BY RICH TEHRANI

I spend a lot of time on the road, covering trade shows, visiting vendors, and attending conferences and industry seminars. Frequently I find myself confronted by questions such as: "What does CTI mean today?" and "What does the future hold for CTI?" Developers, vendors, analysts, the press -- all of these groups stake their careers to some extent on being able to foresee where the industry is headed. It may be possible for various players to "drive" the industry in a particular direction; however, it's nice to be able to take advantage of natural growth patterns as well, if we can predict them accurately.

While thinking about such things as the meaning of CTI and what the future holds for the industry, it is perhaps necessary to look back at where we have come from. By doing this, we arrive at clearer definitions, and thus we are better able to predict where we are headed. History hold important lessons for us. The way our world evolves is usually dictated by the past, and telephony is no exception.

CTI, or Computer-Telephony Integration, is the most promising technology to be born out of the intersection of the telecom and datacom spaces. CTI is a technology that combines the power and functionality of both the computer and telephone networks, resulting in a slew of powerful products able to take advantage of the ubiquity of the telephone network and the intelligence of the computer.

You may have noticed a new tag line under the CTI logo on the cover of this magazine: "Where Datacom Meets Telecom." This tag line accurately reflects our all-encompassing understanding of Computer-Telephony Integration.

SCREEN POPS AND ACDs
Most of us know CTI is a technology borne out of the call center -- and that it once did little more than link the ACD to the computer system, if such a promising development can ever be called little. The first CTI application was the "screen pop," or the use of caller ID information to query a customer database. This database information was displayed on an agent's screen, preparing the agent to deal with customers before the call was answered.

Eventually, PC operating system vendors like Novell and Microsoft developed CTI APIs, allowing developers to come up with applications that were inexpensive and truly revolutionary. Unified messaging, speech recognition systems, call control applications, and a wealth of spectacular call center applications are just a few of the hottest subsets of the CTI market.

Developers also relied on board-level products or DSP resource boards, allowing them to develop voice mail systems, IVR, prepaid calling card applications and many other voice-enabled products. As board manufacturers started to develop boards that could scale to hundreds of ports, developers coupled these boards with industrial computers to develop CTI solutions for service providers. A good example of such an application would be e-mail readers - providing an alternate way for service providers to earn revenue from their customers.

ENTER INTERNET TELEPHONY
CTI has grown in ways no one could image a scant five years ago. Internet telephony -- or voice, video and fax traveling over an IP network - is by far the fastest growing subset of CTI. Natural MicroSystems (www.nmss.com) was one of the first companies producing board-level CTI components that realized the opportunity to convert the technology of their CTI components, or DSP resource boards, into vehicles for digitizing and compressing many simultaneous analog voice conversations. PCs containing DSP resource boards became the first Internet telephony gateways.

There are many reasons to transport telephony over the Internet, or using the Internet Protocol, but all these reasons can be succinctly stated in two key features: lower cost and increased flexibility. Service provider equipment based on IP telephony is an order of magnitude less expensive than traditional telephony equipment, and it simultaneously allows for increased user options.

We've known for over a decade that telecom and datacom were set to merge eventually -- we just never had a strong enough catalyst. You know…a killer app. The Web was the Internet's killer app and IP became the voice/data convergence's killer app. As packetized networks such as those based on IP are becoming the defacto standard in the datacom field, it is only natural that IP becomes the defacto standard for voice/data convergence as well.

There are other alternatives: Although IP telephony is much more efficient than traditional telephony, voice over frame relay is even more efficient. However, efficiency is a matter of perspective. Bandwidth is set to become exponentially cheaper, just as processing power has become exponentially cheaper over time. The openness of IP telephony, and the ability to easily develop telephony applications without the need to understand the nuances of telephony boards or PBXs, will eventually make telephony development accessible to any developer regardless of the programming language they choose.

