# Programs

A program is a set of instructions that tell SpeechMiner what to recognize in recorded conversations between contact center agents and customers in relation to a specific business issue.

More specifically, a program's instructions are made up of topic and non-linguistic recognition tasks that contain guidelines about what SpeechMiner should look for, when to look for it and where to look for it in the interaction.

Topics must be defined before you can add them to a program. However, you can change their contents after you add them to a program. The topic contents that are defined when the program is applied are the contents that will be sought by SpeechMiner in interactions associated with the program. For information about creating and modifying topics, see Topics.

When SpeechMiner identifies a recognition task it registers an event. For more information about events, refer to the SpeechMiner User Manual.

Important

| Every interaction that enters the system is automatically assigned to a program.

A program consists of the following:

Each program instructs SpeechMiner to extract useful information from a recorded conversation using the following content processing methods:

- Speech Recognition
  Identifies each word in it's lexicon and transcribes it. Transcription enables users to search for phrases and facilitates certain types of reports that analyze the speech that is recognized for trends. In addition, a transcription enables you to see a variety of characteristics associated with the interaction and highlights phrases that can identify specific issues. For example, who said what, unsatisfied customers, etc.
- Topic Recognition
  Identifies specific phrases associated with a defined topic. A topic represents a specific intent (for example, cancellation) and each program is associated with one or more topics. That is, topic recognition enables users to search for interactions containing a particular business issue, and facilitates reports that analyze the topic data. If Speech Recognition is not performed, topic recognition cannot be performed. That is, the topics included in the program define the linguistic data that SpeechMiner should look for in interactions that belong to the program.

#### Related Topics

Introducing the Program Interface
Create a Program
Program Structure

Non-Linguistic Identification identifies the non-verbal parts of an interaction. For example, silence, busy signal, key presses and caller agitation (tone).

Every program instructs SpeechMiner to automatically identify the following non-linguistic events:

- Dial Tone: A dial tone.
- Ringback: A signal used in PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Networks - standard "land lines") to indicate that the line is being called or an incoming interaction is present.
- Silence: Silence, usually indicating that the Mute button was held down on one of the handsets.
- Busy Tone: A busy signal.
- Music and Noise: Music or noise, generally indicating the interaction was on hold.
- DTMF: Key press on a touch-tone phone. 16 different keys can be identified using DTMF (Dual Tone Multi Frequency).

In addition, when you configure a program, you can choose whether SpeechMiner should also identify agitation (that is, non-verbal expressions of frustration and anger, such as deep sighs, grunts or rapid changes in pitch).

Each non-linguistic event that is identified by SpeechMiner has a start time, an end time, and a type. For example, if SpeechMiner identifies silence in an interaction, this is a non-linguistic event whose start time is the beginning of the silent period, whose end time is the end of the silent period, and whose type is "Silence."

#### Related Topics

Introducing the Program Interface
Create a Program
Program Structure

Each program is organized as a structured diagram that links topics in a consecutive string to mimic the expected flow of the conversations associated with the specific topic. The diagram is used to tell SpeechMiner where in an interaction the content must be found in order to match the requirements. For example, a structure diagram could show a "Loan Offer" topic at the beginning of an interaction, followed by a "Disclaimer" topic, and, finally, a "Contact Information" topic.

You can fine tune the structure to increase the efficiency and accuracy of the recognition process using the following features:

- Modify the Program Structure: Specify the order in which the topics must appear in the interaction, and indicate where branches may occur and which topics are optional, by adding and removing arrows in the structure diagram.
- Create a Program Trigger: Set conditions for the links defined in the program's structure, including conditions that the topic must meet and metadata conditions that the interaction must meet (for example, the agent must be from a particular work group, or the interaction must have taken place after a certain date).
- Create a Program Recognition Task: Specify that the topic must have taken place at a specific time during the interaction.

#### Related Topics

Introducing the Program Interface
Create a Program
Program Structure

Interactions are sent to SpeechMiner from the external recording system. When they are received, they are put into SpeechMiner's processing queue to await their turn for analysis by SpeechMiner. Because the processing of some interactions may be more important than the processing of others, SpeechMiner does not automatically process interactions in the order in which they were placed into the queue.

When you create a program, you assign it a priority level. SpeechMiner selects which interaction to process first based on the priority level of the program it is associated to. SpeechMiner processes the highest priority interactions in the queue first, and then proceeds to interactions with lower priorities, regardless of how long the interactions have been in the queue.

#### Related Topics

Introducing the Program Interface
Create a Program
Program Structure