Requests made simple at IRD

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

Voice activated ordering systems using speech recognition technology are cutting the time taxpayers spend "talking" to the Inland Revenue Department for tax forms and simple information requests.

IRD manager of call management design Vaughan Crouch said the new system, which is used for "Info Express" allowing people to request a range of forms by "talking", went live early this year and may even have the edge over its existing touch tone systems for some requests.

Speech recognition technology allows people to interact with computer systems using their voice as the command device rather than a mouse or keyboard. Crouch said the system has freed staff to work on more complex calls as the tax year closes. IRD receives some 3.6 million calls a year.

The existing touch tone system, while accurate, had a menu system which some people found cumbersome or time consuming, he said.

Details are not being revealed but the use of voice activated systems across the Asia Pacific region are expected to generate revenue of around $1.7 billion by 2009, according to industry analyst Frost and Sullivan.

The report said the move toward self-service and automation in the contact centre is likely to increase in importance, as it is likely to result in substantial cost savings.


Peter Chidiac, Scansoft regional director network speech solutions, said the work it had done with IRD showed that where the application and technology had a match, good savings could be made.

The key was getting the hierarchy or command structure right, he said, so that callers were able to move quickly to where they made a request.

The other thing to consider is that "speech is a natural interface" and people become very comfortable using it once they have confidence in the system.

Chidiac said the technology could be "tuned" for each country so that the "acoustical model" of the system covered the accents that were displayed in any environment.