Lots of business traveling has me thinking about logistics and, of course, how voice mashups can improve these business processes. I tend to equate logistics with FedEx and delivering packages. For the most part the global package delivery industry provides best practices for how to integrate the phone and web in ways that give customers visibility into logistics. When traveling,however, I am the package and my phone is the equivalent of my own personal RFID tag.

Yet, I am blown away by how few other industries have adopted similar best practices when it comes to logistics and using the phone. Pulling out the laptop, finding a hot spot, and logging on to a website for updates isn't the right solution for travelers.

Just over the past few weeks I've seen tremendous potential use cases for voice mashups.

Airlines: These voice mashups could include confirmation of flight times, schedules, gate changes, and passenger reminders about new travel policies. I don't have a printer when traveling so make confirmation available over the phone. Send me confirmation numbers by speech to text or SMS. Of course, lost luggage demands the ability to give people insight into what is happening and when delivery is going to happen. At best, airlines hand out credits /coupons when mistakes happen. The $80 in airline "credits" that I received over the past few weeks certainly would pay for a lot of logistics communications.

Hotels: Simply call me, ask me if and when I expect to check in on the day of my arrival. You are going to make me feel very good that my reservation hasn't been lost. Hotel staffing/rooms can be scheduled based upon estimated times and numbers of arrivals. It's OK to tell me to eat at the hotel restaurant too!

Conferences/events: Conference have to be one of the most expensive activities that do not provide any attempt at personalized customer service. Bad/limited hot spot connectivity makes the suggestion of " Go to the Conference website for updates" a cruel hoax. Those self service check in kiosks are annoying especially when paying for the full cost of the conference. At minimum,a phone call that confirms my registration, arrival time, and schedules my badge pickup, or tells me not to miss a new keynote speaker would be well received.

Delivery services: We've discussed delivery services and logistics. It is getting to the point that I am surprised when automated phone notification is not used. With voice mashups, we can do much better than 3 or 4 hour delivery windows.

With voice mashups and logistics, getting the right message to go out at the right time, to the right person is only half the battle. The real added value is the feedback loop and real time managerial reporting that must be attached to this solution. Each contact is meaningful to the individual customer but it is the aggregate data that provides quantifiable return on investment for the business. Jaduka and Network IP's infrastructure give us the ability to provide time stamped, real time feedback for world wide voice mashup logistic solutions.

Patrick Murphy
Jaduka, Vice President Business Development

Jaduka's announcement that we have joined Serena's Mashup Exchange and sponsored the Serena User Conference is a clear indication to the future direction of Communications Enabled Business Processes and, of course, Voice Mashups.

Since analysts coined the phrase CEBP there has been some industry confusion about exactly how the "business process" integration of CEPM would be handled.

Whether selling a box or hosting a service the telco hardware vendors and service providers are strong on the communication enablement side of the equation. But, actually moving forward to improve the business process within an enterprise does require integration with internal processes and legacy systems. This is the 90% of the iceberg below water.

With CIO's continuing to rank business process improvement as a top priority the market opportunity was not going away. Enter the new world of enterprise mashups.

Serena, a vendor with deep roots in application life cycle management, has crafted powerful new mashup composer tools that push the development of lightweight business improvement applications out to the business analyst and web development skill sets readily available within their clients' organizations. In addition , Serena has been strategic about courting best of breed technology partners , take a bow Jaduka, to help Serena's global clients deploy solutions faster.

Although Serena's Mashup Exchange is by far the most aggressive initiative, there are more and more software vendors with worldwide client bases beginning to open up their offerings to attract new functionality and vertical expertise from preferred technology partners. The speed of the mashup culture is not waiting for traditional software release cycles.

Whether it is called CEBP, voice mashups, or mobile mashups the ability for traditional enterprise software, SAAS offerings, or web content management vendors to easily access the worldwide telephone network using APIs is rapidly becoming a required piece of functionality. Jaduka is positioned perfectly.

Patrick Murphy
Jaduka
Vice President, Business Development

I received a call from a ubiquitous, giant, drug store chain and I am delighted.
Although it wasn't perfect, this call provides a beautiful example of a voice mashup that works on so many levels.

My home phone rang about 2pm. Given that I work from home, I typically ignore this phone but walked by and noticed the caller id listed the name of the local pharmacy chain. I picked up the phone and said hello. Unfortunately, the first automated response stated "I don't understand what you said." However, immediately after that mistake, an automated voice asked me by name if I wanted to renew a prescription. I laughed, went over to my kitchen sink, shook the little bottle of tablets and noticed there were only 2 left. Within 30 seconds, I followed the phone prompts, ordered a refill, and was told that 24 hours later the refill would be ready to pick up.

This phone call probably saved me one car trip to the store and an hour or so worth of my time. This is good stuff. Multiply how this type of call can help busy families, senior citizens, or anyone with a chronic condition. It helps by saving money, saving time, and keeping people up to date on their prescriptions.

Yet, there are at least 4 ways the contact could have been better.

1. I rarely answer my home phone especially during the day. It needs to become standard business process to ask permission to use mobile numbers or texting for these type of calls. Personalize the call for me.
2. This call came from one of those drug store chains with thousands of stores. My first reaction after getting off the phone was do I know which of the three local stores has my prescription? Give me relevant local information. Remind me of the store location and the store hours. Localize the call for me.
3. Given the POS swipe card that is requested every time we buy something why not use my purchase history and prompt me to buy something with a mobile coupon. Give me a coupon code and save me money.
4. Before filling the order there was one, simple, security question prompt. My hope is that if a more powerful drug refill is being updated stronger security prompts are requested. I am not devious enough to think through how this type of call could go bad. However, the security question felt weak. Perception drives consumer acceptance.

From the pharmacy chain's perspective these 30 second calls easily improve work flow and staffing, make cash flow projections stronger, and delight customers.

Any store or vendor that I regularly frequent is encouraged to contact me by phone if they are going to save me time and money.