IP contact center technology pioneer award.As anyone who hasn't been living in a cave for the past several years knows, Internet protocol See Internet and TCP/IP. (networking) Internet Protocol - (IP) The network layer for the TCP/IP protocol suite widely used on Ethernet networks, defined in STD 5, RFC 791. IP is a connectionless, best-effort packet switching protocol. (IP) has acted as a "super fertilizer" for the garden that is enterprise business communications. Perhaps one of the hottest growth areas for IP is the contact center. Contact center applications, with the aid of IP, have enabled anytime, anywhere, any way, always-on functionalities that allow companies to do things about which they could only dream a short few years ago. ********** The call center market, analysts remind us, is mature. The best way to electrify e·lec·tri·fy tr.v. e·lec·tri·fied, e·lec·tri·fy·ing, e·lec·tri·fies 1. To produce electric charge on or in (a conductor). 2. a. an industry with slow and steady growth rates Growth Rates The compounded annualized rate of growth of a company's revenues, earnings, dividends, or other figures. Notes: Remember, historically high growth rates don't always mean a high rate of growth looking into the future. is to introduce a technology so necessary for competition that everyone in the market place ultimately "has to have it." Not long ago, it was computer-telephony integration (CTI (Computer Telephone Integration) Combining data with voice systems in order to enhance telephone services. For example, automatic number identification (ANI) allows a caller's records to be retrieved from the database while the call is routed to the appropriate party. ), which allowed breathtaking improvements in cost efficiency and labor usage. Later came CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. , a nebulous acronym acronym: see abbreviation. A word typically made up of the first letters of two or more words; for example, BASIC stands for "Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. that may be fading in terminology, though not in its basic necessity. Up and coming are speech and self-service, two intertwined concepts whose potential for the customer service arena knows no foreseeable boundaries. Customer Inter@ctions Solutions realizes that technology is the key to the success of any call center, as we have been editorially covering call center technology over two decades. We also realize that with new products and new categories of products in the call center space, it can be strenuous and difficult for our readers to knowledgably keep up with the latest, greatest products and services. This is why we are offering this award program for the first time, so we may judge the "best of the best" in IP contact center technology, or companies' products that offer stand-out features, functions or capabilities--setting them apart from others in the space--and then offer our findings to our readers. Each company that wished to participate was required to submit an answered questionnaire regarding its target market, its product's unique or distinctive features, its competitors, and, of course, a list of customer references of organizations that have deployed the solution. The following is the list of recipients of the IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award. Additionally, we have provided brief answers to the questions asked of them. They have been edited down for space, and some dialog has been edited so that the significant information may be offered to our readers. To all of the recipients, congratulations. Amcat www.amcat.com Contact Center Suite '05, IP & Softphone Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: All communications (voice, e-mail, fax, SMS (1) (Storage Management System) Software used to routinely back up and archive files. See HSM. (2) (Systems Management Server) Systems management software from Microsoft that runs on Windows NT Server. , Web chat) are routed and handled in a uniform fashion. Amcat Contact Center Suite 2005 is a platform that delivers converged communication in any customer care setting. For distributed call centers and remote agents, the Amcat IP Call Center solution brings true cost savings and efficiencies. At the remote location, the agent's voice goes through a head set plugged directly into the PC to take advantage of VoIP and Amcat's SIP softphone implementation. IP implementation and the softphone eliminate the need to have a PBX (Private Branch eXchange) An inhouse telephone switching system that interconnects telephone extensions to each other as well as to the outside telephone network (PSTN). on site to distribute the calls and eliminates the need to have a phone set on the agent's desk. Further dramatic cost savings are realized through not having to pay long-distance charges from the location of the Amcat software engine where calls are being placed or received and the remote location. Only the cost of the properly sized IP link is required for this operation along with routers on either end. Aspect Communications www.aspect.com Uniphi Connect Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: Aspect's Uniphi Connect enables businesses to operate a hybrid IP/PSTN call center without the need for third-party IP gateway hardware. Uniphi Connect eliminates the need for a separate IP gateway by including an IP card within the ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) A computerized phone system that responds to the caller with a voice menu and connects the call to the appropriate agent. It can also distribute calls equally to agents. platform. In addition to the IP card, Uniphi Connect includes an agent desktop that allows agents to be located anywhere there is an IP connection, providing centralized cen·tral·ize v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate. 2. management, administration and reporting for all PSTN- and IP-based agents. With Aspect Uniphi Connect, voice and routing requests can travel over less expensive IP networks. Uniphi Connect also works in conjunction with another Aspect application, Aspect IP Network InterQueue. This combination of products allows businesses to set up one virtual contact center operation regardless of where the physical sites are located. IP Network InterQueue greatly reduces the expense of routing calls across multiple networked Aspect Call Center systems by eliminating the need for T1/E1 lines to link dispersed contact center sites. aveComm www.avecomm.com aveComm Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: aveComm is a communication and