Wildfire plans to spread faster than ever with Network Wildfire, a new carrier version of Wildfire Inc.’s electronic assistant that Pacific Bell Mobile Services is currently testing for its personal communications services network.
Wildfire is an automated secretary, organizer, rolodex and more-all intended to make life easier. The system’s vocal interface is designed to be easy to use and feel human. A subscriber speaks a phone number, a person’s name or another request, and Wildfire-a friendly and mature female voice-interprets commands using voice recognition technology. She has the user’s name stored and validates a user’s passcode before a session.
The original Wildfire Electronic Assistant, introduced in 1994, was hailed by the industry for its features and ease of use, but was expensive. Supplied as a complete system to businesses and other organizations, Wildfire’s cost per user ran high.
Using Network Wildfire, customers will be able to access Wildfire individually, through telecom carriers, which translates into lower prices, as system cost is amortized over many more users.
“Network Wildfire dramatically improves the accessibility and affordability of Wildfire,” said Robert Mechaley, president and chief executive officer.
Mechaley explained that Wildfire was “designed to work in a wireless environment,” noting that competing enhanced services that use voice recognition technology were designed for use with a microphone or wired phone and do not adapt well when wireless.
Network Wildfire is scalable, said the company. If a certain carrier invests in a Network Wildfire system that costs $2.3 million, the average net return on investment would be $8.5 million the first year, said Mechaley. Contributors include net additional revenue ($3.9 million), higher minutes of use ($3 million), higher ring-no-answer connections ($1.8 million), Wildfire service revenues ($1.1 million), and lower churn ($1 million).
Network Wildfire is ready for market and is expected to be available to subscribers, through carriers, starting sometime in the second quarter, said the Lexington, Mass., company. Pac Bell is in system trials now and though the carrier has not committed to the using the system, Wildfire spokeswoman Leslie Anderson said, “they’re moving forward very quickly.”
Network Wildfire is “inexpensive, easy-to-use, and feature-rich,” said Terry Valeski, PacBell Mobile’s executive vice president, market and business development.
Network Wildfire also is being tested by one of the United Kingdom’s two PCS carriers.
The configuration for Network Wildfire includes Pentium-based hardware and an open software architecture that integrates easily into a carrier’s network and can be accessed through a variety of communications devices, said Wildfire.
The modular structure of Network Wildfire also is new. Rather than offering just one big package of services to all customers, the new Wildfire allows users to choose only the services they use. Mechaley said consumer research found customers use different sets of Wildfire’s enhanced services more than others.
At their own pace, users can add other services. Wildfire processes patterns of use and suggests other services that would help a particular user. For instance, a person may purchase Wildfire primarily for voice mail and voice dialing. If that person ends up calling a certain number three or four times a day, Wildfire would ask the user if they would like to learn more about the contact list feature to cut time in voice dialing each call.
Wildfire’s suggestive selling, called Wildfire Automated Marketing, can increase revenue for carriers without the expense of direct marketing or sales, said the company.
Wildfire’s basic user package includes a number of features. The personal assistant answers the phone and greets frequent and recognized callers with “Oh, hi.” An intelligent messaging feature captures a caller’s name and number. Wildfire screens callers by asking their name and announces calls to the user. Call-on-call lets users access incoming calls while checking their other messages. A “session” feature allows users to complete multiple tasks-like making a call, checking their schedule, receiving a call and listening to voice mail messages-in a single call.
Add-on features include call routing, fax store and forward, schedule reminders and conference calling. A schedule tracking option allows Wildfire to know where and how to contact users any time. With the contact list feature, users can voice dial up to 150 people or places and at five numbers per name. Wildfire also offers an Internet-based graphical user interface for subscribers to access schedule information on line. The virtual hallway allows subscribers on the system to simultaneously connect with each other.
