Apptix Launches Microsoft Outlook Voice Access for Exchange Server 2007

Apptix announced that it has expanded the anywhere access capabilities of its Exchange email hosting service with the launch of Voice Access for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

This new service enables Apptix hosted Exchange Server 2007 customers to remotely access and interact with their email, calendar, contacts, or voicemail via any phone—land line or mobile—simply by using touchtone or voice commands.

"From email and attached documents to calendar and contact information, Outlook has become a central repository for employees' critical information," said Rick Rumbarger, vice president of product for Apptix. "Apptix Outlook Voice Access keeps busy, on-the-go employees—whether in a car or walking across their company's campus--in touch with their customers, colleagues, and critical information."

Apptix Exchange Email hosting service with Outlook Voice Access provides a universal inbox for email messages, calendar appointments, contact data, and voicemail. Users experience a complete Outlook 2007 or Entourage 2008 experience while remotely interacting with this inbox using any phone.

Guided by a series of voice prompts, users navigate and provide direction using touchtone or automatic speech recognition (ASR) voice commands. Items are read aloud to users by the Exchange server's text-to-speech (TTS) capability. As a result, users are able to:

• retrieve, listen to, reply to, create, flag, and forward voicemail or email messages;
• listen to, create, or change calendar information; and
  
• manage contacts to send an email or voicemail message to another user.

Apptix customers, regardless of location, can now access their Outlook calendars via a mobile phone or landline. Using voice prompts, they can reschedule or alert other participants that a meeting is delayed or that its scheduled time has changed. Users can also reply to emails—by attaching a voicemail message—to a distribution list in their Outlook Contact list.