collaborative software This is a list of collaborative software (or list of groupware) applications. Wiki software is on a list of wiki software. Open source or free software The following are open source or free software applications. suite designed to enable innovative ways for individuals to communicate via the Internet. aveComm is truly flexible, as it can be licensed in a variety of different packages tailored to suit the needs of every business, from small home offices to Global 1000 corporations. aveComm delivers a myriad of functionality, highlighted with an integrated and advanced audio conference bridge, allowing users to host an unlimited number of simultaneous audio conferences with an unlimited number of participants. aveComm is the only product of our type to: be fully installable behind the corporate firewall; be able to scale to thousands of users in a single conference or multiple concurrent conferences; offer voice and visual in a single interface from the same vendor completely. It is device- and environment-independent. aveComm can bridge telephone and PC-based users in conference and can seamlessly integrate with any application. BeVocal, Inc. www.bevocal.com BeVocal VoCare Managed Call Center Automation Solution Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: What's unique is the breadth of application modules offered to automate call centers across entire customer lifecycle, including: suites in customer acquisition; order management/tracking; billing and payment; account management; outbound notification; customer retention; and repair/service. The ARC Approach is a unique voice solution delivery model that ensures that clients systematically achieve their desired customer care automation and caller satisfaction results. To ensure that customer automation goals are met, BeVocal applies its unique Continuous Improvement Process to each deployment. This process has five distinct parts: high impact improvement levers; results-driven client teams; relevant KPIs and call statistics; powerful analytical & tuning tools; and regular tune-ups. Carrius Technologies, Inc. www.carriustech.com Compleat-200 Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: The Compleat-200 is an intelligent IP media gateway that serves as the telecom foundation for contact center solutions. It combines media gateway, signaling gateway A network device that converts control signals from one format to another. For example, a SIGTRAN signaling gateway converts SS7 signals of the PSTN to SIGTRAN for transport over IP. Contrast with media gateway. See SIGTRAN. and call control functions in a single platform. Contact center solution developers integrate the Compleat-200 into their solutions in order to get to market more quickly with a more economic solution that can simultaneously interact with wireless, wireline, circuit and packet networks. Cisco Systems “Cisco” redirects here. For other uses, see Cisco (disambiguation). Cisco System,Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO, HKSE: 4333 ) is an American multinational corporation with 54,000 employees and annual revenue of US $28.48 billion as of 2006. , Inc. www.cisco.com IP Contact Center (IPCC See IMS Forum. ) Enterprise Edition Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: Cisco IP Contact Center (IPCC) Enterprise Edition delivers intelligent contact routing, call treatment, network-to-desktop computer-telephony integration (CTI), and multichannel Using two or more paths for transmission or processing. It can refer to a variety of architectures including (1) multiple I/O channels between the CPU and peripheral devices, (2) multiple wires in a cable, (3) multiple "logical" channels within a single wire or fiber or (4) multiple contact management over an IP infrastructure. By combining multichannel automatic call distributor (ACD) functionality with IP telephony The two-way transmission of voice over a packet-switched IP network, which is part of the TCP/IP protocol suite. The terms "IP telephony" and "voice over IP" (VoIP) are synonymous. in a unified solution, Cisco IPCC Enterprise (formerly Cisco IP Contact Center) enables companies to rapidly deploy a distributed contact center infrastructure. Distinctive features include the following: single implementation for multichannel ACD, IVR (Interactive Voice Response) An automated telephone information system that speaks to the caller with a combination of fixed voice menus and data extracted from databases in real time. , CTI and outbound; distributed architecture supporting hundreds of locations; centralized management, scripting and reporting for multiple sites across the entire enterprise; flexible queuing options, including queuing and treatment at the edge of the network; and a linear scaling model to support thousands of agents. Convergys Corporation www.convergys.com Convergys Global IP Architecture Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: A connection to Convergys' Global IP Architecture provides low-latency, high reliability and flexible access seamlessly to any of Convergys' global locations. Designed for high reliability, connectivity is provided using multicarrier, redundancy and diverse routing to ensure greater reliability than that which is available from a single carrier. Also, consolidation of the number of access points enhances network security and minimizes the need for customer-provided equipment or services at each center. Hosting centers can act as back-ups to each other, providing yet another layer of redundancy. Convergys' Global IP Architecture includes several unique and distinctive features: experienced staff; private IP network backbone; centralized hosting centers; open standards-based; global standardization; voice quality assurance; managed service; and mitigation risk of network failures. CosmoCom, Microsoft (joint submission) www.cosmocom.com and www.microsoft.com UniFrame Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: Microsoft and CosmoCom have collaborated to create UniFrame, an integrated combination of Microsoft Customer Care Framework Microsoft Customer Care Framework (CCF) is a Microsoft .NET-based framework which is commonly used to address issues faced by service providers caused by multiple line of business (LOB) systems while interacting with their customers. (CCF CCF abbr. Cooperative Commonwealth Federation of Canada ) and CosmoCall Universe. By creating UniFrame, Microsoft and CosmoCom have already done much of the work for a modern call center. What remains is mainly connecting CCF to the specific line of business (LOB) applications in the customer IT environment, connecting CCF to the self-service Web portal See portal. as required, and to incorporate the hooks for UniFrame's live Internet and e-mail contact management into the self-service Web portal. UniFrame facilitates inbound call screen-pops for agents that are essentially the same for telephone calls, live Internet sessions and e-mail messages. Interaction history of all channels is created automatically and stored either in the LOB CRMs or in Universe's own interaction history module, CosmoTracker offers the ability for outbound calls via any channel to be launched with a single click on the contact's phone number, e-mail address See Internet address. e-mail address - electronic mail address or SIP address. Historical data from the contact center is fully mapped into the CCF abstraction layer Software that translates a high-level request into the low-level commands required to perform the operation. The most common abstraction layer is the programming interface (API) between an application and the operating system. , providing a source of unified reports that contact center managers will find invaluable in assessing the overall performance of their operations. Five9 www.five9.com Virtual Contact Center (VCC An electronics designation that refers to voltage from a power supply connected to the "collector" terminal of a bipolar transistor. In an NPN bipolar (BJT) transistor, it would be +Vcc, while in a PNP transistor, it would be -Vcc. ) Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: Five9 Virtual Contact Center is a hosted contact center ASP with all of its customers running VoIP completely independent of a traditional telecom company and without any ties to a PSTN-based infrastructure. Virtual Contact Center is built from the ground up to eliminate third-party license fees and to ensure costs are kept low. Along with its VoIP functionality, the Virtual Contact Center offers the following: ACD; predictive dialer An automatic telephone dialing system that dials from a list of numbers and turns the call over to an agent when a human responds. It increases productivity in a call center, because the agents can spend their time talking rather than waiting for calls to go through as well as hanging up ; CRM; IVR; CTI; remote agent capabilities; skills-based routing; recording; silent monitoring; real-time reporting; chat; and centralized management for multisite and offshore contact centers. Gryphon Networks www.gryphonnetworks.com Exemption Advisor Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: Gryphon Networks Exemption Advisor is the first technology to enter the market that entirely automates the exemption management process for the calling agent. Exemption Advisor is a powerful addition to the Gryphon Networks Compliance Suite of out-bound calling technologies. It significantly increases the effectiveness of sales campaigns Noun 1. sales campaign - an advertising campaign intended to promote sales ad blitz, ad campaign, advertising campaign - an organized program of advertisements sales campaign n → campaña de venta while providing comprehensive management of federal, state and internal do-not-call lists. Gryphon Networks Exemption Advisor automatically identifies dialed numbers that qualify as an exemption under state and federal DNC DNC Democratic National Committee DNC Democratic National Convention DNC Do Not Call DNC Delaware North Companies DNC Domain Name Commissioner DNC Direct Numerical Control DNC Do Not Change DNC Does Not Compute DNC Digital Nautical Chart rules, dramatically reducing the amount of time, resources and expertise involved with checking millions of transactions against internal customer data. Exemption Advisor ensures that only lawful calls are placed to numbers otherwise restricted by their presence on state or federal do-not-call lists. Its distinct feature is that Gryphon Exemption Advisor is the first technology to enter the market that entirely automates the exemption management process for the calling agent through the telephone. Intelis, Inc. www.intelis-inc.com Intelis Call Center Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: The Intelis Call Center application, with its automatic call distribution (ACD) capabilities, supports live and automated agent call center functionality with integrated customer billing, reporting and validation services. The call center features are specifically designed to support the unique requirements of call center providers that offer multiple product applications on a single platform. The ACD application is the core of several applications that may run on top of the Intelis Call Center Platform. The platform supports numerous ancillary applications, in addition to the core ACD, including but not limited to customer service, operator services A variety of telephone services that require human intervention, including person-to-person calls, collect calls, credit card billing and directory and dialing assistance. Such services are performed by LECs, IXCs and alternative operator services (AOS), organizations that are used by , directory assistance, answering service answering service n. A business service that answers its clients' telephone calls and conveys messages to the clients. , alarm monitoring center, proprietary travel card, prepaid calling and various call routing applications. Interactive Intelligence Inc. www.inin.com Customer Interaction Center (CIC CIC circulating immune complexes. CIC Circulating immune complexes. See Immune complexes. ) Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: From the ground up, CIC was developed based on an interaction engine that processes, on a single platform, all types of interactions. Unlike traditional solutions either requiring multiple "boxes" to run multichannel applications, or other supposed "bundled" solutions assembled through acquired products, CIC offers a truly all-in-one multichannel solution for a single point of administration, end-to-end reporting, lower TCO (1) (Total Cost of Ownership) The cost of using a computer. It includes the cost of the hardware, software and upgrades as well as the cost of the inhouse staff and/or consultants that provide training and technical support. See ROI. and faster ROI (Return On Investment) The monetary benefits derived from having spent money on developing or revising a system. In the IT world, there are more ways to compute ROI than Carter has liver pills (and for those of you who never heard of that expression, it means a lot). . Also, CIC was one of the first standards-based interaction