Interview Questions – Convergys

For the past three years The Great Voice Company has exhibited at SpeechTEK, a tradeshow dedicated to showcasing speech technology solutions. This year a competitive twist was added to SpeechTEK called The Challenge. In the end, 7 teams went neck to neck and one “People’s Choice” winner was selected. The Great Voice Company helped that winner with a “rehearsal” to prepare for the competition. We would like to present you with an interview with one of the team members from the winning team and her behind the scenes look at the project. And the winner is... Convergys/Audium!!

Tell us a little bit about your company

Convergys Corporation is the global leader in integrated billing, employee care, and customer care services provided through outsourcing or licensing. We serve top companies in telecommunications, Internet, cable and broadband services, technology, financial services, and other industries in more than 40 countries. We also provide integrated, outsourced, human resource services to leading companies across a broad range of industries.

We bring together world-class resources, software, and expertise to help create valuable relationships between our clients and their customers and their employees. This commitment is validated by the more than 1.5 million individual bills our software produces each day to support more than 120 million subscribers, and by the more than 1.7 million separate customer and employee contacts we manage each day, both live and via electronic interaction.

Convergys® employs more than 48,000 people in 50 customer contact centers and in our data centers and other offices in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Convergys is on the net at www.convergys.com, and has world headquarters in Cincinnati.

Where is your company located?

Our corporate headquarters are in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Convergys Speech Solutions business unit is located in Reston, Virginia.

How long has Convergys been attending SpeechTEK?

2003 was the first year that Convergys has exhibited at SpeechTEK. We have had speakers address attendees in both 2001 and 2002.

What was it about The Challenge that interested you?

We saw it as a way to showcase our VUI Design capabilities, as well as our open-hosing environment.

Explain the basic details of the competition. How did they introduce to you what you would be doing? How long did you have to complete your project?

The seven teams met in a room at 8:30 Monday morning for a brief overview of The Challenge, it’s purpose and the rules of competition. We were told that we would be given specs and any necessary data files required to build the application, and that we had 6 hours to build a fully functional speech rec application. Ken Rehor and the folks who ran The Challenge said that they chose an application that would be meaningful to a variety of business sectors, and that would involve a challenging grammar.

At 9:00 we were given very high-level specs for the application we were to build, and about 20 minutes to get back to The Challenge room and ask any clarifying questions. The Challenge project required development of an application that the public could use to schedule automotive service appointments. We were given a database with available appointment times, as well as a list of the makes and models of cars supported. Callers could schedule a regular maintenance appointment or a service appointment for a specific problem. Beyond that, it was up to the individual teams to decide what their design and development strategies would be.

At 9:30 The Challenge organizers sounded the starting bell and we were off and running!

Did you team up with any other companies? What do they do? Were you affiliated with them before this project?

Convergys teamed with Audium. In 2002, Convergys selected their service creation tools for VoiceXML deployments on our SpeechPort™ hosted platform. Audium provides VoiceXML software tools that simplify and standardize the development of complex speech solutions. While Convergys developers use the Audium tools for all our VoiceXML projects, this was the first time Audium directly developed an application on our platform.

How did you prepare for this kind of competition?

We had a few planning conference calls with Audium and with the Challenge coordinators to get a sense of what the ground rules would be, and what to expect. Critical parts of our preparation were the three dress rehearsals we had for the competition (The Great Voice Company stepped up to the plate and recorded voice prompts for one of our rehearsals before the competition). We designed and built a couple of simple applications, like a horoscope line. In all cases, Convergys developed the voice user interface design, the Audium team built the applications, and the Convergys team deployed them on SpeechPort. The process proved extremely helpful.

Did you feel confident and prepared going into SpeechTEK or were there any last minute details that no one knew about until “The Challenge” was presented to you?

We knew that we had practiced the process and that we had a great team, but as you can imagine, completing an unknown application in six hours can be daunting. We had no idea what they were going to throw at us on the day of the Challenge, and we were all a little nervous.

How long did it take you to complete your application?

The Challenge limit was six hours for design, coding, and testing. We were the only team to have a fully functional application within that timeframe. We designed it in one hour, coded it in four, and tested it for two hours -- obviously with some of those functions overlapping.

Was there a large audience of people watching?

You know, I couldn’t tell you for sure. I recall a steady stream of people wandering in and out of the challenge room, but we were so completely absorbed in our work that we were really only peripherally aware.

Were they able to listen to your completed application?

Yes. There was a demo session at 6:30 that evening, during which each of the teams presented their solutions, and played a demo for the group. Additionally, all SpeechTEK attendees were given a central number to call, through which they could navigate to all seven applications. This is how SpeechTEK attendees reviewed each team’s solution before voting on the People’s Choice Award.

How were you graded?

The grading for the People’s Choice was known only to those who voted, but the applications were also independently rated by VocaLabs and Voice Architects.

Was it a friendly competition or were participants extremely serious?

Everyone was very focused, and took the competition seriously. Some teams really got into the spirit of things and wore costumes on the day of The Challenge. All in all, it was really fun! And, it turned out to be a tremendous experience. It’s always good to challenge yourself and to be able to go head-to-head with some of the best in the business. When you place first in that type of competition, it is a great feeling.