BeVocal Announces Hosting Lite

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - BeVocal, a provider of managed VoiceXML call automation solutions to enterprises and service providers, announced availability of a "Hosting Lite" service for companies interested in small-scale deployments of voice-enabled applications. The new Hosting Lite service is a self-provisioned, pre-paid, bundled telephony solution that enables developers to set up and launch a hosted VoiceXML service on BeVocal's carrier-grade platform. "BeVocal is filling a void for developers and companies who want to quickly and cost-effectively deploy voice-enabled applications with modest initial call volumes," said Kevin Stone, senior director of products at BeVocal. "Hosting Lite gives developers a no-hassle way to test, showcase, and launch applications without any surprise costs or long-term commitment. Once their business case is proven and call volumes increase, customers can easily migrate to BeVocal's Foundation VoiceXML Hosting Service, which includes guaranteed capacity, bursting, enterprise-grade support and service-level agreements." "Hosting Lite gave Oncall Systems a low-risk way to pilot and demo our voice recruiting service as we were pursuing our first customers," said Udhe Ahluwalia, CEO of Oncall Systems. "Today, our service is utilized by such high-profile customers as the Venetian Las Vegas and franchise properties from leading brands like Hilton, Marriott and Holiday Inn. BeVocal provided us with a seamless transition path from development on the Café to trialing with Hosting Lite to commercial production on BeVocal's Foundation VoiceXML Hosting Service, a platform that delivers the reliability, real-time monitoring and ease of development imperative to our and our customers' success." Developers interested in signing up for the Hosting Lite service self-provision over the Web at the BeVocal Café, This process involves selecting a Hosting Lite plan and providing credit card information. The developer is then assigned a toll-free number that is mapped to a VoiceXML page. The developer can then call that number, access the VoiceXML page and begin using the application. Each account receives one toll-free number and one URL, and operates under a month-to-month contract. Hosting Lite customers have access to inbound and outbound service capabilities, with per minute telephony charges for toll-free access and outbound calls included in the monthly service fee. Customers also receive the benefit of running their applications on BeVocal's carrier-grade platform. Companies and developers utilizing BeVocal's hosting services can develop VoiceXML applications on BeVocal's free, Web-based development environment, the BeVocal Café or they can rely on BeVocal's domain expertise in application design, development and deployment to create voice applications. Examples of speech applications deployed on Hosting Lite include: -Contact center automation
-Outbound alerts for government agencies
-Voice-based Job applications
-Flight school reservations
-Child locator for amusement parks
-Tax information
-Home tours
-Car rental reservation system
-Purchasing bus tickets
-Theater receipts reporting The BeVocal Café includes full support for VoiceXML 2.0, interactive tools to develop, debug and deploy applications, a set of grammar and prompt libraries to speed development, documentation for all levels of developers and advanced features such as speaker verification and voice grammar enrollment.