Cisco may be on the acquisition trail again this time hunting for voice recognition technology. The network giant has made 122 acquisitions since 1993.
Barry O'Sullivan, head of Cisco's Voice Technology Group, told Reuters the company wants to add more sophisticated voice-recognition technology to its products aimed at helping office workers communicate more flexibly. He was not sure if the network equipment maker would develop such technology internally or through partnerships or acquisitions. In the past however Cisco hasn’t been one to wait too long to jump on a technology it considers hot.
And from the sounds of it, voice recognition is showing up a lot more on Cisco’s radar: "We'd like to be able to do things like search for stored conference calls, and intelligent tagging of voice," O'Sullivan told Reuters. "There's a $30 billion market opportunity out there. We're all circling around it with different strengths and we all want a piece of the pie."
Not to mention the fact that Opus Research said the market for server-based voice-recognition technology in call centers was valued at $600 million in 2006 and is expected to double by 2009.
In its recent 10-K filing Cisco says it is in the process of identifying additional advanced technologies for focus and investment in the future, and our investments in some presently identified advanced technologies may be curtailed or eliminated depending on market developments. "We have also continued to focus on developing a new wave of technologies, which we refer to as emerging technologies, including such products as digital media, TelePresence, and physical security, among others."
Cisco currently lists the following as its advanced technologies: application networking services, home networking, hosted small-business systems, security, storage area networking, unified communications, video systems and wireless technology.
Certainly Cisco is not alone in pushing for voice recognition technology. Microsoft is embedding voice in Office Communication Server collaboration software and IBM doing the same thing with its Lotus/Sametime collaboration software.
Advertisement: |
The Leader in Network Knowledge
