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Written by rosalind renshaw

The new Aspasia Cloud software will mean agents can simply talk straight into their mobile phones in order to make new entries on their computers.

The whole application will have the ability to run off a mobile phone, with integrated voice recognition software.

Founder Stewart Anderson said: “We think it’s a big first. The entire software programme, not just a cut-down app, can run from a mobile phone.

“That is special enough, but having the ability to walk round a house and complete an inventory or take down property details on your phone, straight into the right fields in the database, simply by talking, is really neat.

“Agency software is at last really beginning to change.”

The voice recognition capability is a feature of the Google Nexus One phone.

Anderson says: “Our application works very well with it. The voice recognition does get a few words wrong occasionally, which have to be over-typed. I have found using an American accent helps!”

The eagerly awaited Aspasia Cloud will also have the entire Google email system integrated into it, meaning that users can send and receive emails directly, without any of the cutting and pasting that other systems involve.

The whole application is designed to be used by agents who may or may not have offices, who work on the move, and whose work is automatically backed up on the ‘cloud’.

The Aspasia launch is expected in the second quarter of this year.

 Click Here to find out more or visit www.aspasia.net

 


Comments

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    Confused Agent. No problem, I look forward to meeting up for a beer if/when you are prepared to reveal your identity! In the meantime let's remain friends and I can assure you Gmail does indeed provide a central email repository if you use Google Apps Premier which is what we use in Aspasia Cloud (there are no ads and it is very good!). Regarding Colin (obviously a cricket fan), if you ever find out who he is I will offer him a job! We seem to share a common viewpoint. David seems a level headed person too. All the best, Stewart.

    • 18 February 2010 22:16 PM
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    Stewart, I suppose my suspicion is raised by the fact that "Colin Truman" has never once posted here on EAT prior to this thread. That and the fact that Colin's/David's (and in fact your grammatical style is very similar) - use of single quotes for emphasis, unusual comma positioning, ellipses etc Add to that the timing of the comments on a 2 day old thread that can't be very interesting to anyone else. Anyway, be that as it may, if you say someone from Aspasia isn't astroturfing the comments, then I absolutely accept you at your word. Of course, "Colin Truman" could settle that ambiguity by coming to explain who he is and where he works. To the technical points you address, I would make the following observations. Firstly, Gmail has seen a significant number of unplanned outages. For me, this would present an unwelcome single point of failure in a production system. There are also privacy concerns around Google's parsing of email contents in order to place contextual ads. It's certainly a good system - I use it myself for social stuff - just don't know if I'd build a platform around it just yet. Secondly, for anyone enforcing permissions using Active Directory, I am not aware how Gmail can replace the control that is currently available to systems administrators. And Gmail provides no central email repository - a must for an enterprise application surely? As for your aspiration to ensure agents have a viable future, I think this may be more about your product having a viable future - and there's nothing wrong with that. Anyway, I've got better things to do and I'm sure you have to. I've heard good things about you previously so I will absolutely keep an open mind and wish you the very best of luck with your product. And thanks for your invitation to give you a call - I won't because, frankly, I don't want to waste each other's time but next time there's an event where we are both present, I'll be sure to say hello. Make sure to bring along Colin and David ;)

    • 18 February 2010 21:51 PM
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    Dear Confused Agent. Someone pointed out to me the somewhat heated dialogue going on below and I felt I should respond to clarify matters. First let me make the point that David and Colin are nothing to do with Aspasia. I can see why you may think that way but it is simply not the case. Perhaps if you would come out from behind your cloak and call me on 01344 750100 I will be happy to discuss your issues personally. In the meantime to address the points you make…. Email, no you don't need two systems. Google Apps (which is integrated with Aspasia Cloud) contains Google Mail (with Postini) which is considered the best email system available and it does everything you mention without exception, better still it is integrated within the Aspasia Cloud software itself so that it is seamless. Having personal experience of both Exchange and Google Mail/Postini you will just have to trust me - it is much better. Regarding Nexus One, again I use it myself daily, it really is something special and the voice recognition really does work as well as can reasonably be expected as was mentioned in the EAT article. Regarding leveraging other firm's technology and playing off the 'cloud' hype, well I have to tell you that Aspasia Cloud is the product of 2 year's detailed research and planning and it is certainly no incremental upgrade. The whole thing has been fundamentally designed from the ground up to help ensure agents have a viable future in the face of the new world in which we live. We almost certainly won't get everything right first time but are we wrong in really believing in something and trying to innovate? I don't think so nor do the OFT by all accounts in today's report. Anyway, I really mean what I said. Give me a ring tomorrow and I will do my best to address your issues. Regards, Stewart.

