The Voice Commerce Group announced the launch of its latest version of WhitePhone, the next generation of VoIP technology that uses advanced voice functionality to help online businesses improve sales and customer retention. Whitephone enables any website to integrate voice services into their offering and offers a range of new technologies including…

• A white label voice enabled browser with feature rich communications functionalities -- including voice mail, video mail, free PC to PC calls, and low cost calls to telephones globally
• 'CastAlive' -- broadcasting of text, audio and video to opt in groups
• 'Click-to-talk' -- allows end users to click to call a sales representative direct before they buy

Until now VoIP services from companies like Skype, MSN, Yahoo and Google have positioned themselves as a means of enabling free or low cost calls between friends and families. However, the Voice Commerce Group believes that the increasing availability of broadband opens up much wider opportunities to enrich the user experience than just a phone call. As President of the Voice Commerce Group, and founder of WorldPay, Nick Ogden explained:

"Our aim at Voice Commerce is to provide the tools that help build advanced e-businesses by incorporating voice into the browser and into existing web content. Online businesses will benefit from the next generation of VoIP technologies, helping them to offer new and exciting voice and video technologies to a community of end users. We are turning the Internet into a completely natural communication environment. This not only creates a richer web experience for end users but also provides the tools for brands to market to customers in a sophisticated and personalised manner. The Internet is evolving and we want to provide a more real life online experience where voice conversation is an integral part of life on the web."

Whitephone provides local/national media groups, Internet portals, interest groups, consumer brands, educational portals and e-businesses with the tools to deploy their own branded integrated communications portal. These organisations will be able to market new forms of advertising including 'click to talk' advertising and video broadcasts (using a tool called CastAlive, also launched today). Through these next generation technologies, any online business will have the power to compete on a local or global level with companies that offer their own basic VoIP services.

"Imagine being able to offer your own branded communications service which does everything that Skype does and so much more", continues Nick Ogden. "Through Whitephone, we offer a complete communications portal that can act as an advertising tool, communications device for your customers, a revenue generator and perhaps most importantly a customer retention vehicle. Voice enablement is now seen as the most significant growth opportunity on the Internet and voice commerce is set to transform our e-commerce experiences and change the way the Internet is used for communication, advertising, information search and retrieval."