NEW YORK, SPEECHTEK 2006, Aug. 8, 2006 — Today at SpeechTEK, the VoiceXML Forum, a global industry organization chartered to promote and to accelerate the adoption of VoiceXML-based applications, announced that Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel company, and Holly Connects have been named Sponsor Members of the VoiceXML Forum and have joined its Board of Directors. Genesys has become a Sponsor Member through its acquisition of VoiceGenie Technologies in April 2006. Holly Connects and Genesys join Sponsor Members AT&T, HP, IBM, Intel, Loquendo, Lucent, Motorola, Nuance, Oracle, Tellme, Verizon and West Corporation in providing strategic direction and leadership to the Forum. In addition, InfoNXX, Microsoft and Tecnomen have joined the Forum as Promoter Members.

“We are pleased to welcome Genesys and Holly Connects to the Board of Directors and InfoNXX, Microsoft and Tecnomen to the VoiceXML Forum community,” said Ken Rehor, chair of the VoiceXML Forum. “The decision by companies of this caliber to participate as this level demonstrates the tremendous industry support behind the Forum and the importance of VoiceXML.”

“Holly Connects is very pleased to be joining the VoiceXML Forum Board of Directors and to contributing to vital Forum activities,” said Lance Berks, CEO and co-founder, Holly Connects. “VoiceXML continues to drive innovation and competition in the voice industry and the Forum Platform Certification Program and other activities are bringing value to customers and vendors across the market.”

VoiceXML Forum Certifies 18 Platforms

The Forum also announced that eighteen VoiceXML platform implementations have been certified to date through the Forum’s Platform Certification Program. VoiceXML platforms from Aspect Software and Vail Systems were recently certified as compliant with the latest release of the Forum’s VoiceXML 2.0 test suite, and these companies join Avaya, Envox Worldwide, Genesys, Holly Connects, Intervoice, Nortel, Nuance, Voxeo, Voxpilot and West Corporation as vendors of certified platforms. CT Labs, an independent testing laboratory working on behalf of the Forum, conducted the testing.

“Certification helps ensure cross-vendor interoperability of platforms, tools and applications, which stabilizes and matures the industry,” continued Rehor. “That gives customers confidence that a wide variety of VoiceXML-certified platforms are sound speech technology investments. We are pleased to see Aspect Software and Vail Systems successfully complete their certifications.”

The VoiceXML Platform Certification Program test suite includes more than 600 tests that cover the W3C VoiceXML 2.0 Recommendation and is based on the W3C’s VoiceXML 2.0 Implementation Report. To aid vendors in preparing for certification, the Conformance Test Suite in the VoiceXML Platform Certification Program is available, at no charge, for public download from the Forum’s Website at www.voicexml.org. Forum Sponsor and Promoter Members also can download a Web-based test harness to aid in running the tests. Companies wishing to have their platforms tested may register on the Forum’s Website at www.voicexml.org or contact the Forum at voicexml-admin@voicexml.org.

The VoiceXML Forum is currently working on several technical initiatives, including those related to speaker biometrics, tools and media resource control protocol (MRCP). The Forum’s Speaker Biometrics Committee recently published several working draft documents for member and public review, including:

  • Speaker Identification and Verification Requirements
  • Speaker Identification and Verification Introduction and Best Practices
  • Speaker Identification and Verification Applications
  • Data Exchange File Format for Speaker Identification and Verification (jointly developed with ANSI)

About the VoiceXML Forum

Founded in 1999, the VoiceXML Forum is an industry organization whose mission is to promote and to accelerate the worldwide adoption of VoiceXML-based applications. To this end, the Forum serves as an educational and technical resource, a certification authority and a contributor and liaison to international standards bodies, such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) IETF, ANSI and ISO. The VoiceXML Forum is organized as a program of the IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization (IEEE-ISTO). Membership in the Forum is open to any interested company. For more information, please visit the Website at www.voicexml.org.

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