management software systems on the market and offers the unique advantage of interoperating with a wide range of third-party hardware, switching platforms and peripheral devices See peripheral. peripheral device - peripheral , thus eliminating the type of vendor lock-in In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in, customer lock-in, lock-in is where a customer is dependent on a vendor for products and services and cannot move to another vendor without substantial switching costs, real and/or perceived. associated with proprietary solutions. CIC both offers a full range of multichannel contact center features and can be extended to support the entire enterprise by simply purchasing new licenses rather than undergoing costly forklift upgrades. It also offers seamless call recording and predictive dialing, as well as multisite support and scalability. LumenVox www.lumenvox.com ArtiSpeech Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: LumenVox's ArtiSpeech (LVAS LVAS Left Ventricular Assist System ) integrates seamlessly with Vertical Communication's (Artisoft) TeleVantage to speech-enable the name directory, allowing all callers to have hands-free and numeric-free phone interactions. It allows for alternate names, nicknames and various spellings and pronunciations to be recognized. In addition, this solution enables users to retrieve, reply and manipulate e-mail, navigate voice mail and access IVR applications. New features in version 2.0 include additional functionality in voice mail, e-mail and administrative options. Users can utilize speech to access and place an outbound call to any of their TeleVantage personal or company contacts. Also, TeleVantage administrators can configure their data-bases remotely for easier access. Mitel Networks www.mitel.com Visual Architect with Call Center Stimulator Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: With the Visual Architect and Call Center Simulator, the challenging task of managing a contact center enterprise has been simplified. With use of the Visual Architect, a drag-and-drop "visio" interface is used to design a network of contact centers for the enterprise and for with Mitel's XML XML in full Extensible Markup Language. Markup language developed to be a simplified and more structural version of SGML. It incorporates features of HTML (e.g., hypertext linking), but is designed to overcome some of HTML's limitations. technology (MiXML), and it can be implemented from a single desktop. The Call Center Simulator can be used to ensure that all service levels are achieved or maintained for every ACD Media Queue in the enterprise. This is performed by using historical call record information or preset preset Cardiac pacing A parameter of a pacemaker that is programmed permanently when manufactured values. The Simulator will show information such as calls waiting, answered call percentage, abandoned call percentage and service levels. The Visual Architect can be used to tweak To make minor adjustments in an electronic system or in a software program in order to improve performance. See calibrate. 1. tweak - To change slightly, usually in reference to a value. Also used synonymously with twiddle. the design of the contact center until acceptable service levels have been proven by the Simulator. The Visual Architect can then be used to program and implement the complete enterprise of Mitel's 3300 IP systems. NetOffice www.netoffice.com NetOffice Suite Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: NetOffice Suite 2005 can be customized for small, medium, large or government organizations. It includes the following capabilities in one system: unified messaging Having access to e-mail, voice mail and faxes via a common computer application or by telephone. For example, unified messaging may send faxes and digitized voice mail to a mail server that turns them into e-mail attachments. ; a toll-free number with follow-me; contact management; data backup and management; detailed call reporting; automatic e-mail campaign management; e-fax; calendar sharing/collaboration; task management; and message handling. Distinctive features include the following: integrated computer telephony See CTI, VoIP and IP telephony. Computer Telephony - Computer Telephone Integration , fax and e-mail; sharing and collaboration; unified inbox; contacts; CRM; files; calendar; tasks; data backup; and automatic e-mail marketing--all from one place on the Web. Nexidia www.nexidia.com NEXminer Enterprise Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: Nexidia's technology features the unique, patent-pending Phonetic pho·net·ic adj. 1. Of or relating to phonetics. 2. Representing the sounds of speech with a set of distinct symbols, each designating a single sound. Search Engine, which is an open-vocabulary retrieval system that greatly reduces the time and increases the accuracy of searches against large collections of recorded speech. Unlike the other audio search and analytics vendors, Nexidia does not translate the audio file to text in order to search. Because the technology is based on phonemes (the most basic unit of human speech), NEXminer Enterprise can search/analyze blended words, proper names, slang, industry terms, jargon and code words, which are generally not found in traditional dictionaries. NEXminer also supports many more languages than its competitors, including North American English North American English is a collective term used for the varieties of the English language that are spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of the considerable similarities in pronunciation, vocabulary and accent between American English and Canadian English, the two spoken , Latin American Spanish American Spanish n. The Spanish language as used in the Western Hemisphere. . German, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Gulf States Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, Farsi and Iraqi. NICE Systems www.nice.com NICE VoIP Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: NICE VoIP provides a full range of recording applications, including Total Recording, Selective Recording, Recording-on-Demand, and Quality Management Recording. The system works seamlessly with blended (traditional and VoIP) environments and is fully integrated with NICE's Customer Experience Management (CEM CEM contagious equine metritis. CEM selective medium chocolate agar made with Eugon agar and 5% horse blood; used to cultivate Taylorella equigenitalis. ) Platform. Organizations can record with NICE VoIP across new communication channels, while