More noise made over voice sales

Analyst predicts technology will become increasingly lucrative

Voice-enabled applications will see a giant leap in sales in the next few years, according to analysts.

As companies embrace the new technology, resellers will play a key role in providing inexpensive and pre-packaged voice products. Integration and maintenance projects will then create additional revenue opportunities, Datamonitor has claimed.

Global spending on voice-based applications will increase by 196 per cent from $540m in 2003 to $1.6bn in 2007, with customer service automation, automated meeting scheduling and recorded information becoming key applications, Datamonitor predicted.

It also stated insurance, healthcare and pharmaceuticals will be the biggest investors in voice tools as they strive to meet customer information needs.

Peter Ryan, a Datamonitor analyst, said: "Governments and colleges should consider voice information and registration services for people who are not online. But voice vendors can't afford to ignore large-scale investors, including financial services and telcos.

"While investment from these groups may be growing more slowly than healthcare and pharmaceuticals, their revenue volumes and requirements will prove extremely lucrative."

Richard Pinnington, marketing manager at Avaya reseller Call Centre Technology, said vendors must not depend entirely on larger organisations.

"Vendors need to offer sophistication for smaller firms. Everyone has focused on corporates, but SMEs are becoming a lucrative market," he said.