South African Internet users have raised their voices in support of voice-enabled Internet access, which gives Internet users the option to access the Internet via a telephone, and gives people without PCs access to the Internet. The technology, which was introduced to Internet Service Providers in January this year, is now available through all major Internet Service Providers.
Local business development specialist Intelleca, sole partner in Southern Africa for the Vocalis range of voice products, has signed reseller agreements with the majority of South Africa`s Internet service providers, who now offer voice-activated e-mail as an option.
"The beauty of the solution is its inexpensive price tag, and the fact that all Internet users are also telephone users, and are therefore comfortable with the technology," says Mike Renzon, MD of Intelleca Vocalis. "One of the biggest barriers to new technologies is user acceptance, but with voice recognition on the Internet, the user is not asked to perform a task he has never done before. User uptake, therefore, is quick.
"Equally, millions of consumers who don`t have access to a PC can now benefit from the wealth of information on the Internet through the telephone."
The facility gives people the ability to call and listen to e-mail messages from any telephone anywhere. Using spoken commands the mailbox can be managed without the need for a computer or direct Internet access. When the system is called the caller will enter their account number and personal identification (PIN) to gain access to their mailbox. Not only can messages be listened to but callers can also reply, skip through each one and delete if necessary.
An extension to this service is voice-activated Websites. SpeecHTML makes it possible for anyone with a Website to provide voice access to their site, with users simply dialling a designated telephone number published by the Website operator.
Creating speech-driven telephony access to Web content opens it up to a far larger potential audience, given that most people still do not have a PC, says Renzon. "Even regular PC users stand to gain as they can access data on Websites when they are on the move using any telephone."
"Such a service provides benefits for both the companies whose websites are SpeecHTML-enabled and the end users that access them," says Renzon. "The services can be easily updated and expanded using HMTL. Current Websites can be rapidly adapted for SpeecHTML use, with very little modification required in most cases. With millions of HTML developers around the world, the potential for future development of many different kinds of applications and services is clearly vast.
Renzon maintains that solutions such as SpeecHTML are an excellent alternative to expensive IVR solutions, and offer all the functionality available to Web based applications. Other than building mobile applications the technology is well suited to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) who cannot justify the costs of purchasing an IVR system or running a large call-centre. "For years, businesses have read about the great benefits that call centres and IVR can provide," says Renzon. "But they know such systems are expensive, and difficult to implement and operate, putting them way beyond the reach of many. The inherently lower costs of services like SpeecHTML mean this is no longer the case.
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