An article I published in SpeechTek Magazine has an error in it; the online version of "Submitted for Your Approval" has been updated with next text. Here's three corrected paragraphs, with emphasis of where the errors occurred:
VoiceObjects is an Eclipse-based GUI tool that lets developers create applications using two dozen built-in building blocks (menu, capture, etc.), as well as building blocks they can define on their own. VUI designers can use an ordinary spreadsheet to define call flows, which can then be imported and implemented by developers. The output is Java servlets that provide VoiceXML 2.1 scripts compatible with a wide range of platforms. In addition to good online documentation, it lets developers create documentation of their own projects.
Voxeo Designer is a browser-based tool with wizards to solicit input. The intended audience is less-experienced developers. It generates XML, which a Java servlet uses to generate VoiceXML. The VoiceXML can be used with non-Voxeo platforms. One very nice feature is the analytics engine, which uses a database tied to the runtime to produce very detailed usage reports. We could not find context-sensitive help, and could not access the generated code from within the tool.
In summary, we liked the tools from Avaya, Cisco, and Envox for their good graphical interfaces. Avaya earns a special mention for its CCXML output, and Envox for its database and email integration and simulator. Loquendo's tool helps developers work with its rich set of TTS markup. VoiceObjects also has a good developer interface, and we appreciated its integrated documentation tool and the built-in detailed reports. Voxeo Designer also includes extensive reports and offers simplicity to less-experienced developers. Ajax Weaver's VoiceXML Orchestrator has the fewest features and least sophisticated visual design of the products in this group.
As for what the errors were, let me specifically address them. Notes from the show itself show the term "open sourced" as applied to Voxeo Designer; that's an error, but I don't know how who made that error. More serious was an error that I introduced into the final edits of the review. My notes and scores clearly showed that VoiceObjects supported a wide range of platforms, but for some reason I adopted the notion that VoiceObjects required a special runtime package to support each target platform.
I want to set the record straight, which I've done in the new online version of the article. I'm working with the SpeechTek editors to determine what's to be done about the print version.
Topics: · telephony
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