Software AG, Cambridge VoiceTech Form Alliance
Software AG, Inc., the Reston, Va.-based U.S. subsidiary of Software AG, Europe’s largest systems software provider, and Cambridge VoiceTech, a provider of VoiceXML speech recognition platforms, have formed a strategic alliance to deliver speech recognition solutions to enterprise and government customers using a combination of XML and VoiceXML technologies.
Under the mutual referral agreement, Software AG and Cambridge VoiceTech, which is also based in Reston, will actively market the combined solution. Software AG’s XML technology allows integration and access to multiple enterprise application and data sources, while Cambridge VoiceTech’s VoiceXML Gateway provides a bridge between XML data and speech recognition applications accessed by phone.
“Together with Cambridge VoiceTech, we are adding value to Tamino and EntireX users’ experience,” said Lori Williams-Peters, Software AG, Inc.’s vice president of sales. “This partnership will enable Tamino and EntireX users to leverage their application and data resources by readily extending them to user-friendly speech applications over the ordinary telephone. Tamino and EntireX also enable enterprises and agencies with complicated legacy infrastructures to take full advantage of the new cost-saving speech technologies.”
User-friendly speech recognition technology allows users to achieve major cost savings — up to 90 percent per transaction, according to the two companies — by fully automating an increasing percentage of customer interactions, while at the same time enhancing customer satisfaction. Extending enterprise applications to the ordinary telephone allows firms and agencies to more conveniently serve an ever-growing customer base.
“This marriage of VoiceXML and XML will make speech recognition a very cost-effective choice for an increasing number of companies and government agencies,” said Lou Abbruzzesi, chief technology officer of Cambridge VoiceTech. “The Software AG-Cambridge VoiceTech partnership solves the core integration challenges of a speech deployment, providing rapid deployment and high reliability. It will enable many more companies and agencies to benefit from one of today’s most formidable cost-saving and customer-friendly interaction technologies — the power of speech.”
Software AG’s Tamino stores structured and unstructured data natively. It can store and process XML data without first converting it to another data format. As a result, response times are faster and require lower administrative efforts than with traditional databases. Cambridge Voice Gateway is the first fully compliant and fully scalable VoiceXML 2.0 platform for Windows. It incorporates speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies in a carrier-class VXML platform designed for mission-critical enterprise and telecom environments.