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[mark: note the boldface* below]
INFORMATION WEEK
September 06, 1999, Issue: 751
Section: Top Of The Week
Personalized Information -- Telecaster Relays Messages By Phone
Beth Davis
MicroStrategy Inc. next week will unveil software that lets companies deliver personalized information via telephone to customers, employees, and business partners by combining computer telephony and business-intelligence technology.
Telecaster relies on preferences defined by end users, which can be set during a subscription process on the phone or at a Web site. The software works with MicroStrategy Server, the vendor's online analytical processing server, to comb relational databases and other sources for data. Telecaster creates personalized messages by using an Extensible Markup Language engine to convert the data into text format.
The information is sent in an encrypted message over the Internet to call centers hosted by MicroStrategy or to a company's own call centers or PBX systems. Telecaster uses text-to-speech technology from Fonix Corp. to present the information to end users over the telephone.
MicroStrategy says there are numerous ways companies could use Telecaster to add value to their services. For example, the vendor says an airline could use the system to alert passengers of canceled flights and provide information regarding alternative flights. In addition, passengers could also define preferences regarding flight cancelation notifications, such as a request to be notified of flight status one hour prior to the scheduled departure.
Fbr.com, an online brokerage, plans to use Telecaster to provide its customers with information about their stock portfolios through automated telephone calls. "Our mission is to give individuals greater control over their financial future, so we want to give them products that intuitively meet their needs," says Suzanne Richardson, president of Fbr.com, a division of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey. "Telecaster goes several steps toward doing that."
Telecaster will be available later this month, starting at $35,000. It requires MicroStrategy Server, which starts at $35,000.
Copyright ® 1999 CMP Media Inc.
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