Tomorrow

1
Tomorrows Technology Today

• Convergence of Web, Wireless and Voice

2
Agenda

• Background
• Current technology trends
• Putting it all together
• Real-world example Gilbert, AZ
• Q A

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Fundamental Paradox

• Governments are expected to provide
  ever-increasing levels of service, with
  ever-decreasing levels of funding

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Expectations

• Service provided 24 x 7
• Instant access to real-time information
• Conduct business without a trip to City Hall
• Services and information available on a variety
  of platforms and media
• Make existing staff more productive and efficient

5
Your Mission

• Leverage available technologies to efficiently
  deliver the maximum level of service possible to
  constituents

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Achieving the Mission

• Improve Reach
• Provide as many ways as possible to access your
  services
• Preserve technology investments
• Leverage existing back-end business systems
• Augment technologies where appropriate
• Voice gateways, wireless devices, smartphones

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Improving Reach using the Web

• As of April, 2006 73 of American adults call
  themselves Internet users (up from 66 in Jan
  2005)
• Broadband penetration is at 48 of American homes
  as of March 2006, a 40 increase from the prior
  year
• Still, Internet use lags in low-income households
  (53 of household earning less than 30K) and
  elderly populations (only 32 of those aged 65
  and older)
• Source Pew Internet and American Life Project

8
Improving Reach using Voice

• Almost 100 of the US population has access to a
  telephone
• Telephones are the most ubiquitous communications
  devices on the planet
• Telephone access brings low-income and the
  elderly into the information circle

9
Improving Reach using Wireless

• Smart wireless devices (cell phones with Web
  access, smartphones, and PDAs) are the
  fastest-growing segment of the wireless industry
• 9 of US adults use wireless phones exclusively
  percentage is much higher for 18-34 yr olds
• Advanced networks offering broadband speeds will
  drive new applications for smart devices
• Source Harris Interactive

10
Preserving Your Tech Investment

• More than likely youve invested heavily in your
  existing back-end ERP systems
• All the information and business logic for
  running your government is expressed in these
  systems
• Need to make use of them if possible to leverage
  that investment
• Fortunately, a new software design paradigm has
  emerged that can help Service Oriented
  Architecture (SOA)

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Service Oriented Architecture

• Under SOA, systems provide services that are
  consumed by other applications
• Typically, these other applications are focused
  on presenting and collecting data, while the
  business logic and data access is provided by the
  back-end system
• For example, a web application can consume a
  service to pay a customers water bill, while a
  voice-based application could use the same service

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SOA Standards

• The adoption of SOA has been rapid due to several
  standards
• Extended Markup Language (XML) A standard way
  of representing data
• Web Services a standard program-to-program
  communication layer that uses XML over HTTP
• Most modern ERP systems provide a Web Services
  interface
• A Web Services layer can usually be written to
  front a legacy application
• All modern development tools allow easy access to
  Web Services

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Augmenting Your Investment

• Add newer platforms that enhance and extend your
  existing systems
• Voice gateways based on Voice XML (VXML) provide
  text-to-speech (TTS) and automated speech
  recognition (ASR) and are based on web and Web
  Services standards
• Provision new devices, like smartphones and PDAs,
  to staff members to make them more productive
• Smartphones like the Palm Treo 700 series provide
  access at broadband-like speeds to Web
  applications, email, calendar, contacts, etc.

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Putting it all together

• Ingredients
• Back-end systems accessible using Web Services
• Voice gateway to provide a speech-based interface
  to systems
• Web application to provide browser-based access
• Voice application for telephone access
• Smart devices for wireless access

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Logical Diagram
Application Server (runs back-end systems,
provides Web Service interface)
Database Server (stores data from ERP systems)
PBX System
Web Server (serves Web requests, runs Web
applications)
Voice Gateway (runs voice applications, provides
TTS and ASR)
Web-enabled Smartphone
Telephone
Web Browser
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EDEN Web Voice Extensions
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Real-World Example Gilbert, AZ

• Services
• Utility Billing
• Account inquiry, balance information, consumption
  history, transaction history detail, bill
  payment
• Permits Inspections
• Permit inquiry, inspection scheduling/view
  inspection results, permit application, staff
  result posting
• Applications
• EDEN Utility Billing with Internet and Voice
  Extensions
• EDEN Permits Inspections with Internet and
  Voice Extensions

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Real-World Example Gilbert, AZ

• Platforms Hardware
• Compaq Servers
• Microsoft SQL Server DBMS
• Microsoft IIS Web Server
• VoiceGenie VXML Gateway

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Web Application
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Voice Application Demos

• Hear Permit Inspection Results (ASR)
• Post Inspection Results (DTMF)
• UB Payment (DTMF)
• UB Payment (ASR)

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Smartphone/PDA Application
Palm OS
Windows PocketPC
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Results Utility Billing Transactions

• Total transactions since March 2005 158,109
• Dollar volume 10,969,095

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Results Utility Billing Dollar Volume
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Aggregate Results

• Since March 2005
• 155,576 transactions
• 10,723,744 in transaction volume

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Questions?