SpeechWorks Announces First Speech-Enabled, Self-Service Solutions For SAP R/3
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( BW)(MA-SPEECHWORKS) SpeechWorks Announces First Speech-Enabled,
Self-Service Solutions For SAP R/3
Business/Technology Editors
BOSTON and NICE, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 3, 1999--
Applications Built with New "SpeechWorks(R) for SAP R/3" Modules
Demonstrated at SAPPHIRE(R) France '99
SpeechWorks International, Inc., the leading provider of
conversational speech recognition technology and products for
over-the-telephone solutions, announced today the first and only
automated speech recognition (ASR) applications for customers using
SAP's Sales & Distribution, HR Employee Self-Service and Customer
Interaction Center (CIC) modules. These new software building blocks,
known as "SpeechWorks for SAP R/3," allow customers, suppliers and
employees of corporations using SAP R/3 to access information and
complete transactions automatically, 24 hours a day, simply by
speaking naturally over the telephone. To support multi-national
customers, the solutions will be available in Spanish, German and
French, as well as English.
"The SpeechWorks conversational interface adds real value to
SAP's CIC, HR and Sales & Distribution modules," says Bill Hills,
senior analyst, customer interaction software, Aberdeen Group.
"Customers, employees and partners will be able to access these R/3
modules their way, with their own voices, whenever they like, and
will
not need to wade through tedious touch-tone menus to get what they
need. Eventually, most transactional business applications will have
conversational speech interfaces. It's a credit to SAP--and a clear
benefit to its customers--that it is providing ASR interfaces now.
Bravo!"
SpeechWorks for SAP R/3 consists of customizable modules for the
following self-service speech solutions:
Sales and Distribution
This solution allows sales representatives and customers to
determine customer account status, product availability and pricing,
sales order placement and sales order status. Rather than finding
this
information by accessing a Web site or speaking to a live agent, the
SpeechWorks applications let users speak naturally into the telephone
to conduct business automatically. The applications can also identify
and verify callers using automatic number identification (ANI) or
by
an account number which callers provide.
Employee Self Service
With this solution, employees can instantly ascertain information
on a variety of HR topics including benefits, salaries, paychecks,
time reporting and personal information, 24 hours a day. Large
companies typically have call centers with live agents to handle these
employee calls and to conduct transactions such as benefits
enrollment. These applications let agents focus on more complex HR
issues, leaving the technology to provide answers and fulfill
transactions for the more common requests.
Customer Interaction Center
This solution provides a front-end to the R/3 solution to
integrate call center and computer telephony integration (CTI)
applications and provide customers with one central point of entry
for
communicating with a company. Using the SAP CIC in conjunction with
CTI, call center agents receive a "screen pop" of customer data on
their workstations, based on information callers have provided through
a spoken interface.
"We are excited to deliver the first speech recognition solutions
for the SAP community, enabling users to retrieve information and
complete transactions instantly and easily," said Garrett Brucker,
director of ERP Business Development for SpeechWorks. "SAP end user
customers will no longer have to rely solely on customer service
representatives or Web sites when looking for the information they
need: It will be as close as the nearest telephone."
SpeechWorks will demonstrate the sales order placement module,
including customer account lookup, product availability and pricing
and order confirmation, from the Sales & Distribution Solution in
Nice, France, on May 2-5 at SAPPHIRE '99, SAP's European customer
conference. The demonstrations will be given on an Intel(R) Pentium(R)
III server at Intel's booth, B120.
Pricing and Availability
SpeechWorks for SAP will be available from SpeechWorks in Q3 '99.
Interested parties may obtain design and development documentation
and
briefings now by calling 617.428.4444 and saying "SAP."
SpeechWorks Makes it Easy
SpeechWorks makes it easy to buy and implement speech recognition
solutions through its wide network of distributors, resellers and
integrators worldwide. The SpeechWorks Partner Program, including
a
unique technical certification component, was launched in February
of
1999, with members Aspect Telecommunications, Dialogic, IBM,
digiTrade, Intellisystems, InterVoice, netVest and TALX. SpeechWorks
and its partners have deployed the most advanced speech recognition
systems in production today, making it easier than ever for callers
to
conduct transactions and get information over the telephone.
SpeechWorks customers include: BellSouth, E*TRADE, Guardian, Hewlett
Packard, NEXTLINK/FedEx and United Airlines among many others.
About SpeechWorks International, Inc.
SpeechWorks(R) enables people to talk to computers over the
telephone in a natural way. The company's award-winning solution,
incorporating several technologies patented by SpeechWorks, is based
on research conducted at and licensed from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. SpeechWorks simplifies and speeds the development of
speech-activated services for information delivery and e-commerce
through its patent-pending DialogModules(TM) and state-of-the-art
recognition engine. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, SpeechWorks is
a
privately held corporation with financing from venture capital firms,
Intel Corporation and SAP. To experience the power of SpeechWorks,
please call toll-free: 1.888.SAY.DEMO. For additional information,
visit speechworks.com.
SpeechWorks and DialogModules are trademarks or registered
trademarks of SpeechWorks International, Inc. in the United States
and
other countries. SAP, R/3 and all SAP product and service names
referenced herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their
respective owners.
NOTE TO EDITORS: In the company name E*TRADE, noted in this news
release, there is an "asterisk" symbol between E and TRADE. This
symbol may not appear properly in some systems.
--30--dp/bos*
CONTACT: SpeechWorks International, Inc.
Leah Lesser, 617.428.4444
leah.lesser@speechworks.com
speechworks.com
or
Schwartz Communications
Patrick Rafter or Peter Gorman, 781.684.0770
prafter@schwartz-pr.com
pgorman@schwartz-pr.com
KEYWORD: MASSACHUSETTS INTERNATIONAL EUROPE
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMED COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS TELECOMMUNICATIONS
INTERACTIVE/MULTIMEDIA/INTERNET TRADESHOW
(c) 1999 Business Wire. All reproduction, other than for an individual
user's reference, is prohibited without prior written permission.
(c) 1999 Business Wire
Author not available, SpeechWorks Announces First Speech-Enabled, Self-Service Solutions For SAP R/3. , 05-03-1999.
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