WEBSITE www.voiceassist.com
About Voice Assist
Voice Assist combines the latest speech technology with internet based information and a world class telecommunications network, to provide phone based services that are easy and safe to use, and allow you to be connected from any phone, anywhere. With a speech driven user interface, Voice Assist is ideally suited for a mobile hands busy environment, like in the car, or on the go. By being able to dictate emails, text messages and web posts, Voice Assist makes it faster, safer and more convenient than using a keypad. With email and other web based information read to the Voice Assist subscriber, it's possible to keep focused on the road rather than on the mobile device.
Management Team
Michael Metcalf - Chairman and CEO
As chairman and CEO, Michael Metcalf brings over 26 years experience in the telecom and speech recognition industries. He is a serial entrepreneur, having previously founded and managed a number of successful companies. He was founder, CEO and chairman of SpeechPhone LLC, a cloud based unified communications service provider. He also founded and was CEO and chairman of Sound Advantage LLC, provider of on site speech recognition based messaging platforms and earlier in his career he founded and managed Telwest Inc, an interconnect and systems integrator.
Products conceived and developed by Mr. Metcalf have won over 25 of the top telecom and speech recognition industry awards including four Product of the Year awards. Mr. Metcalf has the unique ability to recognize opportunities and then conceive and develop commercial grade technology to meet the need.
Mr. Metcalf is a visionary leader that leads by faith, hard work and personal example. His previous board positions include Safe Harbor International, a 501c3 disaster relief and missions outreach to the Sudan, as well as director at Coastland Christian Bible College and University.
Vic Boyd - CIO
Vic Boyd, CIO, is responsible for managing and deploying the infrastructure and resources that power the Voice Assist offerings. Vic Boyd is a seasoned technology executive, supporting global enterprise voice and data infrastructure for the past 17 years. Prior to joining Voice Assist, Mr. Boyd consulted for SpeechPhone and was responsible for developing, coordinating, and implementing the voice and data infrastructure supporting users throughout the United States and multiple foreign countries. Mr. Boyd has consulted for dozens of public and private Fortune 1000 companies in the U.S. and abroad developing and deploying not only global voice infrastructure, but also high performance, secure data networks. Some of the organizations Mr. Boyd has maintained engagements with in the past include AT&T, SBC, MCI, UUNet, Level3, Avaya, Cisco, T-Mobile and Verizon Business, among others. Mr. Boyd has held director and management positions in multiple public and private companies in his career and specializes in secure, physical and virtual, scalable network infrastructure design and deployment.
Tracy Roberts, Chief Product Officer
As the chief product officer for Voice Assist, Ms. Roberts, has responsibility for product strategy, product design and development as well as the overall user experience. She brings to this role over 25 years of experience in new product development to Voice Assist, having brought to market innovative products and services in speech technology, mobile products and services, web services and communication solutions. Previously, she led product development at SpeechPhone and was instrumental in the design and development of the original Voice Assist functionality. Before that, Ms. Roberts was Vice president of Marketing for Loquendo (Telecom Italia) - a speech technology products and services provider. Previously, Ms. Roberts was also the Senior Director of Product Management for AltaVista, providing product leadership during its formative days which helped it grow to be one of the top ten most trafficked web sites globally. She was also responsible for the launch of AltaVista Korea and international strategy for Asian markets. Ms. Roberts has also held a number of product and user experience leadership positions at Nortel Networks and Bell-Northern Research in the U.S. and Canada.
Andrew Fox - Vice President of Sales & Partnerships
Andrew Fox brings over 15 years of experience to Voice Assist in the mobile and wireless networking industries. Prior to joining Voice Assist, Andrew served as President and CEO of Mindzap Media, a digital media-consulting agency focusing on helping organizations develop technology, distribution and revenue strategies around digital media in the mobile, Internet and consumer electronics marketplace. Previously he also served as a Founder and EVP of Sales and Business Development of Oasys Mobile, Inc. where he built both carrier channel relationships as well as content relationships with leading entertainment companies.
Prior to Oasys Mobile, Mr. Fox started High Speed Net Solutions - an interactive marketing agency - and also worked as President and CEO of the company (which was later merged with Summus LTD). Previous to High Speed, Mr. Fox worked for RealNetworks as its, Senior Marketing Manager where he helped launch industry leading products such as RealAudio 3.0 and RealVideo 4.0. In his formative business years Mr. Fox spent 10 years at IBM in sales and marketing and was Manager for Sales and Marketing for IBM's Mobile & Wireless Networking Group Mr. Fox has an MBA in marketing from Fuqua School of Business as well as a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Duke University.
