Dialpad Inc., developer of business messaging and conferencing systems based on the voice over internet protocol, is deepening its push into the sales force automation market.

The latest fruit of the effort is today’s announcement of Dialpad Sell, a cloud service that uses voice recognition and machine learning to transcribe sales calls, interpret customer sentiment, suggest sales strategies and analyze completed conversations. The software is based upon technology Dialpad acquired with its purchase of TalkIQ Inc. a year ago.

Calling Dialpad Sell “the first true real-time speech recognition product on the market,” the company said its technology consolidates the half-dozen or so support tools sales reps typically use into a single conferencing, messaging, coaching and analytics suite. TalkIQ developed its own real-time voice recognition system that it said is on par with the accuracy of the technology Google LLC uses in applications such as Google Voice.

The real-time component is unique, said Dan O’Connell, chief strategy officer at Dialpad and TalkIQ’s former chief executive. Most voice recognition systems work from recorded audio, but “we are the first company to introduce real-time speech recognition at scale with any device,” he said.

The software uses machine learning to guess initial pronunciation with about 80% accuracy, and the quality of recognition  improves with use, O’Connell said. The vocabulary can be customized to recognize terms specific to the customer’s industry or product domain.

Dialpad Sell learns from previous customer interactions to makes sales calls more efficient and productive while also enabling sales managers to coach representatives through integration with the company’s LiveCoach real-time coaching software and third-party customer relationship management systems.

LiveCoach provides real-time recommendations to sales reps while on calls with customers for such purposes as improving objection handling and speeding the on-boarding process. Sales managers can see a live feed of their team’s active calls with live updates noting the sentiment on each call. They can choose to listen in or watch a live transcript and message agents with coaching advice on the fly.

In addition to real-time advice, salespeople and managers can access searchable call transcripts to make adjustments to the sales process or offers. The software can identify keyword trends over time and enable sales managers to better assess individual sales rep performance. Sales reps can also prerecord voicemails to leave in a prospect’s voicemail box.

Other features include call routing, power dialing, localized caller ID, geographic routing and voice intelligence functions on conference calls.

O’Connell said Dialpad has no intention of entering the customer relationship management business. “We will stay true to our core competency in artificial intelligence and speech recognition,” he said. The TalkIQ transcription technology is now being rolled into the company’s UberConference audio/video conferencing system.

Dialpad was launched eight years ago by a team that includes the founders of GrandCentral Communications Inc., which was acquired by Google in 2007 and whose technology underlies that company’s Google Voice VOIP service. The company has raised $120 million in venture financing, including a $50 million round last summer. Its core product is a cloud-based VOIP service, but it has recently been expanding its footprint into customer service and sales support applications.

Dialpad Sell subscriptions start at $95 per month per user on an annual subscription basis and include a license for the company’s UberConference Pro conferencing system.

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