Financial pressure within the public sector and increasing consumer expectations that they can access the right information, when and where they want to, has meant that outsourcing and the use of hosted services has become both necessary from a service perspective and financially attractive.

Similarly, not-for-profit organisations, from specific charities to schools, need to make information and services readily available to their stakeholders. Our products deliver against these criteria.

We work closely with our government and charity customers to ensure that services are pitched correctly to the audience demographic - assuring a high-degree of call success. All applications are hosted at our state-of-the art network facility providing ultra-reliable systems and seamless links to back office databases. Calls to our automated systems are cost efficient and free up valuable resources for more complex enquiries.

Information sharing made easy

Speech technology can enable citizens, parents, governors, teachers, donors and stakeholders in general - to 'self-access' a wide array of information that is already provided online through the flexibility and integration of voiceXML browsing technology including:

• Finding out about waste collections, recycling days and services
• Finding out about the location and opening times of services such as council offices, libraries and sports centres
• Requesting forms
• Requesting information on services and support available from charities
• Accessing charitable help-lines through no cost or low cost numbers to listen to recorded messages or be diverted to appropriate agents
• Updating parents on school trips; sporting fixtures or even truancy monitoring

Touch-tone or speech based services can be used to identify or verify callers based on account and name and address details, and then enable individuals to complete day-to-day transactions such as:

• Paying council tax bills
• Settling parking or other fines
• Paying for skip or parking permit
• Report absences, request prospectuses or other standard information

Text messaging can also be used by charities or local government departments. The technology provides a highly cost effective way of reaching people (recent research indicates that virtually all texts - 95%, are read by recipients). Text can be used to confirm appointments, send reminders or send basic information.

Data can be captured and transcribed or automatically converted from speech to text for basic information requests or reporting, as well as for voting and opinion polls rather than using paper and post based tools.