capturing and analyzing interactions for compliance or quality management. With NICE VoIP, every interaction becomes an opportunity to enhance customer experience in ways that reduce liability and increase customer satisfaction. Nortel www.nortel.com Nortel IP Contact Center Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: By deploying IP with Nortel contact center solutions, a company also can increase savings and reduce operating costs operating costs npl → gastos mpl operacionales . Rather than maintain separate voice and data infrastructures, they can be converged to operate more efficiently and reduce staffing and training costs. Nortel IP Contact Center solutions include the following: Symposium Call Center Server; Symposium Express Call Center; Succession 1000; and Symposium Web Center Portal. Nortel IP Contact Center uniquely offers a comprehensive range of multimedia capabilities with the same reliability and quality users have come to expect with a TDM-based solution. Because Nortel IP Contact Center solutions are infrastructure-neutral, they do not require a proprietary data network and they function independent of network infrastructure: IP, TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) A technology that transmits multiple signals simultaneously over a single transmission path. Each lower-speed signal is time sliced into one high-speed transmission. or mixed. Employees, agents, supervisors, managers and administrators can all work anywhere they have secure Internet access See how to access the Internet. , not just in locations on the company WAN, using softphones and browser-based tools. Nuance Communications Nuance Communications is a computer software technology company. Their current worldwide headquarters is in Burlington, Massachusetts in the United States. Nuance provides speech and imaging solutions and is mainly known for its speech recognition and speech synthesis software that , Inc. www.nuance.com Nuance Voice Platform 3.0 Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: Nuance Voice Platform 3.0 is the industry's first open, standards-based VoiceXML platform that is optimized for the deployment and operation of voice automation solutions. Nuance Voice Platform 3.0 allows enterprises and telecommunications companies See telecom company. to fully realize the cost savings, revenue generating and customer satisfaction potential of voice automation solutions. Featuring a new application design and deployment environment, it offers integration with Nuance's latest speech technologies, as well as broadened support for a range of standards and operating systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. . Organizations also benefit from the seamless migration between on-premise and hosted environments. A new, key component of the Nuance Voice Platform is the Nuance Application Environment, which helps businesses overcome common barriers to implementing speech solutions from design through post-deployment. Other key elements of the Nuance Voice Platform 3.0 include Nuance Conversation Server and Nuance Management Station. Nuasis Corporation www.nuasis.com Nuasis NuContact Center Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: The Nuasis NuContact Center is a software-only, multimedia, single network system for multisite routing and multisite management that offers companies all the familiar and required functionality of traditional ACDs, with improved multisite management capabilities and dramatically lower acquisition and operating costs. The unique technology behind the NuContact Center is its patent-pending Enterprise Routing Architecture (ERA). ERA allows companies to manage multiple contact centers as a single center. The NuContact Center also offers the following: best-agent routing across the network; a single agent desktop for all media; lower operating costs; CTI built in; unmatched scalability; and the system is designed for mission-critical operation (i.e., system availability can be installed). Parus Interactive www.parusinteractive.com Parus Interactive Retail Voice Response Solutions Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: Our products are speech-driven and hosted. We provide highly customized application development. We can host carrier-grade PSTN/VoIP telecommunication services, and we can port local numbers. Parus Interactive has its own cost-efficient, converged PSTN/VoIP Media Switching Platform, which we control exclusively. Moreover, we have intelligent routing technology, of which our speech apps take full advantage. Our multiple Web and voice technologies are keys in delivering the high value marketing services to customers in the retail market segment. With our new, unique and proprietary voice application development framework, we can design, develop, maintain, customize and support simple or complex packaged and custom speech applications significantly faster and cheaper than most competitors. Plantronics, Inc. www.plantronics.com Plantronics CS50-USB Headset Headphones combined with a microphone. Used in call centers and by people in telephone-intensive jobs, headsets provide the equivalent functionality of a telephone handset with hands-free operation. Many people use headsets at the computer so they can converse and type comfortably. System Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: The Plantronics CS50 Wireless Office Headset System brings the ultimate in mobility and hands-free conversations to your phone. The CS50 gives you eight hours' of talk time and the wireless convenience to roam up to 300 feet with secure conversations. And remotely taking or ending a call is as simple as pressing a button with the optional Plantronics HL10 Lifter. Also, VoIP users VoIP User is a community driven and financed SIP based VoIP network. The projects aim is to introduce people to the concept of VoIP by allowing members to experiment with SIP and IAX2 devices. gain unprecedented mobility and wireless freedom with the Plantronics CS50-USB, the industry's only wireless USB The wireless version of the universal serial bus (USB). Using ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, wireless USB is designed to provide the same 480 Mbits/sec data rate as USB 2.0 within two meters (6.6 ft.) or 110 Mbps within 10 meters (33 ft.). headset system to deliver call answer/end capability and remote ring detection. Leveraging Plantronics' successful CS50 wireless headset See headset. system for the office, the CS50-USB allows users to roam up to 200 feet from their PC softphones without missing calls. Siemens