Oct/Nov 2008

If you're out and about – driving, perhaps – and you want to send emails on the move, there has to be a lot of appeal in being able to dictate them, and have them converted to a text message for transmission.

With a new speech-to-text product from Avaya, you can do just that. It's said to be the first system of its kind for enterprises, and to solve the issue of retrieving voice messages when audio access may be a challenge.

The press release we received about this tells us a lot about why it is a good idea, which we go along with entirely, but not much about how accurate the system is. It does have some useful features, though, including end-to-end security for both text and audio attachments. Encryption is applied from the voice mail box through all stages of the conversion process.

The unified communications solution is a joint development of Avaya, Mutare Software and SpinVox. It is available for Avaya Modular Messaging unified messaging, and includes Mutare Software's EVM Enhanced Voice Mail gateway and SpinVox's Speech to Text messaging service.

 

The solution is said to work with any email system and any connected mobile device. Text messages are delivered with personalised Caller ID, including the name, email and phone number and optional audio attachment.