Patent ID: 7194069

Claim:
A voice access system for enabling voice access to an enterprise data system, comprising: a voice recognition unit, wherein the voice recognition unit is configured to receive user input, the user input configured to request an ad hoc query be performed against data stored by the enterprise data system using a spoken natural language query, send query criteria corresponding to the ad hoc query request to the enterprise data system, receive data from the enterprise data system based on the query criteria, and provide feedback data corresponding to data received from the enterprise data system in a verbal format to the user via the telephone connection, the voice recognition unit comprises a voice recognition server and a voice recognition client, and The voice recognition client is configured to submit voice waveform data to the voice recognition server, and the voice recognition server is configured to convert the voice waveform data into text data and to send the text data back to the voice recognition client; and a speech processing server, coupled to the voice recognition unit via a computer network, configured to determine the query criteria by converting the spoken natural language query into a data request in a text form and identifying one or more objects and data criteria corresponding to the spoken natural language query based on the data request.