BY RICH TEHRANI

The Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) is the call center equivalent of the mainframe. Typically expensive to purchase and maintain and relatively difficult to work with, ACDs have been around for decades and have, in fact, changed little during that time. The death of the mainframe and the death of the ACD have been predicted by many. The reality is that neither of these products will really die: They will evolve.

In the case of the ACD, we have seen PC-based ACDs from companies like AltiGen and network (ATM)-based ACDs from companies like CellIT. These are forward-looking products that merit some serious consideration before you purchase an ACD. It is truly quite mind-boggling to see such ingenuity in a product category that has otherwise remained stagnant for years.

And, just when I thought that the innovation in the ACD market had finally subsided, I was overwhelmed by two recent ACD announcements that are incredibly unique.

ROCKWELL’S TRANSCEND
Transcend, from Rockwell’s Electronic Commerce Division (ECD), is a PC-based ACD running Microsoft Windows NT that conforms to the ECTF S.100 specification. Transcend represents Rockwell’s initial entry into the small call center market.

Rockwell has recently become as nimble and quick as any small CTI company in the industry. In fact, I would be hard-pressed to think of another company of Rockwell’s size and product breadth that has come up with as many useful, leading- edge CTI products of late. If ever there was a legitimizer for the entire PC-based PBX and ACD product category, it is Rockwell’s Transcend. Known as an ultra-conservative company, Rockwell is putting its latest mission-critical ACD on a PC running Windows NT. This is the turning point for which the PC-PBX industry has been waiting for over a year. If any PBX or ACD vendor is not working on a competitor to Transcend, I believe they will be in big trouble.

Although PC-based ACDs have been around for a few years, most have limited feature sets and reporting tools, primarily because these new vendors are not experts at ACD development. In fact, even many large PBX vendors supplying ACD software usually don’t match the power of Rockwell’s Spectrum ACD which is designed for the largest and most sophisticated call centers. The good news is that the Spectrum interface (including reporting and monitoring features) is available in Transcend.

CT Media
Transcend uses Dialogic Corp.’s CT Media as middleware and Oracle’s universal Data Server as the database. CT Media is a resource management software tool that makes it possible for multiple applications, developed to standard APIs like ECTF S.100 and TAPI, to share a common computer telephony (CT) server, along with all the existing technologies.

CT Media streamlines applications development by handling the details of media resource control and functions internal to the computer telephony server; it manages system resources while grouping and providing them to handle application tasks. Furthermore, it transfers calls and resources among multiple client applications. By abstracting these low-level functions, developers no longer need to manage these functions from within their applications. They can now focus entirely on the requirements of application development and integration.

S.100
In the February 1998 issue of CTI , I predicted that the S.100 specification would be one of the hottest technologies of 1998. S.100 allows truly open mix-and- match client/server CTI solutions. Adhering to standards-based call hand-off, best-of-breed applications from different vendors can interoperate while making use of same resources such as fax and voice boards. Visit our Web site at www.ctimag.com for a detailed explanation of S.100 in the February 1998 CTI Publisher’s Outlook. An extremely in-depth document on S.100 in general and specific APIs is available on the ECTF Web site at www.ectf.org as well.

In the days of DOS-based computing, software developers supplied programs with hundreds of printer drivers encompassing every popular printer at that time. Developers could spend half of their development effort writing drivers for each printer. Ingenuity suffered as a result of this wasted programming manpower, and printer prices remained artificially high as it was difficult to break into the printer market unless drivers for your printer existed. Windows abstracted this programming effort, allowing a developer to develop a single printer driver that would conform to the specification of the OS. Programmers could now write to the Windows printer API once and let the OS handle each specific printer.

Akin to the Windows analogy, S.100 allows multiple applications from different vendors to share a single computer telephony server, reducing cost and extending system value for the system owner. The many proprietary hardware APIs of the past are represented as a single API. The many types of potential resource conflicts are taken into account and handled seamlessly by the specification. Application developers can now build products that are more portable and can reach broader markets as they run seamlessly on a larger number of hardware platforms.

Moreover, using S.100 allows upgrades to be seamlessly performed, including the addition of new technologies and additional capacity without the need to rewrite applications. As long as new hardware products adhere to the H.100 specification, they can be added into the system without undue work or reprogramming. The net effect is lower cost and greater owner investment protection.