In the past two years, many people have told me that Internet telephony will never happen -- there is too much existing architecture in use for Internet telephony to gain widespread acceptance. Such pessimism reminds me of the people who bet on dumb terminals and Wang word processors over PCs. Internet telephony, as you may have guessed, evolves in Internet time. As such, it will engulf our existing telephony network much more quickly than we can imagine. Cisco, 3Com, Lucent, AT&T, Nortel Networks and Microsoft are all betting on IP telephony as the future of telephony. These are not empty bets -- most are backed up with mergers and acquisitions in the billions of dollars.

AN EXPANDING INDUSTRY, AN EXPANDING TERM
As phenomenal as it sounds, IP telephony is revolutionizing CTI. CTI, an industry in its infancy, is being transformed into the world of IP. Enhanced services that were being developed using traditional telephony products are now being augmented with a slew of IP telephony enhanced services. This augmentation allow service providers even more flexibility in rolling out new services with minimal hardware costs and programming. PC-PBXs, based on a technology only a few years old, are already becoming voice/data switches -- the same fundamental product in many cases, except telephony now travels over a packetized network. Call center applications must now integrate Internet telephony connections as well as e-mail routing and online chat.

Despite being a new technology, CTI is already being reinvented, revitalized, re-energized and repackaged with extensive IP support. New applications. New business models. New services. New technologies. New transport mechanisms. It is really almost impossible to keep up.

Fortunately for you, technology advances mean more choices -- more options and more flexibility in tomorrow's CTI products. As always, CTI magazine will give you the information you need to stay current with the latest advancements in CTI, whether they happen in the call center, in the telephone closet, the telecommuter's home, or the wireless and broadband markets.

But don't think publishing is standing still, either. We, too, must move in Internet time or fall behind. In fact, we have launched TMCnet -- an online information delivery source that moves at Internet speed and always keeps you up to date on the latest CTI information. Have a look at TMCnet by visiting www.tmcnet.com. You may even want to make it your home page. I'm sure that you will be thankful if you do. With the help of TMCnet, you will stay up to date on everything happening in CTI, Internet telephony, and call centers.

Many of you already know the history of TMC Labs. You'll recall that as a Computer Engineering student, I used to read each and every possible computer publication I could find. I would devour these magazines from cover to cover, paying special attention to the products they reviewed in their testing facilities. Upon graduation, I became the Director of MIS at Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC). I would scour computer magazine test drives before purchasing any product. I was obsessed, sometimes reading hundreds of pages of reviews before making a purchasing decision.

Over the years I realized that some of the magazines really devoted time and energy to developing a laboratory that tested products objectively and based purely on technological merit, while other magazines chose to cater their reviews to their advertisers. These magazines would simply write glowing reviews about any product submitted by a vendor who happened to advertise in the magazine! Now, I was spending hard earned company money and believe me, every penny was precious. The purchasing decisions I made could have broken the company if they were wrong.

Having grown up in this environment, I felt it was imperative to establish the telecom industry's first objective and in-depth telecom testing lab, and when I became Group Publisher of TMC's magazines, that's exactly what I did. TMC Labs serves the needs of our readers, not our advertisers. Many industry vendors use our lab as the benchmark of success. Many products we start out to review don't even make it into our publications because frankly, they don't meet our standards or yours.

Lately, we have received complaints from a few vendors that our reviews of their products are too harsh or that we don't give them enough credit for this feature or for that one. Most recently, we received a complaint from a large and reputable computer company. I always take customer complaints very seriously. Let me add that this product was reviewed by a leading PC magazine around the same time as TMC Labs reviewed it.

I reread the TMC Labs review in question and that of the PC publication and I couldn't believe how much more realistic the TMC Labs review was compared to the one from the other magazine. Could you believe the other review found no flaws with the product: No installation snafus; No room for improvement; No suggestions at all. In their eyes, the product was perfect.

I assume that as a reader of this magazine you actually use a computer and as such, you know that nothing ever works perfectly -- EVER -- under any circumstance. Let's face it. Every product has room for improvement and doesn't always install correctly.

