Conita Introduces Personal Virtual Assistant Software For Mobile Professionals.Business Editors and High-Tech Writers CT Expo Spring 2000 LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 7, 2000 PVA PVA polyvinyl alcohol. Software Transforms Any Phone Into a Voice Portal An interactive voice response (IVR) front end to a data retrieval system. This does not differ in core technology from traditional IVR; rather, the difference is in the application presented. Where old-style IVR was mostly a routing application (press 1 for sales, 2 for service, etc. to Business Critical Information For Mobile and Remote Workers Driven by the need for mobile professionals to interact with corporate and public information sources, Conita Tuesday introduced its first Personal Virtual Assistant (PVA) system and related software products. PVAServer(TM) provides the mobile professional with instant awareness, knowledge and transactions by enabling anytime and anywhere voice access to the corporate network and Internet from a single touchpoint, the telephone. As Conita's PVAsoftware is easily customized, it also offers the opportunity for service providers to quickly offer customized services. PVAServer is being showcased at CT Expo at the Conita booth No. 225. The productivity enhancements instituted within corporate infrastructures are largely unavailable to the 70 million high value mobile or remote professional workers. Using Conita's PVAServer, these users can now access and interact with any data that resides on a corporate network with simple conversational language from any location. PVAServer is a software platform that transforms any phone into a voice portal through which remote users can access any information on public and corporate network. Conita's optional PVA connector for Microsoft Exchange Messaging and groupware software for Windows from Microsoft. Exchange Server is an Internet-compliant e-mail system that runs under Windows NT/2000 and Windows Server 2003. It can be accessed by Web browsers, the Exchange client, versions of Outlook and the earlier Windows Inbox. application is fully integrated with Exchange/Outlook so that mobile professionals can manage messages, calendars, contacts, and call control features. Supporting both a COM (1) (Computer Output Microfilm) Creating microfilm or microfiche from the computer. A COM machine receives print-image output from the computer either online or via tape or disk and creates a film image of each page. interface and a telephony interface to voice messaging Using voice mail as an alternative to electronic mail, in which voice messages are intentionally recorded, not because the recipient was not available. and PBX (Private Branch eXchange) An inhouse telephone switching system that interconnects telephone extensions to each other as well as to the outside telephone network (PSTN). systems, PVAServer is the first open, scalable and robust PVA platform. PVAServer was designed to allow developers, VARs, Integrators, ASPs and service providers to quickly create, modify, and deploy custom PVA applications that meet specific customer needs. A PVA deployment can be mass-customized, with each person able to converse with the network differently (thus the "P" for personal in PVA). Recognizing the complexity in existing solutions, Conita was founded to deliver the first fully functional, easy-to-use PVA. "We knew that the key to success was a delightful user experience," said Jeff McElroy, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Conita. "With Conita's PVA, corporations, VARs, ASPs and integrators will be able to easily and immediately enhance the productivity of people on the go." Bill Hills, a senior telecommunications analyst at Aberdeen Group Aberdeen Group is a provider of business-related research services. It has its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts and belongs to the Harte-Hanks group. Founded in 1988, Aberdeen's research is used by over 2. in Boston concurred that, "The Conita PVA will bring an unprecedented level of data interaction to the mobile professional and is a tremendous value for companies looking to enhance their productivity investments." Target Market Initially, Conita will deploy PVA technology for Fortune 1000 customers who have invested in leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. ) solutions. The ability to access and interact with customer information, coupled with the call management and messaging features of the PVA, allows users to greatly enhance the return on investment of their CRM software. Conita's PVA enables mobile professionals to harness the just-in-time awareness, knowledge, and transactions that are crucial in successful sales strategies. In addition to mobile professionals, Conita's PVA architecture will enable service providers to quickly deploy customized premium services. Product Attributes PVAServer and its related software offer the following benefits to increase productivity of mobile users: Natural Spoken Dialog -- PVAServer relies on normal conversational English without the need for restrictive vocabularies or time-consuming menu choices. PVAServer invokes a highly developed Voice User Interface that interacts with the user and adapts to a specific user's context and their usage patterns. This is enabled by Conita's Conversant CONVERSANT. One who is in the habit of being in a particular place, is said to be conversant there. Barnes, 162. Internet Engine(TM) which is a discourse engine providing API-like interface to speech recognition (ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) Using voice recognition to replace keypad entry for telephone voice menus. Typically used to speak the digits 0 through 9 insted of keying them, ASR systems may be able to recognize a limited vocabulary. See voice recognition and AVSR. ) and Text-to-Speech (TTS (1) See text-to-speech. (2) (Transaction Tracking System) Software that monitors a transaction until completion. In the event of a hardware or software failure, it ensures that the database is brought back to its former state before the attempt to ) engines. Application Reach -- Conita's optional PVA connector for Microsoft Exchange allows the PVA to be immediately integrated with a company's Outlook, BackOffice and Exchange infrastructure. Since PVAServer simply appears to be a web server to the corporate network it is non-intrusive. Using Internet standards See Internet Engineering Task Force. , Conita's underlying Conversant Internet Engine can support access to Internet content. With a flexible and open architecture, the PVAServer can be quickly adapted to access corporate data stores and CRM applications. Conita's platform also enables remote users to perform conference calling and manage inbound/outbound calls using voice commands. Customizable -- Using Conita's PVAStudio(TM) development suite, corporations, integrators and VARs can quickly create voice applications to extend PVA data reach and PVA functionality to suit their needs. Conita's scalable publish and subscribe (1) To provide a source of information that users select from and then receive on a regular basis or when certain events occur. The service can be public or private, free or paid, and information can be provided via e-mail and the Web or by means of proprietary applications. model enables easy modification of existing services and quick creation and deployment of new services. New applications can quickly be developed to access virtually any information source, such as Lotus Notes Messaging and groupware software from IBM Lotus that was introduced in 1989 for OS/2 and later expanded to Windows, Mac, Unix, NetWare, AS/400 and S/390. Notes provides e-mail, document sharing, workflow, group discussions and calendaring and scheduling. , Oracle databases, or Internets/Intranets. Conita's PVAServer is a server-based software platform supported on servers running Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with NT Service Pack 5.0 or Microsoft Windows 2000. Pricing and Availability PVAServer and PVA adapter for Microsoft Exchange are immediately available. PVAStudio and CRM connectors are available to selected channel partners. Street pricing as follows: PVAServer(TM): $3,995 per telecommunication port PVA adapter for Microsoft Exchange: $4,995 per system installation PVA CRM adapters: $4,995 per system installation PVAStudio(TM): $995 per user seat. About Conita Technologies Conita Technologies Inc. (pronounced: kah-night-ah) is the leading provider of Personal Virtual Assistant (PVA) software, bringing the Conversant Internet to the mobile professional. Founded in 1998, Conita's software delivers instant access to valuable personal and corporate information via any telephone. Conita has headquarters in Columbia, S.C. Conita can be contacted in the United States at 888/515-6200 or at www.conita.com. Experience the Power of Voice. Conita PVAServer, PVAStudio, PVAExchange and Conversant Internet Engine are trademarks of Conita Technologies, registered in the United States and other countries. Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, BackOffice, Windows NT and Windows 2000 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Lotus Notes is a trademark of IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) Corporation. Oracle is a trademark of Oracle Corporation. |
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