Big news from the IVR industry this past week, and much of it having to do with the SpeechTEK 2011 conference in New York.

TMC’s (News - Alert) Tammy Wolf was on the scene, and reporting on all the developments in the voice recognitions and software space. One of her discussions was with the team from Nuance (News - Alert). “Thanks to Nuance’s Dragon speech recognition software, [one] man found comfort in his ability to communicate with family members, whom would talk into the application on his wife’s smartphone to capture their thoughts and well-wishes. ‘You saved my life because I was suddenly in contact with my family,’ he told Nuance company officials at the time. Catch her close-to-home story here.

The industry also saw news from leaders such as Plum Voice. TMC’s Susan Campbell wrote a story on how Plum Voice recently highlighted the use of IVR in a blog, stressing the importance of this technology. One important factor in the use of an IVR is the need for either a landline or mobile phone technology to function properly. To gain access to the IVR system, users must have access to some form of phone connection to interact with an inbound or outbound call. That phone connection can even be enabled over the Internet with the use of VoIP.“The telecommunications industry as a whole has been progressing rapidly over the last few years. With this growth, the industry has also seen a surge in smartphone purchases and activity that will continuously boost phone usage and telecom profits,” reported Campbell.

Tracey Schelmetic also noted that Apple’s (News - Alert) iOS 5 technology is stirring a buzz in the IVR space. She wrote, “According to 9to5mac, iOS 5 will contain significant speech-to-text capabilities courtesy of Apple's close relationship with speech technology company Nuance. A screen shot of the new iOS 5 interface obtained by 9to5mac.com appears to show a small microphone icon that is new to the iPhone (News - Alert) screen-based keyboard and located next to the space key.” Get more on the news on the IVR community. 

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.

Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.