Joining General Magic Inc. and Wildfire Communications Inc. in the voice-based virtual assistant game is Webley Systems Inc. with a unified messaging service bureau managed by an electronic English butler named Webley.
Webley is an application of Vail Systems’ platform, based on a UNIX cluster of voice and Web servers which share several database servers. It licenses voice-recognition technology from Nuance Communications, which recently licensed its technology to Motorola Inc.’s MyoSphere venture.
Subscribers get a personal 800 number and personal Web site. Calls to the subscriber are answered by the virtual assistant, which puts the caller on hold and locates the subscriber at home, the office or on a mobile phone. The subscriber then can tell Webley to connect the call or take a message. The message left in the caller’s voice can be relayed to the subscriber in the form of a page, e-mail or voice mail, whichever the subscriber chooses.
The subscriber can listen to voice messages and e-mail responses on the Web site or by phone.
Webley also can make calls, receive faxes or read e-mail messages over the phone. The company is stressing the service’s capacity to teleconference as many as 32 parties, through the Web page or by phone. The integration of the Internet with telephony services helps the company stand apart from competitors, said Hal Poel, senior vice president of marketing.
“Our objective is to define the unified messaging market and to quickly become and remain the leader,” he said. “Of all the companies running these platforms, we believe ours is the only one that has run traffic.”
The Webley service has been available for more than a year, but was not marketed before now due to a lack of financing for the start-up company. According to Poel, Webley has about 1,000 customers-gained purely from word-of-mouth. While paying subscribers, these customers also served as a test market.
“We’ve gotten the bugs out,” Poel said.
Recently, the Webley Systems received funding from Patricof & Co. Ventures Inc., allowing it to launch a marketing campaign which includes print advertisements and personal delivery of product samples to select prospects by actors dressed as a traditional English butler.
“Our goal is to introduce this innovative new technology by demonstrating its competitive advantage to our target market-service providers, agents, resellers and distributors. Indeed we are already in discussion with several major service providers whose executives are `test driving’ Webley,” said Poel.
Timing of the launch is critical. General Magic just announced it has begun a strong marketing effort for its Portico virtual assistant and Wildfire now is being offered commercially in Canada. Poel said the commercial deployment of Portico definitely helped Webley achieve its funding goals, as more carriers offering such a service aids the awareness of all.
“The more the merrier,” he said. “The problem these products solve is one the customer understands they have-too many communications devices.” The effort now is to educate the marketplace of the solution, he continued.
Poel said several wireless carriers are testing the Webley service in anticipation of offering the service to their subscribers. He hopes Webley’s relaxed branding strategy will aid in that effort, which allows carriers to brand the service as their own, as opposed to other companies that insist on separate branding.
“To a service provider who wants to bundle in services … they can get a wholesale arrangement with us and privately brand it,” he said. “You know your customers better. You brand it and price it as you see fit.”
While targeting Internet and wireline service providers as well, Poel said he believes wireless carriers will be the first to extend Webley to customers. “They are the companies getting the idea the quickest. They understand what this is all about and why we need it.”
