Envox Communications Development Platform Powers "EVA", Quentris's Advanced Automated Speech Attendant |
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Envox Americas
2000 West Park Drive
WestBorough, MA, 01581
USA
Press release date: June 25, 2007
EVA ensures a fast return on investment for enterprises seeking a virtual assistant
FLEET, UK (25 June 2007) - Envox Worldwide, a leading global provider of IP-based voice solutions, today announced that its Envox Communications Development Platform was used by Quentris, one of Europe's largest voice, data and image convergence specialists, to develop and deploy a sophisticated automated speech attendant persona known as EVA (electronic voice assistant). Positioned as a virtual receptionist and personal assistant, EVA connects internal and external callers to their destination quickly and efficiently, while ensuring a return on investment for enterprise customers of just a few months. Quentris was able to develop EVA in just 2.5 months using the Envox Communications Development Platform.
"EVA is a great example of how the Envox Communications Development Platform is being used by our partners to create compelling voice solutions," said Mark D. Flanagan, president and CEO of Envox Worldwide. "Quentris was able to respond to their customers' needs and requirements in record time. EVA is a best-in-class solution created by a first class developer"
EVA uses high quality, natural language, multi-lingual speech recognition and text-to-speech technology to communicate with callers in English, French or Dutch. It is able to understand names pronounced in all three languages. It records callers' language preferences using a 'caller card' system that ensures that all future calls are automatically conducted in the appropriate language.
Callers are able to ask for a department, service or individual by name in a free text format that accepts the use of abbreviations and nicknames. If the requested party is not available, EVA provides a dynamic list of options for each destination, such as transferring the caller to a personal assistant, mobile phone, voicemail or a live operator. If the call takes place outside of working hours, EVA automatically recognises the time of the call and responds with an appropriate message. Thanks to a 'barge-in' function, callers can interrupt EVA at any point to request help, or to opt-out of the system and speak with a live operator.
As a result of its user-friendly, thin-client, Web-based interface, EVA is easy and cost-effective for organisations to deploy and manage. Existing staff directories can be imported into the system to enable immediate operation, and administrators can simply and easily update phonetic information for difficult names to ensure accurate pronunciation in all three languages. Users are able to personalise and change settings such as call forwarding destinations from any phone.
Additional features such as advanced time-of-day management, personalised greetings, customised on-hold music, personal directories, caller announcements and call-back requests are currently being developed. Existing users will be able to access these new features on request.
"From a technological point of view, the Envox Communications Development Platform simplifies the creation of telephony, text-to-speech, and advanced speech recognition solutions," said Peter Edel, advanced technology manager, Quentris. "Working with the Envox platform enables us to focus our attention on the needs of our customers; we do not have to spend our time resolving technical issues and working out how to do things. Furthermore, since Envox offers a wide array of integration features, speech applications such as EVA can be easily adapted to many other standards like LDAP, XML and database access. If we want to integrate EVA with mobile applications and email for example, we can quickly do so thanks to the existing capabilities of the Envox Communications Development Platform."
EVA is already being used by BASF Belgium with full language support. BASF uses EVA in two ways: first, it is their virtual receptionist, handling calls from external callers; and second, as an automated attendant within BASF. EVA enables employees to contact one another simply by saying a name. At the present time, BASF's live operator switches incoming calls over to EVA during lunch breaks, after hours, and at any time when a heavy call load requires back-up.
For more information about Envox Worldwide, please visit www.envox.com. For more information about Quentris, please visit www.quentris.com. A one minute film about EVA is viewable at http://www.envox.com/video/eva.wmv .
About Quentris Quentris is the competence centre of SUEZ Energy Services (SES) for communication technology in Belgium. Quentris offers solutions and services based on the convergence of Data, Voice and Image technologies.
It creates complete solutions by integrating technologies of major ICT suppliers as Nortel, Cisco, Microsoft, Alcatel, Avaya and Envox. Its activities focus on data cabling, wired and wireless networks, securing networks and business applications as IP telephony, Unified Communications, Contact Centres, CTI developments and Collaboration Tools.
As an independent partner, Quentris is the new ICT alternative for the public and private sector and has an installed base in Belgium and other European countries. www.quentris.com
About Envox Worldwide Envox Worldwide is a leading global provider of IP-based voice solutions. The company's software and related services dramatically reduce the time, cost and complexity of creating voice solutions. These products and services enable enterprise customers and service providers to significantly reduce operating costs, improve customer satisfaction and retention, and generate new revenue streams. Headquartered in Boston, Envox's products and services are available through a network of global channel partners.
For more information and images, please visit www.envox.com or contact:
Envox EMEA Tony Martin - +44 1252 618854 tony.martin@envox.com
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