Comments on: SpinVox Voicemail Transcription Done By Call Center Staff, Not Algorithm?

By: kovakovsky

kovakovsky — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:24:59 +0000

hi, there’s also conversion center opened in Macedonia
it is working a couple of months and it’s converting messages
for SpinVox
The contractor company name is Datalityx Europe
Maybe 99 percent of the messages are converted by
so called Quality Control Agent
Currently messages are recived by UK and US

By: Guru

Guru — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:20:36 +0000

Hi i want to know whether there are openings for VMT? i have worked as a VMT in a company called Focus MT, bangalore for a duration of 6 months. Can i apply, Please reply

By: Guru

Guru — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:16:20 +0000

I want to know whether there are openings for VMT??
I have worked in a company called Focus MT,bangalore as a VMT for 6 months. Can I get into this company ??
Please reply.

By: Nuance Killing SpinVox’s D2C Service | AniChaos.com

Nuance Killing SpinVox’s D2C Service | AniChaos.com — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:42:51 +0000

[...] SpinVox struggled to repay a $48.8 million loan and allegations surfaced that transcriptions were being done by call center staffers — not a speech-to-text algorithm, as the company had claimed. Nuance ended up pocketing [...]

By: Nuance Killing SpinVox’s D2C Service – GigaOM

Nuance Killing SpinVox’s D2C Service – GigaOM — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:31:37 +0000

By: SpinVox: From Flush to Flushed – GigaOM

SpinVox: From Flush to Flushed – GigaOM — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:54:37 +0000

[...] in 2009, rumors that it used people rather than algorithms to transcribe some voicemails came to light. The media focused on the privacy implications of [...]

By: John Smith

John Smith — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:47:07 +0000

Spinvox is at least accurate in their transcripts, look at Nuance’s new VM2TXT service via Vonage. Despite Nuance’s claim that it has the best SR software on board they are getting all the Vonage voicemails transcribed at a facility located in Bangalore India by call center agents and their transcripts are also below par. If that is not infringement of data security for Vonage customers then what is? Nuance is delivering subpar quality with human transcriptionists is that fair?

By: Dennis

Dennis — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:43:44 +0000

Hi… I’m Dennis and I’m one of the people from India who are hired by SpinVox (through a third party) to transcribe their voicemails to text. Certainly SpinVox does have an advanced speech-to-text algorithm system which they proudly boast of… but the messages which the computer or machine is unable to recognize/transcribe are then transferred to their centers/agents all around the world. These centers or agents are mainly situated in India, South Africa, Philippines and Egypt, and maybe in some other countries also. The tool which I or the agents all around the world use to transcribe SpinVox voicemails is called Tenzing.

By: max

max — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:42:13 +0000

Actually, SpinVox has a software that captures voice and converts it to text or what we call voice recognition software. But of course, that software won’t be able to generate a 98% or greater, error-free transcripts so what they did was that they encorporated human transcribers with the system.
How it works:
1. Caller calls toll free number, leaves a message, then hangs up.
2. Voicemail message is entered into the database, voice is captured by voice recognition software and is converted automatically into text.
3. Converted text is transferred to human conversion agents for quality control (error checking like grammar, punctuation, sentence construction, etc).
4. Voicemail message with the converted text message is transferred back to the database.

I know because I worked as a conversion agent for Spinvox.
Jott does it as well. Both are outsourcing here in the Philippines.

By: mark

mark — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:13:44 +0000

spinvox is not the only one, i personally used to work for a company in the philippines where we transcribed SIMULSCRIBE’s voicemail messages into text!!!
we were made to sign waivers and stuff for non-disclosure and things but the company treated us real bad and we got back by botching up the quality of the transcriptions.

By: mark

mark — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:12:53 +0000

spinvox is not the only one, i personally used to work for a company in the philippines where we transcribed SIMULSCRIBE’s voicemail messages into text!!!

we were made to sign waivers and stuff for non-disclosure and things but the company treated us real bad and we got back by botching up the quality of the transcriptions.

subscribers have a right to know that their messages are being read by other people, in fact we were able to access almost everything, from the caller’s phone number to the person who “owns” the voicemails email and contact numbers.

some people even sensitive information on the voicemails, pity the poor bugger who could get scammed because of this, i used to have co-workers who would copy the entire transcription including caller and called party contact details.

By: TimO

TimO — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:59:25 +0000

Links to the many other SpinVox-related articles here: http://doiop.com/spinvox

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:45:20 +0000

The algorithms come from Cambridge University AI laboratory. I think we should seek a position from Cambridge University on this.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:42:37 +0000

The Vox part seems to work fine for most people. Now they need the Spin part to be even better.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:56:09 +0000

This is a big duh. Just like Jott, Spinvox uses a combination of automated and human transcription. For anything complicated it’s going to go to a human. The key to making this profitable is to minimize the number of these that have to be done by a human, otherwise the labor costs eat you alive.

Considering that Jott just exited to Nuance for what I would guess was around $10 mil., Spinvox has a huge whole to dig itself out of.

By: Ben Ortega

Ben Ortega — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:40:12 +0000

oomph!! Probably not the turning point they were dreaming of.