From Speech Strategy News, September 2007

Excendia to use IBM Voice Server in mobility and unified communications

IBM’s OEM model provides speech option for partners

Excendia, a developer of unified communications and speech mobility solutions, announced on August 20 the availability of Excendia Virtual Assistant on the IBM WebSphere Voice Server. The solution uses IBM speech recognition and text-to-speech synthesis to provide mobile workers with hands-free, eyes-free access to their business information and office communications tools from any telephone.

Users of the solution can access and manage their phone calls, e-mails, appointments, and contacts while out of the office. Speech commands let them listen and reply to their e-mail messages, review and schedule appointments, call contacts by name, and send voice e-mails.

Gabor Barta, vice-president, sales and business development, at Excendia, said that the solution can be configured for multi-language, multi-service, and multi-tenant use. “In essence it turns any phone into your virtual office with a 24 X 7 personal assistant,” he said.

Brian Garr, Program Director for Speech for IBM Software Group, said that IBM delivers its speech recognition using an OEM model, licensing it to partners for integration into products. Other OEM partners include Avaya, Genesys, and Nortel, he said. IBM licenses the speech recognition software on a per-port basis, he said, with a list price of $1,226 per port, with discounts to OEM customers. WebSphere Voice Server runs in conjunction with the WebSphere Application Server.