Communications, Inc. http://communications.usa.siemens.com/home.html HiPath ProCenter Agile Version 6.0 Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: ProCenter Agile's Agent desktop has an innovative GUI (Graphical User Interface) A graphics-based user interface that incorporates movable windows, icons and a mouse. The ability to resize application windows and change style and size of fonts are the significant advantages of a GUI vs. a character-based interface. design and provides presence and collaboration tools A collaboration tool is something that helps people collaborate. The term is often used to mean collaborative software, but collaboration tools were being used before computers existed, a piece of paper can for example can be used as collaboration tool. for increased first-contact resolution. Agile's presence-enhanced tools include a "Team List" and a "Team Bar" integrated in the application's desktop to allow agents to visually monitor the real-time availability of other agents, managers and subject matter experts across the enterprise. Additionally, Agile's Agent desktop is extremely customizable with the following: "tear off and park" toolbars; single "click" to change Agent desktop language "on-the-fly" to one of six languages; a "compact mode" to reduce screen foot-print to a system tray An area on the right side of the Taskbar on the Windows interface used to display the status of various functions, such as speaker volume and modem transmission. Applications also insert icons on the System Tray to give you a quick entrance into either the application itself or some icon; streaming real-time statistics and personal performance data; softphone with a full set of telephony tools; and automatic screen-pop with customer and call details, synchronized syn·chro·nize v. syn·chro·nized, syn·chro·niz·ing, syn·chro·niz·es v.intr. 1. To occur at the same time; be simultaneous. 2. To operate in unison. v.tr. 1. with the arrival of each call at the desktop. Sivox Technologies, Inc. www.sivox.com SIVOX RealCall 4.0 Enterprise Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: In SIVOX RealCall 4.0 Enterprise, we've included remote training access, connectivity to different enterprise apps and support for IP environments. SIVOX RealCall supports remote agents. Agents in the field merely install the client software from a CD or from a secure Web site, enter their username The name you use to identify yourself when logging into a computer system or online service. Both a username (user ID) and a password are required. In an Internet e-mail address, the username is the left part before the @ sign. For example, KARENB is the username in karenb@mycompany. and password, and they are ready to begin their own customized contact center training program. The remote training module supports all the features and functions of the network-based SIVOX RealCall, such as real-time coaching, voice recording and agent grading and centralized data reports. SIVOX RealCall has also been re-engineered to provide a solid platform for future training suite applications. Stealth Communications, Inc. www.stealth.net The Voice Peering Fabric Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: The voice Peering Fabric is a distributed Layer 2 Ethernet Fabric for the purpose of exchanging VoIP traffic. The service provides an economical traffic exchange environment where VoIP participants can directly connect to each other, avoiding unnecessary delays and relays. The VPF VPF vascular permeability factor; see vascular endothelial growth factor, under factor. also incorporates free access to the VPF ENUM Registry, allowing its members to send and receive calls directly among one another within the IP domain, bypassing the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) The worldwide voice telephone network. Once only an analog system, the heart of most telephone networks today is all digital. In the U.S. and eliminating termination charges. Stratasoft www.stratasoft.com StrataSIP Web Agent Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: StrataSIP Web Agent is a VoIP-enabled softphone that uses SIP for use on the StrataDial.VC2 call center software suite. StrataDial.VC2 includes full support of remote call center agents for processing both inbound and outbound (blended) calls. Utilizing the latest advancements in VoIP and SIP, remote agents can be launched from anywhere in the world. These remote call center agents appear as seamless members of the entire call center agent pool and can be monitored, adjusted and activated exactly like agents working in the call center--using only a Windows-based PC, a high-speed Internet See broadband. connection and a USB USB in full Universal Serial Bus Type of serial bus that allows peripheral devices (disks, modems, printers, digitizers, data gloves, etc.) to be easily connected to a computer. headset. Remote center or home agents can now be turned up without having to ship hardware devices for conversion from IP to analog. Strategic Computer Support www.strategicinc.com ASD ASD abbr. atrial septal defect ASD Atrial septal defect, see there Softswitch Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: With a focus on contact center needs and functionality at the heart of our design, as well as an acute understanding for ROI, ASD Softswitch has been designed to facilitate current and anticipated future needs. Artificial intelligence has been incorporated into our products to learn from the existing environment, allowing supervisors and managers to focus on the activity of supporting their agents. We deliver a turnkey system A complete system of hardware and software delivered to the customer ready-to-run. In other words, just "turn the key" and go.  