that the distribution of data out of the centralized resources of the enterprise is one of the primary forces driving value-added services like voice portals.

Implementing A Voice Portal Strategy
Although voice portals and extended wireless enterprises are still in their formative years, there have already been some victories and false starts to serve as guides to anyone about to implement a voice portal strategy. Four of the most important lessons we can learn are:

1. Keep it simple.
   Start out with a small project for one group within an enterprise, test it, and then roll it out to a wider audience. It is better to have a successful implementation than widespread and disgruntled employees. They'll never want to use the solution again.
   
   
2. Customization is key.
   Employees won't wade through multiple prompts to find information. Keep the information targeted, concise, and easy to access. Business users don't want to surf; they just want the information they need to do their jobs.
   
   
3. Find good partners.
   Look for best-in-class partners who can bring added value to your endeavor. Then correctly manage the partnership agreement and deploy the technology so users see its value.
   
   
4. Less is more.
   Don't get carried away with complex offerings. Keep the interface and options easy to use so employees will want to use the system. Filter data views down to what mobile workers need in the field.

Conclusion
Voice portals are here to stay. As they become more sophisticated and easy to use, they will also become more accepted as part of an enterprise communications strategy. Remote worker productivity will improve dramatically. All the problems associated with stale paper copies, inventories in flux, and barriers of time and distance will become obsolete. As data gets easier than ever to access, both service providers and the enterprise will win.

Ron Elwell is CEO of Octave Communications. Octave develops next-generation infrastructure technology that enables wireless carriers and service providers to deliver dynamic, instant group communication. The company leverages a cross section of communications technologies: voice conferencing, mobility, presence, speech recognition and voice over IP (VoIP). With Octave�s solutions, service providers can deliver new and differentiated group communication services that increase carrier revenue and impact the way people communicate.