Local developer signs with ScanSoft

Sydney developer System Solutions has partnered speech and imaging software provider ScanSoft in a technology-sharing deal that will help it enter the speech recognition market.

An agreement signed with SpeechWorks, a division of US-based vendor ScanSoft, enables System Solutions to incorporate ScanSoft's SpeechWorks Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Text-to-Speech (TTS) products into its MESSAGEmanager VoiceXML server.

System Solutions said the company would use the resulting product to provide a speech-driven telephone interface for corporate websites.

Businesses with online self service facilities for their customers would be able to generate speech application pages in VoiceXML from the same web services used to generate the web pages, the company said.

“VoiceXML makes the speech platform a browser that can communicate with a Web application over HTTP,” System Solutions said.

Ivor Livingston, chief executive at System Solutions, said speech recognition and TTS had improved customers’ experience of call automation services.

“Speech recognition and text-to-speech have made the automation of telephone applications a caller-friendly option by providing an engaging, helpful, natural interface that serves customers quickly, efficiently and consistently," Livingston said.

SpeechWorks said its OpenSpeech Recognizer helped users interact with wireless or landline devices without using touch-tone interfaces.

Speech recognition also allowed for the emergence of new categories of applications, such as speech portals and telematics, the company said.

System Solutions said its MESSAGEmanager was a standards-based communications and messaging platform based on Voice XML.