The speech enabled application of the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 is based on the concept of self service. Let’s try and understand what self service really means with regards to the working of the OCS 2007.

It means that a consumer or a user should be able to locate the information required and resolve a problem or execute a transaction using the information. This means that the user will not require any assistance from a technical representative. That’s what the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 provides, a complete information download that will help any user to perform all the technical and non-technical tasks like installation and communicating through IM with ease and without any assistance.

There are different methods and benefits of deploying a self-service application like the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Some of them are:

• Most self-service applications have a limited range of offerings
• Linear interactions are more
• If it is a large application then the entire process becomes cumbersome and complicated. This downgrades the usability factor
• There is an increase of use in public places
• The results are instantaneous
• It can be frustrating at times but you will get to know the interface

Now let us look at the speech enabled applications. There are different benefits attached to these applications like:

• They have a broad range of offerings
• They enable non-linear interactions
• Most speech applications allow self-service to a large extent
• The settings are mostly confidential
• Different applications have different interfaces
• The inputs are complex

There are basically two categories of technologies that exist in VoIP and they are speech recognition and text to speech. The Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 initiates the ability for speech recognition and the deployment alternatives for that include:

A directed dialog: This is a type of deployment that will prompt a consumer to provide an answer in different ways. It increases the accuracy but at the same time limits the options available.

Conversational understanding: This is another type of deployment and it doesn’t prompt the consumer to provide an answer to a specific question in a specific manner. It can be used for multiple applications and can become the preferred mode of deployment once the customer understands the speech interface.

Speech recognition engine: Some of the key features of a speech recognition engine are:

• This engine has a robust dataset
• It can referencing grammar dynamically
• It can tune various applications to perform within set parameters
• It enables use of multiple languages
• It enhances grammar and uses conventional grammar as well as built-in grammar
• This engine uses date, boolean, digits, numbers, currency, and time, apart from many other
• It has the ability to utilize small numbers vis-à-vis large numbers