Getting Started with Speech Recognition A large number of vendors are selling excellent speech recognition tech- nology and applications today. What remains limited and drives up the cost of speech applications is development of the voice dialogue and user interface. During the next few years, the market will see many new out- of-box speech applications that will reduce the cost and development time for speech systems. But if the application you want isn't yet available, be sure to purchase a product with a VXML development environment to ease the development burden. Speech Recognition Implementation Checklist Follow the steps in the following checklist to make sure that the pro- ject is a success for you, your company, and your customers. As with any investment, determine the return on investment before making any purchase decisions. Follow the steps in order.