In the aftermath of 9/11, national, county, and council government agencies find themselves facing a number of critical issues. The focus on increased security has become understandably paramount, both in giving physical access to secure areas, and virtual access to data and information. At the same time, budget constraints mean agencies have to cut costs, while still being mandated to improve service to citizens, and provide information access to individuals with disabilities and those who do not have Internet access. This is a difficult task considering government contact centres, which employ many thousands of people, need to grow significantly and adopt new working strategies to handle rising demand and to meet e-Government performance targets set for 2005.

Touch-tone self-service and voice enabled IVR applications can offer powerful, cost-effective solutions for every level of government. IP Integration speech recognition solutions can automate many of the standard call requests government contact centres receive — such as for forms, publications and literature — freeing up live agents for more complex work. Speech recognition also allows callers, including those with disabilities, access to government information via the phone which would normally only be available at offices or on the Web.

IPI voice authentication systems, which use an individual's unique voiceprint, offer an inexpensive, non-invasive means of security that's easily integrated into current systems, whether for access to buildings, or to data. Automation at contact centres will slash agency bottom line costs by reducing the need for live agents, freeing them up to concentrate on more complex tasks and also shortening hold times and call durations, which will have the effect of greatly increased customer satisfaction.

Our solutions can also provide government information from the Web via telephone to households that have no Internet access, keeping institutions in line with e-governernment performance targets. IPI voice authentication solutions based on Nuance speaker verification technology have an industry leading accuracy rate, making it an extremely secure biometric to satisfy the most stringent demands.

In the next decade, government service delivery professionals face three unprecedented challenges:

• The demand for government services will continue to increase as will pressure to reduce administrative costs. Budgetary cuts resulting in prominent job losses in the civil service are a recent indication of this trend.
• Commercial adoption of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and VoIP infrastructures will continue to bring a host of technology investments centered around customer care, raising the expectation of government service delivery.
• The power of popular consumer choice means that people will come to expect government agencies to provide a number of service delivery options -- regardless of time of day, place, mode of access, or language.

Speech recognition technologies can bring electronic government services to the telephone, the most ubiquitous device available to the public, to help agencies automate service delivery, improve performance, leverage advancements in technology and better deliver on their mission statements. Additionally, speech technologies can help agencies make electronic information available to the disabled population, meeting e-government legislation requirements and bringing e-government self service initiatives to citizens who do not have easy access to computers.

The IPI team has been working closely with several local councils and other agencies to deliver speech solutions for the Government sector, whether it be at the local, county or national level. Our e-government specialists invest a great deal of time in understanding your requirements so that IP Integration is able to implement speech services that meet your needs.

We offer the most advanced technology solutions in Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-To-Speech (TTS) and speaker verification (ASV) to bring the benefits of speech to the public sector. Our products are open, standards-based, and multi-language. We offer professional services if your agency needs assistance with development and implementation. We also offer a unique e-government consultancy to help you from the application discovery stage through the launch of your speech service.

IP Integartion offers government agencies the ability to bridge the digital divide and bring secure, self-service transactions to citizens and government employees via the telephone. Services using ASR, TTS, and biometric speaker verification technologies let callers complete routine tasks and enquiries quickly and easily from any phone at any time.

Contact us and find out how speech and IP Integration can help your business or organisation to improve efficiency while providing first class customer service. We can help you to find a voice for your business.

For an introductory meeting or quotations please contact IP Integration direct
on 0118 918 4600 or email us at contact@ipintegration.com