Talkument: an Oaisys in the desert.

In my travels around the world to find the next big communications breakthrough, I recently traveled to Arizona, where, instead of hot, dry air, I was unlucky enough to get a dose of scorching desert heat and humidity.

But scorching digressions aside, as I drove, I ended up at a company called Oaisys. Yes, I did have a meeting planned in advance--but the story seems more interesting if I just happened upon this Oaisys.

Now the company is commonly known for its excellent call center recording products and while this is an essential area of the contact center market I really didn't expect anything earth-shattering to be disclosed during the meeting.

So imagine my surprise when the company unveiled its Talkument strategy.

What is a Talkument, you ask? Well, it is the ultimate voice documentation appliance allowing companies to seamlessly capture and store telephone interactions. This nifty tool does for phone calls what e-mail does for letters and memos, in terms of retrieval and collaboration.

Account managers, project teams and people in order management can benefit from this productivity-boosting tool, which allows users to have access to voice documents which they can review, organize, comment on and share with others. The solution, which can be seamlessly integrated with existing IP telephony systems, is permissions-based, meaning that only the person who recorded the conversation has access to the file (of course, that person give others permission to access certain files, when needed).

One of Talkument's most useful features is that it allows you to "highlight" certain segments within a recording and cull them out so that you can send only the portion of the conversation you want be heard. For example, if a project manager's boss wants to know specific details about a particular project, the project manager can select just the portions of a recorded meeting that are applicable, so his boss gets the short answers he needs, without having to sit and listen to the whole recording (or the portions that have no bearing on his decision).

In addition, you are able to annotate each segment (or the entire voice file) before forwarding it to others. In other words, you can add your own notes or comments to accompany the audio file so that recipients understand the context of what is being said--or so that supplemental information can be provided. This annotation feature also enables the user to accurately search for certain files--or open the files up to other users or groups so they have permission to retrieve them as well.

Another advantage of the software is its unique file management system. With Talkument, you can store the files in a number of different folders which can be custom-configured and personalized, so you know exactly where to find specific files later.

This advanced software is particularly useful for people in order management, who can use it to check orders for accuracy. For example, if a customer complains about an order or says there was a discrepancy, you can go back and check the voice file to find out whether the error was on your end or theirs (even if the customer comes back a year later). In addition, you are able to forward a Talkument file to others with a specific time limit, allowing perhaps a 24-hour window for others to access it.

Talkument is an ideal collaboration tool, allowing corporations to become much more productive. There is no more guesswork, as the voice documents can be searched and listened to again and again, as needed. Furthermore, the voice file tagging and permissions built into the system allow the voice documents to be stored and collaborated on more efficiently. It is amazing we haven't had an analogous tool for voice communications up until now.

Making all of this possible is the Talkument appliance, which can currently be purchased in a few flavors: The small office version can work with 20 IP end-points, while the standard Talkument appliance can handle 48 IP endpoints (Talkument supports up to two T-1 / PRI interfaces or 48 IP endpoints).

The only drawback to Talkument is that it results in companies storing more call data, as opposed to less. In financial services and other market segments, lawyers sometimes recommend purging as much data as feasible so it cannot be used against you.

In addition to Talkument, Oaisys makes several other call recording solutions, including Tracer, which gives businesses end-to-end documentation of their conversations as it automatically records, stores and organizes telephone conversations in a central, secure server; Auto Call Record, which records incoming, outgoing and intercom calls; and Street-View, a call recording and monitoring solution designed specifically for the automotive retail industry.

The company also offers a suite of call center solutions, including ACD Manager, which offers features such as event-based call management, intelligent look-ahead, ACD callbacks and callbacks for abandoned calls; Voice Assistant, an IVR solution which cuts the number of routine calls agents deal with in a given day; Call Router, which reduces the amount of time customers spend waiting on hold as they are passed through different departments; and TASKE Contact, a flexible contact center management solution which enables supervisors to manage their agents, set and meet service levels, and provide vital management information on call activity. Oaisys also offers NetPhone, a CTI solution which endows agents' desktop phones with presence capabilities and delivers screen pops on agent desktops, among other capabilities.

Talkument begins beta on July 16, 2007 and is expected to become generally available by October of this year. For an overview of the product, visit www.oaisys.com/talkument/.

So is this Oaisys product my "oasis" in the scorching Arizona desert? Yes. I can't say for sure whether the entire world will be standardized on the Talkument solution, but it seems the company has discovered a missing link in virtually every enterprise. Now that there is an option allowing corporations to use recorded conversations to boost productivity and efficiency, all that remains to be seen is what the adoption rate will be.

By: Rich Tehrani, Group Publisher, Group Editor-in-Chief, Technology Marketing Corporation

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