Bringing Speech Technologies to the Enterprise Ken Waln C.T.O. and V.P. of Engineering Edify...
Transcript of Bringing Speech Technologies to the Enterprise Ken Waln C.T.O. and V.P. of Engineering Edify...
Bringing Speech Technologies to the Enterprise
Ken WalnC.T.O. and V.P. of EngineeringEdify [email protected]
Agenda
• 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:o Systemso Softwareo Trainingo Application Componentso Physical Infrastructureo Telco costs (including transfers)o 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
o phone numbers to do ANI routingo CRM data
• Reduced transfers between automated systems and between call centers
• Don’t reenter data (CTI)
Deep in menu – press 1 for store
locations
Typical Situation
ACDPress 1 for English Press 1 for service, 2 for sales, 3 for support…
ServiceVendor 2 – DTMFRouter by product
Support Vendor 1 – DTMFRouter by product
Sales Vendor 1 – DTMFRouter by function
LocatorOutsourced speech
PSTNPSTN
Incoming call1 English2 Sales
Network transfer
Gets a store location
So What Did The Caller Experience
• Three Voices• Two Ringing Phones• Two “Your call may be monitored…”
o Or even three?
• Two DTMF systemso Different instructions
• One speech systemo Outsourcedo Generic voice, no branding
• Probably 60% of the call was getting to the right place
And What About the Company?
• Toll charges for long call• Network transfer charge• Outsourcing fee• Many systems to maintain• Poor call tracking
o ACD says call completed with a transfer to locator = success
o Sales IVR says “call transferred” – may or may not log why
o 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
ACDOnly for live call centerImmediately route all calls to Portal
ServiceBackend system feeds data to app on Portal
Support Voice App Server Supplies VoiceXML Dialogs
Sales 3rd Party App Server supplies VoiceXML
LocatorBuilt into Portal
PSTNPSTN
Voice Portal
VoiceXML to Portal
Web Service Data Feed
Results for the Caller
• 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 endso E.g. Can do a transaction after the locator
• Short callo In and out – got what he needed
Results for the Company• 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
o Many functions will be shared between appso Can’t share if they are on different platformso E.g. Product identifier for sales and service,
store locator at main menu and in serviceo Also use available packaged applications and
modules• Net result – speech used throughout
o Higher containmento Happier userso Competitive advantage
Voice Portal – Phase 2ACDOnly for live call centerImmediately route all calls to Portal
ServiceBackend system feeds data to app on Portal
Support Voice App Server Supplies VoiceXML Dialogs
Sales 3rd Party App Server supplies VoiceXML
LocatorBuilt into Portal
VoIP Network
VoIP Network
Voice Portal
VoiceXML to Portal
Web Service Data Feed
Additional Benefit of VoIP
• Portal in front of PBX/ACDo Could do this with PSTN, but network
transfer charges applyo IP transfer to ACD (or IPACD) for live helpo CTI data transfer simplifiedo Transfer between networks and
internationally if needed
• IP IVR with Speecho Just another app servero 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 successo Tools for grammar developmento Data collectiono Usability testingo Expert designers
VUI Design -- A Web Analogy
• In the early days, programmers built the web siteso Often lackluster, not portraying the right
image of the company
• In the next stage, marketing took overo The message improvedo 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
o Usually starts with marketingo Creative teams, consultants, graphics artistso Usability analysiso Focus groupso And finally the programmers implement ito Testing before rollout
• And the design is likely to be refined and improved on a frequent basis
o Adding contento Refreshing look and feelo Give people a reason to returno Efficient and effective
Factors in branding and Persona
1. Personality of the System
2. Voice casting3. Direction of voice4. Non-Speech audio
(audio icons, music)
5. User Interface6. Text of prompts7. Technology
production
Retailer
Designing a Speech Application
• Personao Can become a logo of your company just like a
visual logoo Can provide consistency with other audio mediao Applications can utilize multiple voices if
carefully designed (different voices for different purposes)
o Different tones and moods are appropriate for different applications
• It’s art, not technologyo Create the personao Cast the voiceo Write the scripto Direct the performance
The importance of standards
• Platform -- VoiceXML 2.0o Conformance testedo Allows interoperability of custom and
packaged applicationso Also related standards for grammars
(SRGS) and TTS (SSML)o But it is not the answer, just a language
• Infrastructure -- SIPo The VoIP standardo Note H.323 is widely deployed, but SIP
appears to be the standard going forward.
Reducing the cost of deployment
• Reusable componentso Reduce time to marketo Consistent, tested user interface
• Packaged templates or kitso Many reusable components for a vertical
application area• Locator module• Name and address capture• Payments• Routing
o 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 applicationo Fast ROIo Demonstrable value
• Implement it in an enterprise wayo Standards based platformso Quality, branded interfaceo Enterprise-class infrastructure
• Partner with expertso A wide range of skills will increase success
• Use the success to add more applications and capacity
Questions?
Contact me by email -- [email protected]