    • 18 February 2010 20:31 PM
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    Confused Agent. Firstly, and to be absolutely clear, I have no association with Aspasia whatsoever. Secondly, 'market share' has absolutely nothing to do with quality of product - a quick look at companies house will put you straight. I am not suggesting that Aspasia are the best, worst, or otherwise. However, I do appreciate innovation in an otherwise tedious, MS Access world of EA & LA software...... something that those companies with the greatest market share are failing to aspire to.

    • 18 February 2010 20:13 PM
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    "Colin","David" or let's be honest, "Someone from Aspasia". You attempt to conflate the issue by giving an entirely spurious example. I don't think Accounts should be run over a CMS any more than I think Email should be run over EA Back Office software. I made a perfectly polite comment and you come back with your petty sarcasm - is that how you treat your clients when they ask about your product? Maybe that's why your market share is miniscule. Make better software and get some original ideas you muppet.

    • 18 February 2010 19:16 PM
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    Confused Agent. In answer to your last point.....you clearly know very little. Running accounts, for example, through a content management system is your suggestion then? Genius.

    Perhaps understanding the product first would help................

    • 18 February 2010 18:56 PM
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    Ahh, got it - thanks David. So if I understand correctly, Aspasia propose that we have 2 email systems now - Exchange and Aspasia Cloud? Sounds like duplication to me. Unless Aspasia handles all the stuff that Exchange does like indexing, search, backup, archiving, spam, permissions, rules, out of office, undelivered & bounces etc. So in the event of a legal audit request, my IT people will now have to look in 2 places? And I doubt the granular administration and monitoring of Aspasia's system emails will be as functional as those of Exchange. I know I am being devil's advocate but I am tired of reading press releases promising the earth and yielding nothing more than incremental upgrades. I guess we'll see if the Aspasia's cloud turns out to be revolutionary or evolutionary. And to your point about the Nexus One - it is largely untested and unsupported - the only reason Aspasia will want to use it is that Android is a more open platform than the iPhone or BlackBerry - not because it is the right tool for the job. It would be nice to see a "software company" do more than simply leverage other firms' technology and play off the 'cloud' hype. Unless Aspasia uses a CDN such as Amazon EC3, it is not a cloud in any meaningful sense. But then what do I know.

    • 18 February 2010 17:56 PM
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    Confused Agent. I may be wrong but looking on the site there seems to be much more to it than that. Yes, voice recognition has been around a while but everything improves and I can't see Google launching a pup with their first entry into the mobile phone arena - that would be foolish. Regarding email I think the point is that incoming email get filed automatically against the correct record without the need for separate email client software which would certainly save a lot of work and make things more efficient. I suspect 'eagerly awaited' is journalise.

    • 18 February 2010 17:16 PM
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    Er, I hope Stuart is not betting the farm on voice recognition and software that sends email. Call me a spoilsport but haven't both of these technologies been around for some considerable time. Voice recognition is unreliable at best and pretty much any ASP or PHP application can send email using SMTP. Is that really it? Not exactly a game changer. And EAT, you state that this software is 'eagerly awaited'. By whom exactly?

    • 18 February 2010 16:14 PM
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    Very good - but does it work with Letraset.

    • 17 February 2010 13:56 PM
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