A Turnkey Video System , and many times our installation is accomplished in one day. Our philosophy is to offer all the functionality needed for a call center (inbound, outbound, blended calling, VoIP, IVR, digitized recordings, video/audio monitoring, etc.) for one low fee per agent. This allows our customers to implement features and functionality on their schedule as their business needs grow. Further, as new features are added to the system, customers receive them at no added cost as part of our maintenance package. SupportSoft www.supportsoft.com ServiceVerify Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: SupportSoft's solution is able to identify problems at the premises (or at the computing endpoint) and within the IP network--something unique to only SupportSoft. Telephony@Work, Inc. www.telephonyatwork.com CallCenter@nywhere Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: CallCenter@where is an "Integrated-by-Design" multimedia, multisite IP contact center system. It is deployed in both single- and multiple-site contact centers and in mission-critical networks for service providers. The most common contact center applications--such as voice mail, IVR, quality monitoring, e-mail, Web chat and collaboration, and outbound predictive and preview dialing--are integral to the design, resulting in greater functionality, increased productivity, and lower acquisition and operating costs. Some of its unique features are as follows: integrated-by-design status; its adaptability; mirrored hot standby A hardware device that is connected to the computer or computer complex and remains powered on. It is ready to take over immediately if the primary unit fails. A hot standby may refer to a complete computer system; for example, a standby server, or a component in a computer such as a redundancy; its scalability; thin clients; site independence; its skills-based routing; outbound campaign support; its multichannel data store; and, finally, its multitenant capabilities. TeleTech Holdings, Inc. www.teletech.com TeleTech On Demand Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: TeleTech On Demand services provide clients access to our technology infrastructure on an as-needed basis. This approach offers multiple benefits: decreased capital expenses, availability of new capabilities without investing in infrastructure and the people to support it. With TeleTech On Demand, technology services are available anywhere, 24/7, enabling clients to deploy infrastructure consistently across all facilities. Clients can outsource their entire customer management functionality to TeleTech, or they can access services a la carte while retaining existing staff. On Demand products and services include Intelligent Systems On Demand, Performance Applications On Demand and Dynamic Insights On Demand. Toshiba American Information Systems Inc. -- Digital Solutions Division www.telecom.toshiba.com Toshiba Strata CIX (Commercial Internet Exchange Association, Herndon, VA, www.cix.org) Pronounced "kicks," it was a membership organization that promoted the development of a level playing field for ISPs. Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: All features to all users, no matter where they are, as the system supports IP phones, IP wireless handsets, both analog and digital telephones, IP softphones on laptops and tablet PCs (1) A tablet computer environment from Microsoft that is based on an enhanced version of Windows XP. Designed to function more like a portable writing tablet than previous tablet-based computers, it includes handwriting recognition as well as the ability to retain handwritten words . Because it is built on open standards Specifications for hardware and software that are developed by a standards organization or a consortium involved in supporting a standard. Available to the public for developing compliant products, open standards imply "open systems;" that an existing component in a system can be replaced , the Strata CIX will also work with standards-based SIP telephones. The Strata CIX FeatureFlex adaptability feature allows users to customize their own individual features to help them be more efficient with their communications solution. Toshiba's new system administration tool, eManager, unifies the programming of Toshiba's Strata CIX and the Stratagy ES Voice Processing The computerized handling of voice, which includes voice store and forward, voice response, voice recognition and text to speech technologies. system, allowing technicians and system administrators to program both systems together. My Phone Manager, a new personal administration tool, gives control to end users, putting personalization Custom tailoring information to the individual. On the Web, personalization means returning a page that has been customized for the user, taking into consideration that person's habits and preferences. in the hands of individual users. Additional capabilities and features include the following: multiple (i.e., numerous; e.g., 250 +) applications on a single system; pure IP or add digital TDM; and Toshiba's legendary migration path. Utopy, Inc. www.utopy.com SpeechMiner Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: Utopy SpeechMiner is a speech analytics solution for contact centers within enterprises, service providers and outsourcers. Our patent-pending Deliberate Listening voice data mining technology transforms recorded customer-agent telephone conversations into mission-critical information, reports and alerts that help managers and executives improve customer satisfaction and enhance agent productivity. SpeechMiner can automatically listen to thousands of calls and categorize cat·e·go·rize tr.v. cat·e·go·rized, cat·e·go·riz·ing, cat·e·go·riz·es To put into a category or categories; classify. cat them to determine why customers are calling; can identify best practices; can detect callers' churn behaviors; and can identify call deflection deflection /de·flec·tion/ (de-flek´shun) deviation or movement from a straight line or given course, such as from the baseline in electrocardiography. de·flec·tion n. 1. call-types. SpeechMiner can extract a wide range of hidden business intelligence directly from customers to help managers improve systems, procedures and people to deliver higher quality products and services. The SpeechMiner SMART is a wizard that assists users in developing new business event definitions. SMART walks the user through a simple process to define custom topics. VoiceGenie Technologies Inc. www.voicegenie.com NeXusPoint Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: NeXusPoint is a standards-based software platform powering customer contact solutions and next-generation networks. VoiceXML 2.0 certified, it delivers flexible, reliable and scalable infrastructure for developing and deploying DTMF (Dual-Tone MultiFrequency) The type of audio signals that are generated when you press the buttons on a touch-tone telephone. See also DMTF. DTMF - Dual Tone Multi Frequency (touch-tone) or speech-enabled applications. With a feature-rich, robust and high-performance architecture, NeXusPoint facilitates speech application deployment for any type or size of business, whether you are deploying simple touch-tone IVR services for customer self-service, improving internal operations with automated attendants In telephony, an automated attendant (also auto attendant or auto-attendant, or sometimes autoattendant