Many thanks to GMDUDE on RB for this gem of a post. READ IT! In these times of doom and gloom, it will again allow you to see the forest through the trees. HC
Mricehole - IBM/GeneralMagic - Websphere 2001
Mar 12th - Mar 15 the
www-3.ibm.com
Track 5 - Voice Technologies Electives:
Speech Application Development: WebSphere Voice Server
Speaker: David Reich, Senior Software Engineer, IBM Voice Systems
This session introduces you to the IBM WebSphere Voice Server and VoiceXML. VoiceXML is the new standard, endorsed by the W3C, for Voice markup on the Internet. Learn how to speech enable your Web sites using VoiceXML, IBM's Voice Browser, a web server and a plain old telephone. This technology, architecture and tools provide a platform through which users can talk to your data and Web sites through any telephone, and provides the platform upon which to expand as the power and capability of wireless devices such as PDAs and smartphones evolve with little to no change of your applications. By using your web based infrastructure, you can speech enable your e-business today with no change to your existing business logic or infrastructure and be ready for the newer devices before they arrive. - Learn the new XML-based language for speech recognition on the web - Learn about IBM's offerings for VoiceXML application development and deployment - Speech enable your e-business today using existing infrastructure - Get there before everyone else just by doing it today.
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VoiceXML and Other Directions in Standards
Speaker: Bill Dykas, Strategic Alliances Manager, IBM and Chairman of the Executive Board, VoiceXML Forum, IBM
VoiceXML - its history and its future - will be covered, along with current WC3 activities and new directions in the standards world that will make voice the interface of choice in the mobile world. The speaker will provide a perspective from his position within the Voice XML Forum, an organization founded by IBM, Lucent, Motorola and AT&T. The speaker will relate the results of these activities to his experiences within IBM.
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Directions for Automobiles
Speaker: Graham Lawrence, Voice Systems, IBM
This session will describe the implementation of a navigation system for use in automobiles where the caller is connected via a cell phone to an Interactive Voice Response unit (DirectTalk for AIX) and can obtain, using a directed dialog interface, direction instructions to locations. The direction instructions are spoken using a phrase splicing technology. The session will cover the development of acoustic models, grammars, dialogs as well as the production of the application code and the testing of the solution. The IBM products utilized are RS/6000s, DirectTalk for AIX and WebSphere Voice Server.
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Java Meets Telephony with the DirectTalk Beans Environment
Speaker: Dave Renshaw, Architect/Designer, IBM
This session will provide an overview of the DirectTalk Beans Environment and how the use of Java, Java Beans, and VoiceXML can be used to speed the development of voice response applications to allow businesses to more readily exploit the all-encompassing telephony channel. The addition of a Java execution environment to the tried and tested DirectTalk voice response platforms provides opportunities to deploy voice response applications in new and powerful ways. The session will explore the basic design of the DirectTalk Java environment, its relationship to WebSphere Voice Server, integration with the CallPath (CTI), possible application solution topologies, and the basics of voice response application development using Java Beans.
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Extending Your Internet Applications with the WebSphere Voice Server
Speakers: Timothy Appnel, Director of Technology, Global Marketing, AGENCY.COM
Kathe Baxter, JSAPI/VXML/MedSpeak Development, IBM
Just as ATMs and online bank payments freed customers from banking during "bankers' hours" via tellers, VoiceXML frees users from the keyboard, by voice-enabling Internet content. Voice Markups, as seen by the VoiceXML Forum, enable a content provider to develop voice applications with Web-development tools, and then publish the application on a web server that is already up and running. And because Web technologies are used, Voice XML integration on the back-end databases can be shared with existent HTML applications using techniques as described in AGENCY.COM's Flexitecture(sm) Methodology. With the help of IBM's Voice Group, AGENCY.COM describes how VoiceXML could be used to extend existing Internet applications. To demonstrate these possibilities, AGENCY.COM built a prototype for the eTravelWorld conference called "Experience San Antonio." With less then 8 hours of work, it was repurposed for London consumers to aid in the European debut of the WebSphere Server in late October. This presentation will cover: * A primer on VoiceXML and Architectures * Review an application and show how it could be extended by VoiceXML * Demonstration of the voice application in action.
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European Call-Center Partner Perspectives
Speakers: Patrick McErlean, VP of Technology, Amacis Ltd.
David Moody, Technology Director, Lagan Technologies
In this session, two IBM Business Partners provide the ingredients to develop and deploy contact center solutions which include WebSphere as a key component. The session will include demonstrations of how rapid solutions are provided to clients, using standard IBM offerings - with the client remaining in control throughout the development lifecycle. The solutions discussed use industry standard environments and provide all the ingredients to develop and deploy WebSphere eCRM contact centers. The session will also discuss an automated e-mail management solution which uses IBM WebSphere Text Analyzer as an integral element. This session will highlight how the partners' solutions work, with a focus on customers who have successfully deployed their solutions.
