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Cisco Unity Connection

Speech Connect for Cisco Unity Connection

Product Overview

Cisco® Unified Communications Solutions enable collaboration so that organizations can quickly adapt to market changes while increasing productivity, improving competitive advantage through speed and innovation, and delivering a rich-media experience across any workspace, securely and with optimal quality.
Speech Connect for Cisco Unity® Connection, a speech-enabled Automated Attendant for the enterprise, allows people to connect quickly with their colleagues using only their voice. Internal or external callers say the name of an employee into the phone and are connected to that employee (dial by name). Users can collaborate more quickly and easily by connecting with each other without having to know multiple phone numbers. With the proliferation of mobile devices, flexible workspaces, and employee turnover, removing the need to know numbers greatly simplifies communications.
If multiple employees have the same name or if Speech Connect does not have a perfect match for the name spoken by the caller, tha application presents numerous name choices for the caller and includes additional information such as the employee's location or department. This process is called disambiguation. Speech Connect also plays the person's recorded name in that person's own voice, if available, making it easier for the caller to choose among the multiple names selected through the disambiguation process.
You can configure Speech Connect to respond to many voice commands, not just employee names. For example, if you add product names in the Speech Connect directory, customers can speak the name of a product and reach a person responsible for that product. Employee names, departments, conference rooms, product names, and any other entity that steers a caller to a phone number can enhance the value of Speech Connect to your employees and customers.
While Speech Connect enables faster, easier connections over the phone, Cisco Unity Connection improves productivity by allowing employees to access messages any time from anywhere, thereby enabling them to respond more quickly to messages.

Features and Benefits

Table 1 summarizes the features and benefits of Speech Connect for Cisco Unity Connection.

Table 1. Speech Connect for Cisco Unity Connection Features and Benefits

Feature

Benefit

Support for up to 100,000 names

Supports the scale required by large enterprises

Advanced disambiguation

Stores Cisco Unity Connection user preferences over time, expediting transfers as it builds knowledge about a caller's community of interest when given choices among similar names

Speed dial

Can be configured as a speed-dial softkey on Cisco Unified IP Phones

Partition support

Allows filtering or narrowing down directory search results to a certain population of employees, such as searching from only employees working in the customer service department when a caller asks for "customer support", leading to faster, more accurate connections

Noise reduction

Uses a noise-reduction feature that filters background noise when callers are in loud environments such as a car or airport, thereby increasing speech-recognition accuracy (requires Cisco Unity Connection Version 8.0 or later)

Name response collection

Allows the caller to hear the contact's name in the contact's own recorded voice to help determine proper pronunciation

Note: Speech Connect for Cisco Unity Connection is available only in installations that include a Cisco Unity Connection solution.

Product Architecture

Speech Connect for Cisco Unity Connection resides on the same server as Cisco Unity Connection. Separate servers for voice messaging and speech recognition are not required.
Table 2 summarizes the product specifications for Speech Connect for Cisco Unity Connection.

Table 2. Product Specifications

Item

Specification

Product compatibility

Speech Connect is compatible with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Version 5.0 and later and Cisco Unity Connection Version 7.1.3 and later.

Software compatibility

There are no specific additional software requirements for Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unity Connection solutions when deploying Speech Connect for Cisco Unity Connection. You can import company directory records into Speech Connect from a directory source, including Microsoft Active Directory and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

Protocols

Speech Connect supports Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) integration.

Components

The Speech Connect application is installed on a Cisco Unity Connection messaging product server running Red Hat Linux and the Nuance 9.0 speech engine.

Integrations

Speech Connect integrates to the local Cisco Unified Communications Manager or private branch exchange (PBX) over a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) connection or through traditional time-division multiplexing (TDM) connections (using Cisco PBX-IP Media Gateway [PIMG] or T1 media gateway [TIMG]). Speech Connect can simultaneously integrate with more than one PBX.

Programming interfaces

Speech Connect does not provide a programming interface, such as VoiceXML, for the building of voice applications on the same server.

Language support

Speech Connect supports U.S. English.

Ordering Information

To place an order, visit the Cisco Ordering Home Page at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/ordering/index.shtml and refer to Table 3.

Table 3. Ordering Information

Product Name

Part Number

Speech Connect Guest User for Cisco Unity Connection

(for names in the company directory that do not have a Cisco Unity Connection user license)

UNITYCN8-SC-GUEST

One Speech Connect username

Not applicable; a Speech Connect for Cisco Unity Connection license is included free with a Cisco Unity Connection user license.

Note: Please refer to the Cisco Unified Communications Applications Ordering Guide for detailed information about part numbers, descriptions, and packaging options.

Cisco Services

Cisco Services make networks, applications, and the people who use them work better together.
Today, the network is a strategic platform in a world that demands better integration between people, information, and ideas. The network works better when services, together with products, create solutions aligned with business needs and opportunities.
The unique Cisco Lifecycle approach to services defines the requisite activities at each phase of the network lifecycle to help ensure service excellence. With a collaborative delivery methodology that joins the forces of Cisco, our skilled network of partners, and our customers, we achieve the best results.

Conclusion

Speech Connect for Cisco Unity Connection enables creation of a "numberless enterprise", in which names are all that an employee, customer, or business partner needs to bridge the gap created by the proliferation of communications devices. Cisco provides the software and services to create this numberless enterprise. In addition, Cisco Unity Connection amplifies your productivity with an enterprise-ready voice messaging platform as part of a unified communications solution. This system improves productivity by allowing employees to access messages any time from anywhere, thereby allowing them to respond more quickly to messages for increased customer intimacy, service, and organizational agility. Speech Connect for Cisco Unity Connection is an essential component of a unified communications strategy that enables collaboration across complex enterprises.

For More Information

For more information about Cisco Unity Connection, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/unityconnection or contact your Cisco account representative.