Aspect Software to Offer Cost-Effective Speech
Solution on Microsoft® Speech Platform
Allows small and midsize contact centers to take
advantage of the value of unified IP contact center
solutions and improve interactions with customers.
Aspect Software Inc., the world’s largest company
focused solely on the contact center, today announced an
alliance to deliver a solution targeted at small and
midsize contact centers. The initiative will provide
Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Speech
Server as an embedded component of the Aspect® Unified
IP™ product. This offering is designed to allow
organizations to enjoy the benefits of high-end speech
self-service features at a positive price point, and to
leverage the reduced complexity of the unified solution
while having greater control and increased contact
center functionality.
"Small and midsize contact centers face unique
challenges, and they need applications that will
specifically address their distinct requirements," said
Mike Sheridan, senior vice president of strategy at
Aspect Software. "Most importantly, they don’t want to
sacrifice functionality; they want the full array of
capabilities, just as large contact centers do. Working
with Microsoft is allowing us to bring a solution to
market that incorporates a full set of high-end features
that supports these organizations’ customer contact
strategies, including a fully featured speech
capability."
Aspect Unified IP incorporates an automatic call
distributor, a voice portal, quality management, a
predictive dialer and Internet connection in a single
application. It also provides unified reporting, routing
and administration functionality, and hosted
capabilities with multi-tenancy, while running on the
customer’s transport of choice: either voice over
Internet protocol (VoIP) or time-division multiplexing
(TDM).
Speech Server (2007) is Microsoft’s Voice Extensible
Markup Language (VoiceXML) 2.0-certified speech and
telephony platform and provides the tools, run-time
environment, and state-of-the-art speech and telephony
services needed for speech-enabled telephony
applications on a single, integrated platform. Speech
Server (2007) helps reduce the complexity and cost of
building, deploying and maintaining speech-enabled
applications for customer self-service applications, as
well as outbound notification services.
The combined offering of Microsoft Office
Communications Server 2007, Speech Server and Aspect
Unified IP 6.5, scheduled for release in July 2007, will
help allow companies in the small and midsize contact
center market to easily automate customer self-service
calls, reduce time call-center agents spend on calls,
improve customer interactions and add speech
capabilities to line-of-business applications.
The offering from Aspect Software and Microsoft is
designed to address the needs of this market by doing
the following:
Embedding speech as a core capability of Aspect
Unified IP
Reducing the complexity and time frame of
implementation
Providing a state-of-the-art platform at very
attractive price points, enabling contact centers to
leverage the benefits of speech recognition at a very
low cost compared with alternatives
In addition, because the capabilities are based on
standards such as VoiceXML, the components of the speech
applications can be reused, making them easily adaptable
for new functionality.
Microsoft is the platinum sponsor at the Aspect
Customer Experience user conference this week in Las
Vegas, Nev. During the conference, Microsoft
representatives will host two sessions to educate Aspect
Software customers on the Microsoft Office
Communications Server 2007, Speech Server and Aspect
Unified IP 6.5 solution.
About Aspect Software
For more information Click
Here or visit
www.aspect.com.
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