Cashing In, Speaking Volumes, Netting News

DragonDictate comes with a 120,000-word on-disk dictionary -- 30,000 of those words are kept "active" in RAM for fast access -- and is designed to work with a wide variety of top software, including programs produced by Microsoft, Novell, and Lotus. It not only allows you to enter information into word-processing formats and spreadsheets but also executes most standard Windows and Windows 95 commands. You simply announce the commands into a microphone rather than click on them with a mouse. So why was I disappointed?

For starters, the sound card I'd installed in my system didn't provide enough amplification. For the program to hear me, I literally had to scream into the microphone. (This is not true for all systems: the hardware determines volume.) But after adding an external amplifier at the manufacturer's suggestion, I was off and running.

No doubt about it: DragonDictate rates high on my "cool technology" scale. Words actually do appear on the screen as you speak them. Often they're even the same words that you say. When I said "is," for instance, "is" popped up on the screen. But when I said "hello," I was greeted by "mellow." Unfortunately, for most business applications, often is just not good enough.

Moreover, the program is ridiculously slow: my hopes that DragonDictate could be a serious business tool were dashed when I saw just 13 to 22 words appearing per minute. The fastest I was able to get the software to type was 28 words per minute with 82% accuracy. Even then, I had to speak very slowly, pausing for what seemed like an eternity between each word.

All voice-recognition programs require some degree of training to learn the user's speech patterns, accent, and verbal idiosyncrasies. DragonDictate handles this by having you repeat words into a microphone as they flash on the screen. The process is not difficult and took me about 35 minutes. Once trained, the software learns new words as you dictate. If you see a misspelled word, you simply say "Oops" and then type or announce letter-by-letter the correct spelling. This is easy to do but makes preparing even a short note a chore -- and wreaks havoc on your train of thought. Of course, over time, as the program accumulates an ever larger vocabulary, its speed will markedly increase.

I'm confident speech technology will eventually deliver on expectations. Until then, it's back to the keyboard and the pocket dictation machine. Sorry HAL.

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Software
Profound, from Profound Inc., New York City (800-270-9896; $19.95 per month for basic service, $6.95 per hour on-line charges, plus variable fees for some reports), an on-line business-intelligence service

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Reviewer
Sandra E. O'Connell (oconnmink@aol.com), CEO of Triad Solutions Inc., a human-resource-systems consulting firm in Herndon, Va., with sales of $400,000

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Requirements
386; 4 MB RAM (8 MB recom-mended); 2,400-bps modem (14.4 kb or higher recommended); Windows 3.1; mouse

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You're trying to woo a prospective client but don't have the resources to thoroughly investigate its background or to plan a comprehensive pitch. Consider dialing in to Profound, an on-line business-intelligence service that can arm you with the type of information typically generated by a full-fledged marketing department.

Profound provides everything from snapshots of individual companies -- including services, revenues, prospects, and profits -- to a database of more than 40,000 market-research reports, all in a readily accessible format. Its seven primary features, marked by colorful icons, provide both an overview and an inside look at various market sectors: NewsNow (which I found less useful than the research capabilities) is a summary of current events. Quotes is a compendium of stock, commodity, metal, and foreign-?exchange prices. And Briefings offers overviews of markets, companies, and economies. The remaining features are more technical: AutoSearch and WorldSearch serve as quick ways to access the database of reports; Custom Alert enables you to track your areas of interest; and Utilities reviews charges.

In search of the stock-price history of a competitor, I simply clicked on Quotes, and then typed in the company name and clicked on Stocks. I was rewarded with both a price and a volume graph, along with a price summary. Eager to locate information on our industry for an upcoming marketing-strategy meeting, I returned to the main menu and clicked on Briefings, then Market, and then Computer Consulting Services. Up popped a synopsis of revenues, major players, and growth in the market, all at no cost. But be forewarned: though the pickings are plentiful, the files can take a significant time to print because they contain a lot of graphic information. With my 14.4-kb modem, my 14-page market briefing took nearly 45 minutes to print.

Happily the cost of the information, which varies from a few dollars to more than $1,000, appears on-screen before you hit the download button. The program also lets you select the components of the on-screen information you want to use, reducing fees accordingly. All told, Profound is less insightful than its name implies, but it's still a valuable tool for tracking down reams of business information in a relatively efficient manner.