In the last few years, many publishing companies have become publicly traded or have been acquired by publicly traded companies and this has had a major effect on their editorial quality. As a public company, your first loyalty must be to your public shareholders and not your readers. If your review states that an advertiser's product is inadequate and that advertiser decides to pull their advertising from your publication, you miss your earnings estimates and Wall Street hammers your stock - it's that simple.

At TMC Labs we have no such fear. We are a privately held publishing company and we depend on our reputation of providing you with the most objective, in-depth editorial coverage. We take our time with each and every review and we report on every nuance of the testing procedure. If the product fails during the installation process, we report that to you. If there's a problem, we report it. If the documentation seems to have been improperly translated from Martian, we tell you.

Our first and only loyalty is to our readers. We know that the reason for the success of TMC publications is due to readers like yourself that depend on objective and in-depth reviews you can trust to make product purchase decisions.

Internet telephony is having a profound effect on CTI and an even more profound effect on CTI EXPO. The number of companies that will be exhibiting Internet telephony based or enhanced products has more than doubled from our last Spring CTI EXPO in 1998.

CTI EXPO Spring '99 is coming to Washington, DC this May 24-26. And, the show that brought a wealth of Internet telephony vendors and products and services to over 23,000 attendees in 1998 is set to do it again in 1999.

Also in the Exhibit Hall, we will be featuring 5 FREE objective Learning Centers -- each of which has its hooks deep into the Internet telephony market! Each Learning Center will contain approximately 6 vendors objectively educating you on various technologies.

The CLEC/ISP Learning Center will feature companies like Lucent, displaying IP call waiting technology, Netcentric, showing off their IP-based fax, Wildfire, showing a virtual/automated receptionist, and Delta Three displaying prepaid Internet telephony calling.

There will also be an Internet Telephony Learning Center featuring Internet telephony gateway vendors and a Voice/Data Switch Learning Center featuring the future of the PBX -- a PBX based on IP.

The Unified Messaging Learning Center will showcase several vendors educating you about the benefits and potential reach of this technology.

Finally, the Microsoft TAPI 3.0 Learning Center will preview the latest companies demonstrating products based on TAPI 3.0, the first IP telephony API to be supported by Microsoft and bundled into Windows.

Here's a sneak preview of just a handful of the Internet telephony vendors who will be at the spring show. The Exhibit Hall will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 25 and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 26. For a complete list of exhibitors, visit our Web site at www.ctiexpo.com.

AltiGen Communications, Inc. #451
Web site: www.altigen.com
AltiGen's easy-to-use AltiServ system with AltiWare Open Editorial software leverages the technologies of the Internet, Windows NT, and Microsoft TAPI and MAPI to deliver the most sophisticated, fully integrated phone systems available to small businesses today. When combined with AltiGen's Quantum board and Windows NT or Microsoft Small Business Server, AliServ delivers an advanced PBX with corporate-strength voice mail, auto attendant, and Exchange integrated e-mail.

AudioCodes, Ltd. #1146
Web site: www.audiocodes.com
AudioCodes is a leading provider of VoIP voice, fax, and data compression boards for Internet telephony, which are used by leading carrier-grade gateway manufacturers. The TrunkPack - VoIP series includes quad-trunk CompactPCI boards, single and dual trunk PCI boards, and four-line analog boards.

Brooktrout Software #715
Web site: www.brooktrout.com
Brooktrout Software, headquartered in Southborough, MA, is the leading provider of Windows NT-based rapid application development platforms for Integrated Voice Response (IVR) applications and other computer telephony solutions. Brooktrout Software's open architecture supports many enterprise business systems (SAP, Microsoft, Exchange, Oracle), and services are scaleable across the enterprise.

Calista, Inc. #1046
Web site: www.calista.com
The PBX over IP allows almost any digital PBX telephone to be used from a remote location using the latest voice over IP technology. The PBX over IP works over ethernet or dial up modem lines.

