Viecore Implements New Solution at DTE Energy

Viecore recently announced the implementation of a first-of-its-kind, award winning speech application at DTE Energy. The application, Turn On/Turn Off/Transfer Service, breaks new ground in the utility industry and has received the Most Innovative Speech Solution Award from Speech Technology Magazine. The application automates services for DTE Energy's customers that are associated with moving from one location to another.   Viecore moved DTE Energy from a DTMF-driven (telephone keypad entry format), to a comprehensive 24x7 self-service speech solution, which includes many applications designed to enhance the contact experience of their customers and broaden their automated service offering. One of these applications, Turn On/Turn Off/Transfer Service, processes service moves and disconnects quickly and easily, prompting callers to speak information such as account number, current address, future address and date of move. Other applications included in the DTE Energy solution are account inquiry, outage reporting, nearest customer office, restoration estimates, call back, meter reading, and up front customer ID.   Viecore developed and implemented the DTE Energy solution using the IBM WebSphere Voice Response platform and Nuance's Version 8 speech recognition software. Using a connector developed by Viecore and Voice XML technology, Viecore integrated the IBM WebSphere Voice Response and the Nuance speech recognition software with DTE Energy's existing web infrastructure.   "We're excited about our partnership with Viecore, IBM, and Nuance to develop our voice recognition application which is helping us to achieve our business goals," said Joe Franzen, manager - customer care, DTE Energy.