When it comes to automated phone-based services for customers, it is important to have a flexible and highly scalable IVR system in place that can not only handle the ever-changing requests placed upon it, but which can also grow and change as your business takes new directions.

As such, it has become increasingly important to have interoperable solutions at your disposal – not only to deliver the best customer service possible but also to help save on implementation costs in the future. In keeping with this philosophy, San Mateo, Calif.-based VoiceObjects announced today that its popular VoiceObjects Server v6.0 is now fully compatible with the Nortel (News - Alert) Media Processing Server 500 v3.5. This powerful phone application server has successfully completed compatibility testing through the Nortel Developer Program - and thus is now an official “Nortel Compatible Product.” Using the combined solution, enterprises and other organizations will now be able to integrate highly personalized IVR services into the Nortel Media Processing Server.

“VoiceObjects Server has successfully demonstrated interoperability with the Nortel Media Processing Server using an industry-standard VoiceXML interface, giving our mutual customers the benefit of low integration costs and easy implementation with Nortel IVR solutions,” said Michael Codini, chief technology officer of VoiceObjects, in a press release. “IVR applications that leverage the combination of VoiceObjects Server and the Nortel Media Processing Server can offer superior per-caller personalization. Every organization using the Nortel Media Processing Server should consider the benefits that VoiceObjects’ phone application server can provide.”

Based on open standards, VoiceObjects Server 6.0 is capable of delivering highly personalized, over-the-phone self-service applications to literally millions of callers a day. With dynamic VoiceXML for personalized dialogs, it is capable of delivering advanced speech synthesis, automatic speech recognition, dialog management and sound file playback. It is suited for a wide range of voice activated customer interactions – and has potential applications in order inquiry, package tracking, driving directions, emergency notification, wake-up, flight tracking, voice access to email, customer relationship management, prescription refilling, audio newsmagazines, voice dialing, real-estate information and national directory assistance applications. In addition, VoiceObjects Server offers an application execution environment for remote operations, administration and management; a Web services interface for rapid integration; and multimodal (voice, video, graphics, text) support for interactive applications.

As the name implies, VoiceObjects is an “object-oriented” service creation environment for developing speech-enabled applications. The VoiceObjects platform consists of two tiers, including a voice application server and an integrated development environment. One of the server’s biggest advantages is that it supports more than 100 different speech platform drivers. Meanwhile, the integrated development environment incorporates dialog flow, call control and voice module tools, as well as maintenance features and voice output configuration tools such as persona, event handling and language.

VoiceObjects Server comes in two flavors: Enterprise Edition and Network Edition. According to the company’s Web site, the Enterprise Edition “dynamically generates intelligent, personalized dialogs for each caller, based on pre-tested components, called VoiceObjects.” Through the incorporation of Voice User Interface best practices, it not only offers an optimal caller experience, but also delivers outstanding stability and performance. Through its Web services support feature, “organizations can easily integrate with any application development environment or CRM, ERP or other IT infrastructure, dramatically reducing development time and cost. In-depth dialog information and caller behaviors are logged to the Infostore and later analyzed to obtain comprehensive insights into caller behavior.”

With VoiceObjects server, enterprises can quickly and easily develop, change and administer personalized voice applications. VoiceObjects Server not only integrates with back-end systems and legacy applications, it also allows organizations to seamlessly integrate with their existing Web services. Furthermore the intuitive voice user interface and contextual help capabilities help drive user adoption.

Meanwhile, Nortel’s Media Processing Server (MPS) 500 is a self-service solution for medium-sized enterprises and small service providers. Also based on SIP, it offers a full slate of advanced speech solutions - including VoiceXML. Nortel claims the MPS 500’s integration packages and native interfaces enable it to “seamlessly integrate with numerous CTI applications for fast, intelligent call routing.” It is said to improve contact center efficiency by automating routine requests, thus freeing up agents for more complex inquiries. Just the same as the VoiceObjects Server, it too delivers multi-language advanced speech capabilities to facilitate a more personalized experience. Similarly, it also extends an organization’s web applications to callers by utilizing VoiceXML, JAVA and other internet technologies. Also of importance is the fact that the MPS 500 supports hybrid TDM/IP environments so that organizations can make a smooth migration to VoIP without costly hardware upgrades.

For more information about these two solutions, click here and here.

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Patrick Barnard is Assignment Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.