Hamburg/Bergisch Gladbach, April 1, 2003 – With the completion of the integration of their technologies, CoreMedia and VoiceObjects are now announcing their technology partnership.
On this basis, the specialists for content management and the professionals for innovative voice applications can offer with immediate effect a solution with which existing internet portals can be quickly and easily be supplemented by a voice channel. Text and audio information which are available in the internet on intranets or via i-mode of WAP can now be called in addition via voice-controlled access. At the same time, editors now also have the possibility of comfortably producing, administering and publicizing their contents for a voice channel.
In voice portals callers navigate through the services on offer using their voice. In this way, information services can be made use of and such transactions as, for example, placing orders or making reservations can be undertaken in comfort. The information requested or confirmation of the successfully concluded transactions can then be transmitted via other channels such as, for example, SMS, MMS, email or fax. Typical fields of application for these innovative solutions are self-service applications, call centers and e-government offers. This joint solution enables one considerable advantage in barrier-free information dissemination. It allows variegated e-government solutions, for example, to be implemented in which each citizen can call up up-to-date and individually prepared information around the clock, order forms or make appointments without the need for personal talks. This leads to a reduction in pressure on call centers (cost reduction) whilst increasing the quality of the service at the same time. But even the dissemination of existing information services such as news on traffic jams and weather forecasts on the web, are supported by the joint solution because voice portals open up the internet to all who do not have permanent access via a PC.
The fact that voice portals are not only user-friendly but also fulfil economic demands, is made apparent by the report from Forrester Research entitled “Mobile Applications That Drive Revenue”. Here, the Forrester analysts are assuming that voice activated services will be responsible for more than 50% of the entire mobile applications revenue with some $ 2.9 billion in 2006.
Sören Stamer, founder and CEO of CoreMedia, explains the significance of the cooperation with VoiceObjects for his company: “There is scarcely any company today which has not recognized the importance of the internet as a distribution, support and marketing channel and has not implemented or planned the relevant services. In the telephone voice services sector, the picture is entirely different. Here, the telephone, which enjoys virtually total coverage, with its easy and intuitive operation, is the perfect supplement to the internet. Partnership with VoiceObjects now enables the contents of a CoreMedia Smart Content Solution to be made available even via speech/voice/language portals quickly and without high costs.”
“We have found in CoreMedia a strategic partner whose leading technology for content management represents the ideal supplement to our Voice Application Server Platform. Even today, 70% of communication with the customer is passed by telephone. Here, we can pick up customers where they are at the moment and make web contents available to them quickly and easily,” says Karl-Heinz Land, CEO of VoiceObjects AG , on the subject of the partnership with CoreMedia. “Since both platforms are based on open XML standards, we can implement the integration even within the shortest period of time,” Land goes on to say.
The integration of the CoreMedia Smart Content Infrastructure and the VoiceObjects Voice Application Server Platform is supported by market leaders amongst the suppliers of call center infrastructures such as, for example, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, a subsidiary of Alcatel.
