What makes a voice solution portable? There are a number of dimensions to portability – and this is one key requirement of the voice software that, fortunately, is fairly easy to verify.
You need to look for portability across devices, operating systems, and database software. These three elements are used in virtually every voice solution, but often the voice software has been coded specifically for a single combination of them – making it non-portable and limiting the enterprise’s future options.
For instance, if the voice software only operates on one device or family of devices, then the organization cannot leverage its buying power by considering alternatives – because the cost of moving the voice solution to a different platform is usually prohibitive.
Here is the acid test for judging whether a voice solution is portable: can it be moved to a different certified device, operating system, and database management system – without changing any code or underlying software components? If not, then the voice solution is not portable – which means that any decision to move to a new device, OS, or database in the future will undoubtedly entail additional (and often substantial) cost.
Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper to verify vendor claims. On occasion, different voice recognizers are used to support different devices, or the vendor actually has completely different software for various operating scenarios – although the outward product name is the same.
Enterprises need voice picking solutions that are portable across devices – with no reprogramming required – because it gives them wider choice, cost control, and uninterrupted service from the voice solution when a refresh happens.
They also need portability across operating systems and database software because these critical infrastructure components are always evolving. On rare occasions an organization might switch, say, from Windows Server to AIX, but more often they need to upgrade to a newer version of their OS of choice – because, for example, Microsoft is dropping support for the version of Windows Server that the voice system uses. A portable and productized voice solution makes both scenarios possible – and grants maximum flexibility to the enterprise.
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