Abstract: A system for creating and hosting speech-enabled applications having a speech interface that can be customised by a user is disclosed. The system comprises a customisation module that manages the components, e.g. templates, needed to enable the user to create a speech-enabled application. The customisation module allows a non-expert user rapidly to design and deploy complex speech interfaces. Additionally, the system can automatically manage the deployment of the speech-enabled applications once they have been created by the user, without the need for any further intervention by the user or use of the user's own computer processing resources.