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"Microsoft has closed a wide agreement with the consumer experience firm 24/7 Inc., the company announced today in a blog post. According to the companies, the purpose of this deal is to invent &amp;quot;the future of customer service.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nIn practical terms, it means that Microsoft and 24/7 Inc. will join forces to\u00A0make cloud-based customer service much more intuitive. This change will be powered by big data, but also by what are known as\u00A0natural user interfaces - which go from speech to touch and gesture.\r\n\r\nWhile 24/7 Inc. brings in its knowledge of leveraging analytics to improve customer experience, Microsoft will integrate its self-service technology into 24/7's approach. The agreement also includes a R&amp;amp;amp;D partnership, long-term IP licensing and Microsoft taking an equity stake in 24/7 Inc.\r\n\r\nAs Zdnet reports, the partnership will also result in a transfer from Microsoft to 24/7. Not only did the company licensed some of its speech-related technology to 24/7 Inc., but the latter will also reportedly hire around 400 Microsoft employees who were working on TellMe speech technologies (see our comparison with Siri).\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIt's hard to deny customer service needs a serious fix, and it's certainly interesting to see a giant like Microsoft willing to use technology. For the customer, it could hopefully mean a seamless experience across multiple channels, from social media to mobile. As for the use of natural user interfaces, it is also quite promising, especially for the disabled.\r\n\r\nHowever, Microsoft and 24/7 inc. don't hide that their move isn't disinterested; customer service is a huge market, and the figures at stake are quite impressive. According to the companies, their\u00A0combined Predictive Experience (PX) platform will manage more than 2.5 billion speech and online self-service interactions annually.\r\n\r\nThe companies also hope this will translate into notable revenues for 24/7 Inc., which expects to generate more than $250 million annually from its customer service solutions. While\u00A0Microsoft's exact equity share of the company wasn't made public, chances are it will also get a substantial amount of this revenue."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2012/02/07/microsoft-wants-to-use-voice-touch-and-gestures-to-disrupt-customer-service/attachment/247/>