FoodLogistics.com |

Sleepless nights for IT executives

The questions in the minds of today’s information technology (IT) executives run in an endlessly agonizing loop:
• Do I have the right infrastructure in place?
• Are my servers and databases and applications doing what they need to do?
• How do I separate valuable new technology from all the junk?
• Is my system secure?

These are tough questions, to be sure. But as any business-minded IT practitioner knows, these concerns are not about technology on its own. They are about technology as it relates to the bottom line, corporate strategy and the plethora of threats that include rising costs, increased competition and ever-slim profit margins. In short, what really keeps the strategic IT executive awake at night is this question: How can I use technology to boost productivity, make the supply chain more efficient, and maximize ROI?

Increasingly, many are finding that an often-overlooked and much-misunderstood application provides the answer to that question. It’s supremely easy to implement, quickly helps companies achieve their cost and profit goals, and can give the IT executive a shining star for strategic innovation.

What is this competitive weapon? Voice-directed work. If this hasn’t yet made it onto your radar screen, here’s a primer to get started.

A short history on voice

Voice recognition and speech technology began deep inside the workshops of Bell Laboratories during World War II, where researchers believed in a radical new idea: that one day, machines would be able to recognize and respond to human voice commands. Gradually, other researchers outside of Bell Labs caught wind of the idea and they, too, shared the excitement about the advances possible if computers could talk and be spoken to. These researchers toiled away silently for years. Then, in the late 1980s, voice recognition and speech technology began to grow into their potential.