Telisma, SVOX, D-Link and Voice Robots Launch Off-the-shelf Speech Server

ZURICH - D-Link, SVOX, voice robots and Telisma announce the launch of a Speech Server, a new voice platform for the enterprise market. The cooperation between the four companies leverages their individual expertise in several areas: D-Link brings server technologies and hardware and a broad distribution network, SVOX brings their high density speech synthesis (TTS) software and knowledge in the language field, Telisma brings their scalable speech recognition engine and technologies, and voice robots their robot 5 speech middleware software which ties the components of Speech Server together. The D-Link Central European headquarter in Eschborn will be the first to profit from the new cooperation. Their product hotline service center will be automated by mid November using the new Speech Server. Other call centers in Europe will follow shortly. The offerings of the joint technology drive will be made available to D-Link resellers before the year end. The server and associated software components have been designed to be out of the box, plug and play. Customers are provided with a pre-installed server comprising: 19" rack mount high grade hot swap hardware from D-Link, the ISDN configuration of their choice, a pre-installed Speech Server software configuration and a choice of ready made applications. Alex Fries, Chief Marketing Officer of SVOX said: "The pre-installed software coupled with the suite of applications available including auto attendant, voice mail, help-desk hotline and email reading, allows customers to order the configuration they need, and are up and running within minutes of installing the equipment." The ready made application suite with which Speech Server will be launched includes an auto attendant module, voice mail, a help-desk hotline module and an email reading and messaging suite. Customers can choose any combination of modules which come pre-installed on the Speech Server platform. The modules can be configured using a Web front end. Lewis Graham, CEO of voice robots said: "This represents the beginning of a new era. By packaging the server and software as a pre-installed unit including applications, we are helping take the mystery out of voice. Companies will be able to take advantage of speech in much the same way as they take things like email or the internet for granted." The D-Link Speech Server uses SVOX speech technology - the TTS system with mixed language output. This makes it possible to switch languages in mid-sentence, making the reading of content and items such as email more natural. The Speech Server also integrates Telisma's speech recognition engine Philsoft, giving precision recognition especially in mobile and noisy environments. voice robots' robot 5 platform is the basis for the application side. The robot 5 platform ties the technologies together to provide a scalable platform from one to 480 telephone lines per chassis and a speech dialog design environment for developers. Customers can choose from a range of pre-packaged applications for auto-attendant, voice mail, help-desk and email reading. The robot 5 moderator allows developers to quickly develop their own speech applications for the platform. D-Link will be offering training courses to developers from early next year, and Telisma's VoiceXML technology will also be available as an add-on for Speech Server by Q1 / 2003. Laurent Balaine, CEO of Telisma's quotes: "We believe that such a high quality solution as Speech Server, by allowing the deployment of any type of speech services - from the smallest one to applications designed for millions of users- will help many enterprises experiment with speech technologies. We do know that partial automation of call centers with speech technologies guarantees a good Return on Investment. We believe this easy-to-deploy solution will convince many enterprises to go vocal". For Thomas Benz, Chief Sales Officer of SVOX, the partnership with these three companies, each with a leading role in their fields, represents a further significant step in the expansion of SVOX product range. "The increasing integration of server technologies and all kinds of applications requires strong partners and the best skills to bring rewards for all involved. With Telisma, voice robots and D-link we have found those partners. The forward-looking technology and first-class quality of our partner's products enable optimum integration and top quality and ease of use for our customers."