The document discusses managing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a voice solution. Three key issues that must be managed are future business process changes, future WMS leverage, and future hardware refreshes. Configurable software, loosely-coupled interfaces between systems, and portable software that can run across different devices are recommended to manage TCO and accommodate future changes, growth, and upgrades over the long term.

1.  
Voxware 2010

2.  Manage Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
o TCO includes the acquisition costs, implementation costs and
operating costs.

3.  Three key issues must be managed:
- Future business process changes
- Future WMS leverage
- Future hardware refreshes

4.  Future Business Process Changes
o Change in business processes are inevitable. Plan in
advance
o Some voice solutions are custom-built to very specific
requirements and require time & money to
reconfigure changes.
o Configurable software is the solution to manage long
term TCO
o Configurable software is designed with future
changes in mind
o Configurable software solutions are adaptable to
growth and change

5.  Future WMS Leverage
o Avoid voice solutions that are too tightly integrated to the WMS.
Changes in work processes require modifying both the WMS and voice
system code. Not able to independently evolve the two systems. (e.g.
API interfaces- Application Programming Interfaces)
o Loosely-coupled interfaces are the solution to manage TCO
o Messages are passed between two systems but they are “loosely”
connected and require no programming.
o The voice and WMS systems can evolve independently of each other

6.  Future Hardware Refreshes
o Avoid voice recognition software that was written to operate only
on one family of devices.
o Investigate whether the voice recognition vendor uses different
recognition software on different devices.
o Avoid vendor that has a vested interest in which hardware
device is used in your operation.
o Portable software is the solution for managing TCO.
o Portable software is designed to operate interchangeably on a
range of diverse mobility devices.

7.  Future Hardware Refreshes
o Acid Test for portable software: Can the voice application be
made to run on a completely different device without changing a
single line of code?