The voice portal in its truest sense has not really arrived yet for corporate users in Europe. There are no real voice systems in action where a company worker can use his or her hands-free set to call in and access the office database in the same way as they could with an internet connection and password.

According to most of the leading technology providers in the area, the expected explosion in voice portals over the next few years will be very much driven by customer-facing applications, such as call centre or financial trading systems.

However, while they stop some way short of a full portal, there is some movement among European businesses to develop voice systems for use by their own workers.

BT Ignite, for example, has developed a system with Nuance, one of the leading companies in this area, which allows workers to call a central voice-automated operator and just speak the name of any colleague to be connected to them.

BT Ignite then uses the automated system to find the cheapest way to route calls throughout the organisation, regardless of where the call originates or where it is headed, and whether it is from one mobile to another.

The system also lets users send or receive e-mail using voice commands. While stopping short of being a voice portal, this kind of application, which offers a kind of limited unified messaging system, is one of the areas where internal corporate use of voice technology shows potential.

Other companies are also testing the waters with some voice applications of their own. British Airways has recently developed a voice-based travel service for employees, using technology from Nuance, which lets them check times and availability of flights. United Airlines has a similar flight-booking system available for as many as 500,000 employees, ex-employees and employee family members.

Such applications appear easier to justify in terms of cost because of the large number of people likely to use them, which means administration cost savings are likely. For voice access to standard corporate information systems, however, the business case may not be so compelling, with the number of users needing hands-free access at any given time likely to be more limited.

Eric Montague, European general manager for SpeechWorks, says the level of use must justify the cost. "Most enterprise clients only really want to automate phone calls or establish call centres. They are only interested in automating applications if there is a good volume. There need to be thousands of calls a day. There aren't really a large number of applications out there to justify these costs."

Paul Thompson, partner in Andersen's customer and channels practice, agrees that cost is paramount. "You really need to be very sure in terms of what information you are looking to provide. Do you want to pay to make a lot of bland stuff available with no real value?"

Mr Thompson says the voice portal could be useful to a company's sales force, which is most likely to be on the road and benefit from hands-free access. "They could find out about a certain product and its availability, ask about their next appointment and find out the past 10 transactions of a particular client."

One UK investment bank is already using such a system, although only on a trial basis, according to Mr Montague at SpeechWorks. He says the bank is using the system to give its sales people access to fast-changing information on its investment products.

Blue-collar applications

Ben McOwen Wilson, senior manager at Spectrum Strategy Consulting, which advises companies on mobile strategies, says the potential usefulness for voice portal applications is greater at the blue-collar end of an organisation. He says there is particular scope at companies where distribution is central to business, such as large oil companies or drinks groups: "This must apply particularly to the Shells and Basses of the world. It's a good way to get information to drivers in large fleets."

Mr McOwen Wilson sees less need for voice portal applications for white-collar workers. "Professionals really tend to use very few applications other then e-mail," he says.

Voice-based assistant systems, including functions such as diary management, are showing promise but these can be arranged by an individual rather than as part of a general corporate strategy.

Besides a lack of financially worthwhile applications at the higher end of an organisation, the other issue hampering take-up of voice portal technology as an internal tool at companies, is the technology itself.

Tony Cooper, director in the media, technology and communications practice at Andersen, says the ability to speak naturally is essential if workers are to be able to use their voice to access the same kind of complex data they can now reach through a remote web connection. But he says he cannot see a significant breakthrough in natural voice technologies for another "two to three years".

Mr Cooper also questions the usefulness of the voice interface for even relatively simple functions such as e-mail. "In a text-based system, it's great being able to flick through e-mail to see what you want to read, but with a voice interface you cannot do this. You have to go through each e-mail one at a time."

Because of such shortcomings, Mr Cooper sees the corporate voice portal's biggest threat coming from third-generation mobile phone technology. "Nobody would doubt the usefulness of mobile access to corporate data, but it might be a lot easier with UMTS, while the technology is still not there for voice."