Advanced Portal Solutions

Advanced Portal Solutions

VMA – 29 & 30 October 2001

Jérôme THOMAS

UNISYS Communications

Voice Portal Program Director

[email protected]

« Delivering winning speech services to the Mass Market »

VMA 2001 - Paris, 29 - 30 October2 We have a head for e-business

• Voice Portal concept• Market Trends & Opportunities• Value for consumers• Telco’s expectations• Manufacturer requirements• Advanced Portal Solutions• Client Business Case• Summary

Agenda


Can you spell Portal ?

Personal Portal?

Universal Portal?

Voice Portal? Voice Gateway?

Voice XML?

Voice Access to Content?

Web Clients? WAP/3G Clients?

Personal Assistant?

VUI?

Portal Browser?

Vocal Directories ?

Internet Portal?

Portals …


Universal Portal

Web Browser (PC Client)

Wireless Browser

Voice Browser (VUI)VoicePortal

PersonalPortal

Messaging

Portal concept

Universal Portal - Web Content, Services, Email

Messaging - Voice Mail, Fax Mail, SMS, UM

Personal Portal – Subscriber and or Carrier personalization for Web and Voice Access

Voice Portal – a sub set of content and services available via Voice through the Telephony User Interface


More than 1.5 billion phones worldwide Over 600 million Mobile phone users worldwide While 200 million people now access the Internet worldwide

from a PC, more than 2 billion currently have telephony access but not Internet access.

Worldwide Internet access is projected to grow to 600 million by 2004, with telephone access reaching some 5 billion during that same period.

Voice Portal services can increase Internet availability by a factor of 10.

Worldwide Market Potential

The telephone is the ultimate access device to the Internet.


Market Catalyst

New Business Opportunities– Offers new business opportunities to current advertising and

ecommerce partners New Markets

– Voice Portal provides access to an entirely new market of non-Internet users

Competition– Leading Telcos are developing an organized premium service

“Voice Portal” strategy – Telcos will deliver not only applications but also network

infrastructure for the Voice Portal Web Need to build Brand Awareness

– The Voice Portal is a unique channel by which a Telco can communicate its brand


Voice is the thing …

Because, it is more natural It is the simplest medium to handle

transaction Very simple to use and require no complex

training Phone set independent Ideal to get people or information from a

single point of access - the Voice Portal


Voice matters in …

Messaging services– Flat User Interface – Adaptation dialog– Voice Activated Dialing– Tree shortcuts with extended

grammar – Automatic Language selection – Vocal authentication

Call Centers– Customer care– CRM

E-commerce, M-commerce

– Voice banking

• Directory services– PIM services– Personal Address book– Corporate Directory– Community Directory

(White/Yellow Page, Business )

• Access to content– Stock quotes– Push/Pull info– Local News– Weather– e-mail attachment – Driving directions


Value for consumers 1/2

Allow any customer, at anytime, from anywhere

to access people or content in the most natural way

- by using their own words -


Value for consumers 2/2

Only using the power of Verbal conversations– Hands free access to services (becoming a legal requirement)– Simple access / simple navigation with shortcuts– Adaptive dialog for different skills– Intuitive/natural commands

No need for complex devices nor extended memory– Unification is made in the network, complexity handled by

manufacturers– Single entry point for various services– No training for recognition required– Class Of Service option– Personalization through web access


Telco’s expectations 1/3

Mass Market usage– Leverage Voice Mail user habit to provide Integrated High

Value Services (av. 2 Mbx access / days)– Leverage SMS, WAP, MMS with convergence services– Robustness and high quality

Cost reduction– Integrate Customer Service Functions– Incorporate or expand Enterprise Portal exposure– Automation of Enhanced Directory Assistance– Less expensive to add a service to existing client than to

acquire a new client– Trial new services more quickly



Increase revenue– Transaction Fees for Value-Added Services– Additional Airtime Usage– Subscription based Services– Sponsorships, Advertising

Service Innovation– Find resonance with SMS and in Mobile and Wireline – “Listen and Feel” that Matches your Corporate Image and

increase Branding opportunities– Differentiation from the Competition



Higher subscriber loyalty (Reduce Churn)– Custom personalized services based on preference and

location of caller– Customers can access important information in various

locations from any phone Deeper customer relationships

– Facilitate voice and mobile commerce transactions– Enables customers to have a natural language interaction

with services New customer insights

– Expand new customer reach– Analysis of usage patterns and call statistics


Business Case example

Assumptions (example)– Service provider has 2.5 MM subscribers– 5% of subscribers use ad supported voice portal

Voice portal user calls 10 times a month Average ad revenue per call is 15 cents

– 5% of subscribers subscribe to an ad-free voice portal Subscription fees are $4 per month in addition to basic service

fees

Results– Additional advertising revenue = $187,500 / month = $2.25

MM / Year – Additional revenue over basic subscription revenue = $500K

/ month = $6 MM / Year


Manufacturer requirements 1/2

Speech technology must be deeply integrated– Offering Speech Recognition, speech Synthesis and

VoiceXML interpretation– Vendor neutral to cope with fast moving technology– Multi-language capacity within an application / market– Performance optimization with Quality– High Density pooling of ASR/TTS resources– Voice XML Open Standard integrated with Native mode (*) – Scalability and Redundancy for ports and sessions– Close partnership with 3rd party vendors and Standardization

committee (W3C, VoiceXML forum, …)

(*) VoiceXML 2.0 just released.


Manufacturer requirements 2/2

Specific Application development methodology– User acceptance is number one factor in application success.– Application independent from the technology (Dynamic

grammars, N-best, …)– Human factors and ergonomics known and shared

throughout the Chain Delivery expertise

– Cost effective solutions for very large roll-out.– Flexible adaptations– Service quality robust against network constraints (multi-

locations, noise, echo, …) – Follow and optimize user experience along with service

usage


Voice Portal Services

Voice Access toContent

Stock Stock QuotesQuotes

WeatherWeather

NewsNews

Speech Centric Messaging

MessagesMessages

NL Speech Services

Serve lets

Sound FilesGrammarsGrammarsGrammars

Figure out WHAT People will say.

Top level designevaluation

Develop application

INTERACTIONS

Detailed design

Control RUNTIME

Build & Deploy

ApplicationVoiceXML

Document(s)

From a Single

Entry point

Vocal Directories & VAD

Yellow PagesYellow Pages


Advanced Voice Portal Solutions

Integrated,Integrated,Open,Open,Speech centric.Speech centric.

A space for A space for new services,new services,new experience,new experience,new revenues.new revenues.


Successful Engagements

Speech ExpertiseHuman Factors, WoZ Simulation,

ADM, Service Creation, Consulting,Trials, Evaluations,

Full Life Cycle Development

TechnologyASR, TTS, HW, SW,

VoiceXML

ApplicationROI,

VUI, Dialogue Design, Localization,Call Flow, Prompts,

Grammars, Expected Utterances,CTI, DB

SuccessSuccess


Summary

Current market is saturated with basic services Subscriber loyalty is a significant cost issue effecting the

bottom line. Advanced Voice portal solutions offers new business

opportunities in Wireless 2G and 3G, and Wireline Speech Service creation, Integration skills and technologies

leadership. A solid solution increases market share and brand recognition

Voice Portal Mission« Voice-enabled access to people and content anywhere, anytime, from any wireline or wireless

device »


Thank You .Jérôme THOMAS

Voice Portal Program Director

[email protected]

Documents

Advanced Portal Solutions