What do a voice to text virtual assistant service and an online booking system for small tour operators have in common.
Seemingly not much, unless that virtual assistant service is Jott.com and the booking system is Rezgo, in which case you have two applications that have combined to provide a service for operators who want to prevent voucher fraud, a problem for many in-destination tour and activity providers.
Jott.com, a popular voice to text service, was bought in 2009 by Nuance the company behind Dragon Naturally Speaking. The service which allows users to leave voice messages that are converted to Google calendar events or To do list notes also has a simple developer API which allows third party developers to connect their applications with Jott.
In response to requests from tour operators who wanted to use Rezgo's voucher validation system but lacked access to mobile Internet, the team at Rezgo looked to Jott as a possible solution. "I had been using Jott.com for over a year and have always been a big fan of it's voice to text accuracy." says Rezgo CEO Stephen Joyce.
"The thought crossed my mind that if we mash-up the Rezgo XML API with the Jott API, we could give operators the ability to check-in and validate customer vouchers by using their voice." Most applications connected to Jott are for the purposes of note taking, calendaring, or other assistant type tasks. The use of Jott as a check-in mechanism is completely new and offers opportunities to expand voice to text to a variety of other booking management tasks.
Operators who use the Rezgo platform can sign-up for a Jott.com premium account and add the Rezgo Jott Link to their account.
To check-in or validate a voucher the Rezgo Jott user calls the local Jott number, chooses to Jott Rezgo and then speaks the check-in number found on the Rezgo customer voucher. A few moments later an email or SMS message is sent to the Rezgo user's mobile phone with the results of the validation.
Stephen adds "This is a great example of combining two unrelated services together to make something new and useful for our member companies. The added value of the Jott network means that operators have a variety of ways to validate vouchers, reduce fraud, and increase their profitability without increasing the technological burden. What could be easier then just speaking into a phone."
Disclosure: Stephen Joyce is also a Tnooz Node.
What do a voice to text virtual assistant service and an online booking system for small tour operators have in common?
Seemingly not much, unless that virtual assistant service is Jott.com and the booking system is Rezgo, in which case you have two applications that have combined to provide a service for operators who want to prevent voucher fraud, a problem for many in-destination tour and activity providers.
Jott.com, a popular voice-to-text service, was bought in 2009 by Nuance, the company behind Dragon Naturally Speaking.
The service, which allows users to leave voice messages that are converted to Google Calendar events or To Do list notes, also has a simple developer API which allows third party developers to connect their applications with Jott.
In response to requests from tour operators who wanted to use Rezgo's voucher validation system but lacked access to mobile internet, the team at Rezgo looked to Jott as a possible solution.
"I had been using Jott.com for over a year and have always been a big fan of it's voice-to-text accuracy," says Rezgo CEO Stephen Joyce.
"The thought crossed my mind that if we mash-up the Rezgo XML API with the Jott API, we could give operators the ability to check-in and validate customer vouchers by using their voice."
Most applications connected to Jott are for the purposes of note taking, calendaring, or other assistant type tasks. The use of Jott as a check-in mechanism is completely new and offers opportunities to expand voice to text to a variety of other booking management tasks.
Operators who use the Rezgo platform can sign-up for a Jott.com premium account and add the Rezgo Jott Link to their account.
To check-in or validate a voucher the Rezgo Jott user calls the local Jott number, chooses to Jott Rezgo and then speaks the check-in number found on the Rezgo customer voucher.
A few moments later an email or SMS message is sent to the Rezgo user's mobile phone with the results of the validation.
Joyce adds: "This is a great example of combining two unrelated services together to make something new and useful for our member companies.

"The added value of the Jott network means that operators have a variety of ways to validate vouchers, reduce fraud, and increase their profitability without increasing the technological burden. What could be easier then just speaking into a phone."
Disclosure: Stephen Joyce is also a Tnooz Node.