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Voice In/WAP Out
Speaker: Nick Metianu, IBM Speech Server Software Development, IBM
This session describes an exciting new technology that combines the use of IBM ViaVoice speech recognition technology with a WAP environment. Consider a mobile scenario in which the data to be entered is cumbersome for a cell phone keypad (ie, the "Voice In" element) and the data to be received is difficult to interpret by listening (the "WAP Out" part). A typical scenario is one in which you would like to request flight information between two cities for a particular day. Without speech capability, you would need to enter the city names (or airport codes) by typing on the phone's keypad. The resulting information, without a WAP phone, would require you to listen to all the available flight numbers before proceeding. This technology incorporates various components of the IBM WebSphere family - Voice Server, Application Server, and Transcoding Publisher. A cell phone is used to enter the voice data by talking to a VoiceXML application which is rendered by the Voice Server. The resulting information is then converted to the markup language of the device by the Transcoding Publisher and "pushed" to the cell phone over existing wireless networks. Pushing data to the phones is achieved through Phone.com's proprietary NetAlert mechanism. The WAP browser on the phone then displays the results. The session will describe how to deploy this technology and gain customer benefits/productivity edge available in a WAP environment -- i.e. access to critical data bases, the Internet, etc. with a WAP phone.
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Unified Messaging
Speaker: Jim Sues, Solution Manager, IBM ISP Solutions, IBM
With the proliferation of wireless handheld devices, the ability to choose between communications methods and appliances can greatly enhance a mobile professional's operational effectiveness. A well architected Unified Communications solution can greatly improve the contactability and real time information flow to your organization's key employees. This session will explore various Unified Communications strategies for the enterprise as well as service providers. The integration of wireless and wireline environments as well as the integration of hosted and customer premise environments will be examined. Also to be discussed will be the use of protocols such as IMAP, VxML, WAP, POP, etc.
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The Customer is Always Right - A Panel Discussion
Speaker: Steve Cawn, CRM Software Evangelist, e-business Solutions, IBM
Meet a group of IBM call center customers including Key Corporation, Kaiser and Sempra Energy and hear about the innovative and successful implementations they manage. They'll talk about the problems they faced -- including issues with their customers, cost and competitive issues ... and why they selected the technology they are using. They'll take you from the design phase through deployment of their installations -- and answer questions that pertain to both their call centers as well as questions to help enhance yours.
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T. Rowe Price - A Customer Success with Natural Language Understanding
Speakers: Tom Kazmierczak, , T. Rowe Price
A. Lynn Wise, Sales Specialist for Voice Systems, IBM
The T. Rowe Price operations center in Owings Mills, Maryland supports the financial services firm's mutual fund customers through the Direct Talk IVR system. In 2000, this technologically savvy and cutting edge company decided to deploy the IBM ViaVoice speech recognition engine with full Natural Language Understanding access to the mutual fund applications. T. Rowe Price will discuss the decision making process and investment strategy they used in making this pioneering decision. The project teams from T. Rowe Price and IBM will talk about the technological opportunities and challenges they faced during their deployment.
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Self Service via Web and Telephony
Speaker: Dave Clarke, Manager of Channel Enablement, Voice Systems Application and Integration Middleware, IBM
Powerful political, economic and social forces are driving the integration of customer service systems and business processes over the Web and Telephone. This presentation describes both the trends and the technologies that can be deployed in response to those forces; including WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Voice Server, WebSphere Transcoding Publisher and WebSphere Translation Server.
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Cost Justifying Voice Deployment
Speaker: Paula Skokowski, Vice President of Marketing, General Magic
A good voice user interface extends a company's brand by giving the brand a unique voice. It adds value by increasing efficiency and lowering costs while delighting customers and leveraging existing Web investments. Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) help companies build strong relationships with their customers. General Magic has begun to apply this basic principle of spoken discourse to VUI design through the use of "personalization" techniques, allowing the application to appropriately adapt to user behavior. This session will discuss Voice as a means for improving operating efficiency and customer service, as well as increasing return on investment by decreasing call-center costs, increasing customer loyalty, and providing a true market differentiator.
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Speech Synthesis - The Voice of Speech Recognition
Speaker: Brian Garr, Program Manager, Advanced Technologies, IBM Voice Systems
Users never 'hear' speech recognition. What they do hear is the speech that comes back in the way of either recorded prompts, or speech synthesis. In this session we will look at our formant technology and examine ways to take advantage of the many parameters that are changeable. We will also look at our new concatenative TTS technology, with demos and explanations of how this very natural sounding speech synthesis product can be customized for the customer. In addition, we will look at IBM's phrase splicing speech synthesis, which sounds like a human talking. We will discuss applicable scenarios for using this advanced technology.
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Speaker Verification Solutions
Speaker: Ron Beyner, General Manager, T-NETIX
Speaker verification is one of the most secure ways to verify callers. It is complementary with the IBM Voice Systems products. T-Netix is an industry leader in providing speaker verification solutions. They are a pioneer in this field and have been working with customers across many industries. This session will discuss the T-NETIX technology, how it integrates with IBM DirectTalk, and how it complements speech enabled applications being deployed in the marketplace today.
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Deploying Call Center Solutions - Are They Right for Your Business? - Panel of Experts
Speaker: Steve Cawn, CRM Software Evangelist, e-business Solutions, IBM
Hear from a panel of some of IBM's leading partners and customers using CallPath and DirectTalk solutions in their Call Center environments: Do these products enhance customer transactions and provide them with competitive advantages in their respective markets? What are the benefits ... and drawbacks? You'll learn what works ... and what doesn't, from a wide range of customers and partners who have had a variety of deployment experiences.
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