Whether you realize it or not, you have encountered automated telephone and Integrated Voice Response services. These developments are used to retrieve information such as bank balances, movie show times, and credit card information from any telephone.

The explosive growth of the Internet and its technologies has shifted these services to a new set of customers accessing information through the Web. While most customers still use automated services through the phone, providers are finding it more beneficial to build new voice-driven services that use the power of Web technology combined with the telephone.

VXML, or VoiceXML provides the best of both the telephone and the Internet. Companies can open up their Web services to customers using telephone voice interfaces while retaining the Web page interface to the same live information. VoiceXML programmers and developers can create automated voice services and IVR applications using exactly the same technology they use to create visual Web sites, which significantly reduces the cost of these new capabilities for the traditional phone customer. VoiceXML applications can combine technologies such as VoiceXML Interpreters, Caller ID information, Speech Recognition, Text-to-Speech engine, and speech verification to consolidate many functions in one simple business tool.

Our applications begin with a distributed telephone services network, also known as a collocated call center. Essentially this type of system offers scalable, redundant local call numbers and nationwide 800-number access with voice recognition, robust call control and inbound as well as outbound call capabilities. If one number has a problem, it automatically defaults to another functional number. The call centers connect directly to our voice platform, allowing exceptional availability.)

The Voice Center Platform is a powerful suite of products that makes VoiceXML work. When we write a VoiceXML application to control a call, the voice platform is the software that interprets it and makes the commands do useful things. The platform’s Listen & Learn technology integrates with the distributed voice recognition engine to provide scalable, flexible, and highly accurate recognition capabilities. Listen & Learn detects and adapts to the unique speech and call characteristics of each individual caller.

The network is designed in such a way that if any part begins to fail, it automatically routes around the problems. This is called “softswitching” -- another somewhat involved piece of technology based on industry standards. The applications themselves are either ASP-based text files or compiled .net applications. — Either of these applications can reside on a normal web server.

The flow is like this: a call comes in, the call is routed to a call center and hits our platform. The platform accesses the application across the Web, and that tells us what to do with the call. That's it. The flow – and actually even the application – is a piece of cake. While it is based on expensive and complicated behind-the-scenes technology, the front-end Is simple and highly functional.