| Most people, when making a call to a call center, would much rather speak than push
buttons on a keypad. To help call centers build applications that will allow the
development of speech-enabled applications for the call center, Applied Language
Technologies, Inc. (ALTech) and Amarex Technology, Inc. have announced a partnership, the
fruit of which will be the integration of ALTech's speech recognition technology,
SpeechWorks, with Amarex's ChatterBox software application, a part of Amarex's SuiteTalk
family of products. The integrated product is designed to allow telecommunications
service providers and other corporate enterprises to build comprehensive, speech-enabled
call center applications rapidly within the Intelligent Network (IN) architecture provided
by Amarex's ChatterBox. ChatterBox is a scalable, network-based interactive voice response
(IVR) system that also supports Intelligent Peripheral/Service Node (IP/SN)
implementations. ChatterBox is housed on a DIGITAL AlphaServer 64-bit processor for
processing high-volume applications and utilizes the Antares speech platform and network
interface card from Dialogic Corporation. ChatterBox's architecture allows for the
separation of the voice response unit (VRU) function from the runtime environment and
provides dynamic IVR applications for large call centers, be they centralized or
dispersed. It supports automatic fail-over and multiple applications and languages, and
voice and data integration.
ALTech's SpeechWorks is designed to provide developers with the ability to
speech-enable a range of transaction processing, information exchange and messaging
applications. Using SpeechWorks, developers do not have to specify grammars, create
lexicons or define language models. SpeechWorks Recognition Engine provides the core
speech recognition capabilities while DialogModules manage the "conversation"
between the system and the caller within an application. DialogModules have been
integrated as graphical icons into Amarex's service creation environment, GhostWriter, to
help speed application development and deployment. DialogModules are high-level
application building blocks that enable developers to quickly and easily add speech
interfaces to computer-telephony applications. Each DialogModule accomplishes a particular
task within an application, ranging from relatively simple tasks such as capturing a
yes/no response or phone number from a caller, to more complex tasks such as capturing a
caller's credit card information or name and address.
GhostWriter is a service creation environment/application creation tool for IVR
scripts. The Windows-based GUI tool allows developers to create new applications and crate
new containers and Service Independent Building Blocks (SIBBs) to produce data-driven
scripts in a multitenant shared environment.
For more information, call ALTech at 617-428-4444 or see www.altech.com; or call Amarex at 212-759-0610 or see www.amarex.com.
|
| A nagging problem in creating workable computer-telephony products
applications has long been the lack of standards-based open systems. In an effort to move
ahead standardization in the industry, Dialogic Corporation and Digital Equipment
Corporation have joined forces to jointly develop and market application-ready Windows NT
computer telephony (CT) servers based on the Dialogic CT Media middleware. The servers
will form a platform for a wide range of third-party CT applications supporting standard
application programming interfaces (APIs). Based on the Digital family of highly modular
and expandable products known as Digital Modular Computing Components (DMCC) and Windows
NT server technology, the servers will include the Dialogic CT Media software package and
CT hardware components. CT Media is a standards-based, client/server software platform
based on the Signal Computing System Architecture (SCSA) software model, which
incorporates the Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum's (ECTF) S.100 application
programming interface. CT Media manages server control functions and technology resources
within a CT server for multiple client applications, relieving software developers of the
need to write applications to handle low-level resource management and other server
management functions.
The new servers will comply with a range of worldwide telephony standards. The DMCC
product family is comprised of interchangeable modular components including Intel and
Alpha single-board computers, enclosures and passive backplanes that offer a variety of
system configurations. The DMCC architecture is designed around the standards of the PCI
Industrial Computer Manufacturer's Group (PICMG). Users will have access to the growing
number of software products supporting the ECTF's S.100 standard and Microsoft's Telephony
API (TAPI). Dean Trumbull, vice president of the Dialogic CTSwitch Products division, said
that the new servers will provide a telephony environment along the lines of the open
computing model enjoyed currently by IT departments.
For more information, contact Erica Erickson at Dialogic at 973-993-3000, ext. 6876 or
see www.dialogic.com; or contact David Lynch at
Digital Equipment Corporation at 508-467-6005 or see www.digital.com/oem.
|
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