Tomorrow’s Technology Today

Convergence of Web, Wireless and Voice

Agenda

• Background• Current technology trends• Putting it all together• Real-world example: Gilbert, AZ• Q & A

Fundamental Paradox

• Governments are expected to provide ever-increasing levels of service, with ever-decreasing levels of funding

Expectations

• Service provided 24 x 7• Instant access to real-time information• Conduct business without a trip to City Hall• Services and information available on a variety

of platforms and media• Make existing staff more productive and

efficient

Your Mission

• Leverage available technologies to efficiently deliver the maximum level of service possible to constituents

Achieving the Mission

• Improve Reach– Provide as many ways as possible to access your

services• Preserve technology investments

– Leverage existing back-end business systems • Augment technologies where appropriate

– Voice gateways, wireless devices, smartphones

Improving Reach using the Web

• As of April, 2006 73% of American adults call themselves Internet users (up from 66% in Jan 2005)

• Broadband penetration is at 48% of American homes as of March 2006, a 40% increase from the prior year

• Still, Internet use lags in low-income households (53% of household earning less than $30K) and elderly populations (only 32% of those aged 65 and older)

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project

Improving Reach using Voice

• Almost 100% of the US population has access to a telephone

• Telephones are the most ubiquitous communications devices on the planet

• Telephone access brings low-income and the elderly into the information circle

Improving Reach using Wireless

• ‘Smart’ wireless devices (cell phones with Web access, smartphones, and PDAs) are the fastest-growing segment of the wireless industry

• 9% of US adults use wireless phones exclusively; percentage is much higher for 18-34 yr olds

• Advanced networks offering broadband speeds will drive new applications for smart devices

Source: Harris Interactive

Preserving Your Tech Investment

• More than likely you’ve invested heavily in your existing back-end ERP systems

• All the information and business logic for running your government is expressed in these systems

• Need to make use of them if possible to leverage that investment

• Fortunately, a new software design paradigm has emerged that can help: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Service Oriented Architecture

• Under SOA, systems provide services that are consumed by other applications

• Typically, these other applications are focused on presenting and collecting data, while the business logic and data access is provided by the back-end system

• For example, a web application can consume a service to pay a customer’s water bill, while a voice-based application could use the same service

SOA Standards

• The adoption of SOA has been rapid due to several standards:– Extended Markup Language (XML): A standard way of

representing data– Web Services: a standard program-to-program

communication layer that uses XML over HTTP• Most modern ERP systems provide a Web Services

interface• A Web Services layer can usually be written to ‘front’

a legacy application• All modern development tools allow easy access to

Web Services

Augmenting Your Investment

• Add newer platforms that enhance and extend your existing systems– Voice gateways based on Voice XML (VXML) provide text-

to-speech (TTS) and automated speech recognition (ASR) and are based on web and Web Services standards

• Provision new devices, like smartphones and PDAs, to staff members to make them more productive– Smartphones like the Palm Treo 700 series provide access

at broadband-like speeds to Web applications, email, calendar, contacts, etc.

Putting it all together

• Ingredients:– Back-end systems accessible using Web Services– Voice gateway to provide a speech-based

interface to systems– Web application to provide browser-based access– Voice application for telephone access– Smart devices for wireless access

Logical DiagramApplication Server (runs back-end systems, provides Web Service interface) Database Server (stores

data from ERP systems)

Web Server (serves Web requests, runs Web applications)

PBX System

Voice Gateway (runs voice applications, provides TTS and ASR)

TelephoneWeb Browser

Web-enabled Smartphone

EDEN Web & Voice Extensions

EDEN Web Application

VoiceGenieVXML

Gateway

Telephone Web Browser Web-enabled Smartphone

EDEN Application Server

EDEN Database Server

VXML Response

HTTP Request

Digitized Speech

Speech & DTMF Digits

HTTP Request HTML Response

Web Services (XML)

HTTP RequestHTML Response

Real-World Example: Gilbert, AZ

• Services:– Utility Billing

• Account inquiry, balance information, consumption history, transaction history & detail, bill payment

– Permits & Inspections• Permit inquiry, inspection scheduling/view inspection results,

permit application, staff result posting

• Applications:– EDEN Utility Billing with Internet and Voice Extensions– EDEN Permits & Inspections with Internet and Voice

Extensions

Real-World Example: Gilbert, AZ

• Platforms & Hardware:– Compaq Servers– Microsoft SQL Server DBMS– Microsoft IIS Web Server– VoiceGenie VXML Gateway

Web Application

Voice Application Demos

• Hear Permit Inspection Results (ASR)• Post Inspection Results (DTMF)• UB Payment (DTMF)• UB Payment (ASR)

Smartphone/PDA Application

Palm OS Windows PocketPC

Results – Utility Billing Transactions

• Total transactions since March 2005: 158,109• Dollar volume: $10,969,095

Results – Utility Billing Dollar Volume

Aggregate Results

• Since March 2005:– 155,576 transactions– $10,723,744 in transaction volume

Questions?