Lucent Technologies adds easy-to-use speech recognition to its INTUITY AUDIX Multimedia Messaging system

With the proliferation of area codes, PINs and URLs, people are inundated with numbers and addresses to remember. Lucent Technologies, the world leader in voice messaging, has announced a new voice messaging feature that makes life a little easier by allowing business users to address messages or dial a colleague simply by speaking the person`s name. The application also enables an outside caller, such as a customer, to reach an employee without going through a switchboard attendant or navigating through a touchtone-activated menu system.

Lucent said it designed Lucent Voice Director using Bell Labs` highly accurate speech recognition technology and flexible dictionary. Backed by more than 30 years of leading speech research and more than 140 patents, products that use Bell Labs technology process millions of speech transactions each week. Lucent Voice Director can be used with millions of INTUITYTM AUDIX? mailboxes that are installed today.

The Lucent Voice Director (LVD) for the INTUITY AUDIX Multimedia Messaging system has won Teleconnect magazine`s Product of the Year award. Teleconnect recognized LVD as one of "the most practical, most useful products and services for voice and fax that can be used by businesses today".

Lucent said that Lucent Voice Director will be especially valuable for companies that are increasing their mobile workforce because the application makes it easier for employees, while out of the office, to contact and leave messages for colleagues. For example, a manager who is travelling can send an important message to several team members without having to remember their extension numbers. The system plays back the recorded name of the individual before sending a message or connecting a call, allowing users to ensure their messages reach the right people.

"Lucent Voice Director is another example of our commitment to provide customers with messaging features that are simple and convenient," says John van der Linde, CRM and call centre product specialist for sub-Saharan Africa for Lucent Technologies` Enterprise Networks division. "In addition, it is so intuitive and easy to use that no training is required, making it ideal for business people on the move."

"I can`t imagine why a company with a Lucent voice messaging system wouldn`t add the Lucent Voice Director option," said Bill Meisel, TMA Associates, a US-based speech industry consulting firm. "The low price and minimal support requirements make the decision easy. It will be popular whether users are calling from within the company or from the road."

Lucent Voice Director uses a 20,000 name vocabulary and is specifically tuned for a mobile environment. It is the first speech recognition product to be thoroughly integrated with a messaging server, making it easy to administer and highly accurate.

Availability and Pricing

Lucent Voice Director software, which is loaded on a Windows NT workstation and integrated with the INTUITY AUDIX server, is scheduled for April 2000 for Lucent`s new INTUITY AUDIX Release 5.0 Multimedia Messaging System. Future releases of Lucent Voice Director will include speech commands. For pricing details contact Siltek Telecoms on (011) 203 9034