Voxeo Talks

Today, Voxeo is excited to announce that we’re enabling our customers to take the mobile experience one step further, by bringing location-based services (LBS) to the Voxeo cloud. LBS makes it easier, safer and more convenient than ever before for mobile customers to access information and services with no need to download an app. Voxeo’s cloud-based solution works on any mobile device and with all major wireless carriers in the US, making the service available to over 350 million mobile devices.

For inbound and outbound interactive voice response systems, SMS and mobile web, the use of Voxeo’s API for location-based services automates a large part of what would otherwise be a tedious, and potentially error-prone process, using location instead of user input to streamline the process of getting the correct information.

A few example cases where mobile location services would be ideal for the end-user:

• Finding a nearby store
• Obtaining roadside assistance
• Checking traffic conditions
• Getting turn by turn directions in real time
• Checking the weather (see our demo below!)

There are also many business cases for LBS, such as:

• Location based advertising, serving specific ads to specific locations, and location marketing, such as a location-based social network pushing special notifications to a potential customer within a particular radius of an establishment
• Identifying fraud, for example, enabling a financial institution to check the location of a caller and queuing additional account challenge questions if the location is not the account holder’s home
• Time tracking for remote, mobile or otherwise unsupervised employees

Want to see Voxeo’s location-based services in action? We’ve set up a quick demo that will pull the weather forecast for where you are! Give it a try:

• Use your mobile phone to give the Voxeo Weather Forecast a call at 412-543-8514
• Authorize the system to use your location

Once our system detects your location, you’ll receive your local weather forecast. You can opt out of the geolocation services at the end of the call, or you can hang up and the system will be able to continue using your location on subsequent calls. (Voice prompts for this demo are provided by our partner GMVoices.)

For the user, this eliminates the need to enter location information into the system and streamlines the process. This example would likely have required US zipcode information in order to be accurate. For services like dispatching roadside assistance or looking up nearby store locations, LBS simplifies the process even more by eliminating the need to enter more granular information (e.g., cross streets or specific addresses).

For developers adding LBS to their applications, Voxeo will work hand-in-hand to ensure your system is compliant with privacy and data security concerns, carrier approval and provisioning. We also support single and double opt-ins, as well as SMS challenge messages to confirm opt-ins. Our development API for location-based services is fully compliant with industry standards as an extension of the Location RESTful API from GSMA’s OneAPI. For more info, please see our developer documentation.

To learn more about location-based services in the Voxeo cloud, and find out how to get started with 1,000 free lookups, visit www.voxeo.com/location-intelligence.

Related posts:

1. Voxeo Interviews Asif Khan of the Location Based Marketing Association
2. Voice and web services? Cloud computing? – Video of Jon Arnold/Dan York interview at ITEXPO
3. Be a High Roller with Cloud-Based Telephony
4. Celebrating gift cards… and cloud-based telephony
5. Participate in Aberdeen’s Cloud-Based Contact Center Study and Receive a Free Copy

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