Comdial Corporation #352
Web site: www.comdial.com
CT Voice is a turnkey Internet telephony gateway designed for use by businesses with multiple locations. The system is designed to provide high-quality, real-time voice and fax communications over an IP network.

Inter-Tel #1133
Web site: www.inter-tel.com
A leader in the Internet telephony industry, Inter-Tel "The Voice of the Internet" offers complete Internet telephony solutions for carriers and corporations. NextGen service providers can benefit from Vocal'Net's scalable, carrier-grade solutions and software packages. Any size business can save on voice and fax with InterPrise products. Plus, Inter-Tel.net's global reach can extend, manage, and monitor an Internet telephony network.

Megahertz-NKO, Inc. #567
Web site: www.megahertz-nko.com
Megahertz, a leading provider of Internet access and e-commerce solutions, and NKO, provider Internet telephony services, have merged. The company offers prepaid phone cards, and converged solutions for voice, data, fax, and video over IP. The NKOnet Global Backbone provides global network management along with converged billing and administrative solutions.

Natural MicroSystems #715
Web site: www.nmss.com
Natural MicroSystems is a leading provider of open CT platforms, and open telecommunications solutions. Its technology enables partners to shorten time-to-market for high-value CT systems, integrated voice response (IVR) systems, and call centers integrated with Web sites.

NBX Corporation #340
Web site: www.nbxcorp.com
The NBX 100 Communications System: The only reliable multiline business telephone system with full PBX functionality. The system has built-in, robust (free!) Voice Messaging/AA, a built-in TAPI driver for TAPI 1.4 and 2.x applications, and support for Caller ID services. It offers reliable integration of voice and data, while delivering crystal clear voice quality.

NETRIX Corporation #851
Web site: www.netrix.com
NETRIX Corporation is a leading worldwide provider of voice and data networking products, designed to transport voice over data networks, enabling customers to realize significant cost savings. Combining patented, switched, compressed-voice technology and advanced networking capabilities, NETRIX delivers networking solutions that improve network performance and achieve substantial operational savings. NETRIX's customers include multinational corporations, emerging service providers, and government agencies in over 60 countries worldwide.

Nortel Networks #526
Web site: www.nortelnetworks.com
Nortel works with customers worldwide to design, build, and deliver telecommunications and IP-optimized networks. Customers include public and private enterprises and institutions; ISPs; local, long distance, cellular, and PCS communications companies; and cable television carriers and utilities.

Nuera Communications, Inc. #133
Web site: www.nuera.com
Nuera is known worldwide as the leading provider of high-quality, low-delay voice compression systems which improve communications capabilities and reduce costs in carrier and high-demand corporate satellite, TDM, frame relay, and IP network applications.

Oki Network Technologies #533
Web site: www.okint.com
Oki will be featuring their Internet Voice Gateway (IVG), which provides users with a reliable, one-box "plug and play" solution for sending voice and fax over a TCP/IP Network. IVG decreases costs while ensuring high quality, and exceptionally clear voice communications.

PakNetX Corporation #739
Web site: www.paknetx.com
The PNX/ACD is the industry's first and only software-based, telephone switching system designed specifically for Internet telephony and multimedia call centers. The PNX/ACD software application provides the key functions of traditional hardware based, audio-only communication to the Internet call center environment.

Quicknet Technologies, Inc. #148
Web site: www.quicknet.net
Integrated with leading IP telephone applications and gateways, individuals and small businesses can make high quality, low cost, PC-to-Phone, PC-to-PC and phone-to-PC calls with Quicknet's award winning products: The Internet PhoneJack, Internet LineJack, and the new high performance H.323 Internet Switchboard low density gateway software.

Touchwave, Inc. #326
Web site: www.touchwave.com
Touchwave's Webswitch is a complete, network-integrated phone system that delivers full functionality and uses the network to provide desktop control, management, and expandability.