The Voice Web: Commercial Implications of VoiceXML

By William Meisel

(Continued from Part 1)

Applications

While many commercially successful applications can and have been written using proprietary voice platforms, the simplicity and interoperability of VoiceXML make it an attractive approach when implementing applications for the Voice Web. Applications currently being implemented and deployed on the Voice Web include:

• Communications management and personal assistants: Communications management usually includes dialing by name using a personal directory, and is often delivered by a telecom service provider. Personal-assistant functionality includes call screening, taking and accessing voice messages, and one-number access to the subscriber (scanning several subscriber numbers based on subscriber instructions). Other personalized features include maintaining a schedule and delivering reminders. Unified messaging, one form of communications management, includes features such as reviewing email or fax headers by phone using text-to-speech. Applications within companies offer these services in a somewhat different manner. Voice-activated auto attendants direct calls by name. Corporate voice portals can also provide such services as reservations for a conference, location of a local store outlet, or a connection to customer service.
• General information: General information includes weather, sports scores, horoscopes, general news, financial news, stock quotes, traffic conditions, and driving directions. Such information is intended to make a voice-enabled service part of a subscriber's daily habit. Information can be customized, using, for example, the user's personal stock portfolio or the user's current location. As voice portals evolve, the caller will be able to "voicemark" specialized voice-equipped Web sites.
• Automated commerce: Voice commerce supports a variety of transactions that can result in product or service sales. These include transactions similar to ordering from a Web site or telephone catalog service. They also include finding a business by saying its trade name or its category. Entertainment is also part of voice commerce. For example, the caller can use speech recognition to choose audio channels to listen to. As in e-commerce, applications can be business-to-consumer or business-to-business.
• Productivity applications: A personal assistant service improves productivity, but there are also specific productivity applications within corporations. These include, for example, tools for a sales force to call into Customer Relationship Management software to find prospects or update status.
  

Conclusion

The Voice Web is very early in its evolution. It is likely, however, to grow more quickly in popularity than the World Wide Web did in its early stages. Since VoiceXML applications are accessible from the hundreds of millions of telephones in service throughout the world, there is a built-in market awaiting voice-enabled Web sites. Furthermore, organizations have already created services and databases for the World Wide Web that can be used by a Voice Web service. VoiceXML helps overcome the main remaining hurdle to rapid growth--a means of rapidly developing and improving applications that people and companies want.

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