Microsoft Beta to Make 'em Talk
Continuing its push into speech technology, Microsoft
"Speech technology is on the cusp of reaching its full potential, and we
are committed to bringing it to the mainstream," said Kai-Fu Lee, corporate
vice president of the Speech Technologies Group at Microsoft. "With the
beta release of Microsoft Speech Server and the beta 3 release of the
SASDK, we are making it easier for enterprise companies and their customers
to access information."
Microsoft believes the value proposition of speech technology is clear: it
stands to reduce costs associated with call center agents. A typical
customer service call costs $5 to $10 to support, while an automated speech
technology system can lower that to 10 cents to 30 cents per call.
Additionally, speech technology can be used to give employees access to
critical information while on the move.
Microsoft has brought partners Intel
The key components of the new server are Speech Engine Services (SES) and
Telephony Application Services (TAS).
The SES includes:
The TAS includes:
"Microsoft Speech Server is unique to the marketplace in that it is the
only speech server that supports both unified telephony and multimodal
applications," said Xuedong Huang, general manager of the Speech
Technologies Group at Microsoft. "By building our speech technology
offerings upon the open, industry-standard SALT specification, customers
can use speech to access information from standard telephones and cell
phones as well as GUI-based devices like PDAs, Tablet PCs and smart
phones."
SASDK beta 3
The new beta includes a host of new features, including:
Speech Partner Program
The software giant is targeting telephony value-added resellers and
distributors, systems integrators, Web developers, independent software
vendors, and Microsoft-certified partners with the program, giving them
access to industry and Microsoft-specific events, access to special partner
collateral (like advertising templates, sales tools and targeted
demand-generation materials), discounted rates for Microsoft Speech
Technologies training courses, placement in its SPP Resource Directory on
the Microsoft.com Web site, and promotion of their products and services
through Microsoft's marketing efforts.
To qualify, Microsoft said partners need to complete three training
courses, including Speech Applications: Planning, VUI Design and
Maintenance; Developing Speech-Enabled Web Applications Using the Microsoft
Speech Application Software Development Kit; and Deploying and
Administering Microsoft Speech Server.
Wednesday unleashed the first public beta of its Microsoft Speech Server,
and refreshed its Speech Application Software Development Kit (SASDK) with
a beta 3 release.
and Intervoice on
board to provide the server with a Telephony Interface Manager (TIM), which
provides integration of the Speech Server with the Intel NetStructure
communications boards, which allow for the deployment of speech processing
applications. Microsoft noted that multimodal applications don't need TIM.
The software giant also refreshed its SASDK with a third beta Wednesday,
updating the SASDK beta 2 released in October 2002. The SASDK is a developer tool based on SALT and designed
to integrate with the Visual Studio .NET 2003 development environment. It
allows developers to write combined speech and visual Web applications in a
single code base.
Finally, Microsoft also raised the curtain on its Speech Partner Program
(SPP), which is intended to provide additional revenue and profit
opportunities to partners interested in developing, deploying or reselling
enterprise-grade speech technology solutions based on Microsoft's
technologies.