or AA) system allows callers to be automatically transferred to a user's extension without the intervention of a receptionist. or hosting sophisticated voice services for high-impact revenue enhancements revenue enhancement An increase in revenues, especially by way of increased taxes. Revenue enhancement includes reducing taxpayer deductions and eliminating tax credits. . Version 6.4 includes the following new features: broader operating support; enhanced reporting and monitoring features; improved standards support; extended ASR/TTS support; and an entirely open architecture. Platform performance offerings: low latency Low latency allows human-unnoticeable delays between an input being processed and the corresponding output providing real time characteristics. This can be especially important for internet connections utilizing services such as online gaming and VOIP - VOIP is not as important as ; high scalability; and high density. VoIP, Inc. www.voipinc.com voiptrunking Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: voiptrunking is a new offering allowing new and existing IP-enabled PBX operators to peer with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) in their native VoIP protocols. This application allows subscribers to fully leverage the power and functionality of their next-gen systems, while finally reaping the toll savings that contact center and enterprise customers expect from VoIP. Unique features include these: native VoIP interconnection to existing IP-PBX operators; the ability to select and provision U.S. toll-free numbers from all major U.S. markets in real time, via customer Web portal; automatic disaster recovery and overflow for inbound numbers; and the ability for calls to be routed to customer-defined intercept message An intercept message is a telephone recording which replaces generic recordings with customized messages, such as repeating the number of a disconnected line, then reciting the new number. . Witness Systems www.witness.com eQuality ContactStore for IP Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: The eQuality ContactStore for IP platform provides converged voice and data networks with the high level of sophistication so·phis·ti·cate v. so·phis·ti·cat·ed, so·phis·ti·cat·ing, so·phis·ti·cates v.tr. 1. To cause to become less natural, especially to make less naive and more worldly. 2. and robust feature set that has long been accepted as standard in telephony recording. eQuality ContactStore for IP offers the following: scalable Web-based architecture; a single URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. administration point; a single view of contacts across sites; extension management benefits; built-in business intelligence tools; recording parameter control; the ability to record both sides of conversations separately; unified database; full integration; simple software administration; and full support of the market's major switch vendors. Xten Networks, Inc. www.xten.com eyebeam SDK (Software Developer's Kit) See developer's toolkit and Windows SDK. SDK - Software Developers Kit (or "Software Development Kit"). v1.1 Q: Would you please briefly describe your product or service? A: This software development kit (SDK) is used to build IP communications A general term for networks that use the IP protocol for voice (VoIP) and video traffic. See IP telephony. applications for VoIP, IP videoconferencing A real time video session between two or more users or between two or more locations. Although the first videoconferencing was done with traditional analog TV and satellites, inhouse room systems became popular in the early 1980s after Compression Labs pioneered digitized video systems , instant messaging Exchanging text messages in real time between two or more people logged into a particular instant messaging (IM) service. Instant messaging is more interactive than e-mail because messages are sent immediately, whereas e-mail messages can be queued up in a mail server for seconds or and presence. By leveraging open standards and exposing more than 28 APIs, true flexibility and maximum control is obtained through a rapid development process. Operators interested in creating a distributed IP contact center quickly could easily use the eyeBeam SDK to create the perfect end point for their needs. eyeBeam SDK 1.1 introduces the following SIP-based instant messaging, presence and storage management technologies: instant messaging; contact-list management; privacy management; peer-to-peer presence; server-based presence; server-managed contact lists; server-side contact list/privacy list; storage using WebDAV or XCAP XCAP XML Configuration Access Protocol (network protocol) ; server-side contact list sharing, using XCAP; serverside privacy management, using SCAP SCAP Security Content Automation Protocol SCAP SREBP Cleavage Activating Protein SCAP Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (allied organization occupying Japan after WII) SCAP Slow Children At Play (band) ; and automatic updates to contact lists/privacy lists. Zeacom, Inc. www.zeacom.com Zeacom ContactCenter Q: Are there any unique or distinctive features about your product or service? A: Zeacom ContactCenter (formerly Smart Connect, also known as Q-Master) improves the routing and reporting of all inbound and outbound customer contacts, whether by voice, e-mail, Web chat or fax. This solution is unique in its class because of its unparalleled depth of real-time reporting and third-party integration capabilities, single GUI administration across multiple IP-PBX platforms and its multichannel universal queuing engine. Further, its integrated voice mail application offers user/caller profiles, and visual agent presence throughout the IP network and with built-in Outlook Calendar integration. Other features and capabilities: caller I.D. of abandoned calls; real-time call center metrics available to all agents via desktop application; all multichannel modules across multiple IP-PBX platforms are managed from a single administration application; and Outlook Calendar integration with messaging application. If you are interested in purchasing reprints of this article (in either print or HTML format), please visit Reprint reprint An individually bound copy of an article in a journal or science communication Management Services online at www.reprintbuyer.com or contact a representative via e-mail at reprints@tmcnet.com or by phone at 800-290-5460. For information and subscriptions, visit www.TMCnet.com or call 203-852-6800. |
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