About the service
What is Voice Assist?
Voice Assist is a fast and safe way to make calls, manage your e-mails and send text messages by voice commands over the phone. You just call a Voice Assist access number and say what you want to do.
Who needs Voice Assist?
Anyone who spends time out of the office, especially in the car, needs Voice Assist. Voice Assist is especially useful to salespeople, business owners, managers, attorneys, CPA's, doctors, realtors, mortgage bankers and other people who need to stay in contact with lots of people. Any business person who travels or is on the road will find Voice Assist the ideal solution to be more productive when away from the office.
Getting Started
What kind of phone do I need?
You can use Voice Assist with any phone. There is no software to download, to use the service you just call in to a Voice Assist access number. You need Calling Line ID to be able to automatically log into the service.
What languages do you support
Right now we only support English voice commands. However, if you are bilingual and like to dictate emails and text messages in Spanish then we'll transcribe them in Spanish. You don't need to do anything differently we'll automatically detect that you dictated your message in Spanish.
Using Voice Assist
Why do I need to enter my password sometimes?
If the number you are calling the Voice Assist service from, is on your auto-login list then you don't need to enter your password. You are only asked for your password when we don't recognize the number you are calling from. To add numbers to your auto login list, use your online account admin.
I've forgotten my Voice Assist PIN?
You can retrieve your PIN online, click on the forgot PIN link on the signup page or click here.
What can I say?
When you call into your Voice Assist service, you are asked "What would you like to do?" You can say:
"Make a call"
"Get my email"
"Send an email"
"Send a text message"
"Get a phone number"
"Get an email address"
"Post to Facebook"
"Post to Twitter"
"Help"
As a short cut, you can also add the name of the person and the location. For example, "Send an email to David White" or "Call Mary Franks on her mobile".
How are e-mail sent?
When you send an email, you dictate the message and we then transcribe the audio into text. We then send the text transcription in an email from your email address with your original audio file as an attachment.
How are text messages sent?
When you send a text message, you dictate the message and that message is transcribed and send to the contacts cell phone number.
Why are some names not recognized?
This service will only recognize names that are inside your address book. If a name is not recognized please log-in to your account and make sure the name and number has been stored. We do not provide access to contact names without either a phone number or email address in the record (one is required). The primary reason for names not being recognized is because they have not been stored in your contact list. Another reason (although rare) is because of the spelling of the name. Voice Assist recognizes names based on their phonetic spelling. If you are having trouble with a specific contact name, try spelling the name like it sounds.
Voice Assist Settings
How do I change my PIN?
If you want to change your PIN you just need to log into your account admin. Once on the setting pages click on My PIN.
How do I add auto-login numbers?
To add additional "auto-login" numbers, just log into your account admin and click on Your Phones. You can add up to 3 phone numbers.
How do I change the emails that I listen to?
To change your email account, just log into your account admin and click on Your Email. You can modify the account setting of your existing email account, or add a completely different account.
Sending text messages
What mobile carriers can you send text messages to?
Voice Assist can send text messages to:
| Alltel | AT&T | Bluegrass | Boost | Cellcom | Cellular South | Centennial |
| Cincinnati Bell | Dobson | ECIT | Farmers Wireless | IVC | Nextel | nTelos |
| PACE | Silverstar | Sprint | Suncom | T-Mobile | US Cellular | Verizon |
| Virgin Mobile | West Central |
| Aliant Mobility | Bell Mobility | Fido Solutions | MTS Mobility | NorthernTel Mobility |
| Rogers Wireless | SaskTel Mobility | Télébec Mobilité | TELUS Mobility | Virgin Mobile Canada |
I sent a text message and the person never received it.
This could be a number of reasons. They may not have service with a carrier we can send text messages to (check the list above) but the most common reason is that they block text messages from short codes. In the US, Voice Assist sends out text messages through a short code.
Subscribing to Voice Assist
How much does it cost?
Voice Assist is $4.95 a month. Premium packages such as Chatter by Voice cost $14.95 a month, please contact us for group packages.
Do you require a long term contract?
No. Service is available on a month to month basis. You can cancel at anytime by logging into your account on this website. We do not offer refunds for partial periods during the current billing period.
Billing
How is Voice Assist billed?
Voice Assist is billed once a month on the anniversary of your sign-up. It is automatically debited to your credit card/debit card.
What happens if I go over my 100 minutes?
If you use up your 100 minutes then you can either wait until the beginning of the next month, or start the month early. Just go to your back office and renew immediately.
I have a question about my bill.
If you have any questions about your bill or service, please contact customer support.