CT Media’s open interfaces for call control extensions allow applications developed to standard APIs like TAPI to access the same CT server resources used for media applications. This will reduce hardware cost and allow for development of call control applications like switching that tightly integrate with media processing services like IVR, messaging, fax on demand, and others.

The full benefits of Transcend will only be realized if others decide to jump on the S.100 bandwagon. This is the classic chicken-and-egg dilemma. Some other major telecommunications players have announced S.100 development, and only time will tell how this shakes out. Rockwell is busy building a distribution channel for Transcend. Please feel free to contact them directly for more information, either as a reseller or an end user at www.ecd.rockwell.com or 630-227-8212. Pricing was not avail-able as of this writing.

AN IP-BASED CALL CENTER SOLUTION
It was bound to happen. First a PC-based ACD from AltiGen, CellIT releases an ATM-based ACD, Rockwell throws their hat in the ring with an S.100 PC-based ACD, and now Netspeak releases — what else — an IP-based ACD. Netspeak’s ITEL Call Center is a turnkey IP-based Web-enabled call center solution. A software-based ACD server is supplied, so a traditional ACD is not required. As in a typical Internet telephony gateway, voice and video are digitized, compressed, and transported on a packet network such as an office LAN, an intranet, or the Internet.

Some of the features this software-based call center solution provides are screen pops, database lookup, video calling, Web integration, IVR, agent splits, supervisory control, call tracking, and reporting. The feature list is pretty complete.

The Netspeak ACD server routes calls to call center agents equipped with Netspeak Webphones. Netspeak’s Webphone is a software-based telephone that can be connected to a headset or handset through a PC’s sound card or equivalent. When an incoming call is initiated on a network such as the Internet, the IP packets are simply routed by the software ACD. In the case of a call originating on the PSTN, a Netspeak Webphone Gateway Exchange (WGX) converts these calls to IP for routing to agent’s desktops.

Ubiquitous packet networks — in the form of intranets and the Internet — guarantee that the virtual call center is now a reality. As long as an agent is logged onto the network, calls can be routed to them regardless of their physical location.

Another interesting twist that this product provides is the tight connection between the bundled IVR system and the ability to push URL pages onto a caller’s browser. Assuming an incoming caller waiting for an agent has a Web browser available to them, the IVR system could help answer any questions the caller has by displaying the appropriate Web page corresponding to the question.

The flexibility inherent in an IP-based call center solution should be readily apparent. Extending the traditional ACD beyond the walls of the physical call center allows companies to manage their call center costs more effectively. Physical call centers set up in expensive offices in areas such as New York can be staffed by less costly agents in rural America. If your call center outgrows your office space, you can keep adding agents in a second location without having to move. Companies with multiple call centers can easily route call traffic from center to center as capacity limitations dictate. Multilingual call centers can be set up inexpensively with agents located in their native countries.

The ITEL Call Center starts at $18,650 for five agent seats and can be purchased in five-seat increments. Please visit www.netspeak.com or call 561-997-4001 for more information.

Sincerely,

Rich Tehrani
Publisher, CTI magazine

CTI™ EXPO has some great news that we would like to share with you: Since the last issue of this magazine, we have added three exciting new pavilions to the Exhibit Hall floor! These three giants of our industry will be at CTI™ EXPO with their partners, showing off their latest technology. Don’t miss this terrific opportunity to see Microsoft, Lucent Technologies Computer Telephony Products Group, and Natural MicroSystems under one roof.

MICROSOFT
Microsoft has made a huge splash with their new TAPI 3.0 specification. Come to their pavilion and get firsthand experience from Microsoft and their partners on what this means to you as a developer and an end user or reseller.

LUCENT
Lucent Technologies Computer Telephony Products Group (formerly Rhetorex) has recently shown a technology demonstration in the Internet telephony field. Please see the Outlook On The News section in this issue or drop by their pavilion at CTI™ EXPO for details on Lucent’s latest products.

NATURAL MICROSYSTEMS
Natural MicroSystems (NMS) has been on fire lately with Fusion, their Internet telephony development platform. Fusion boards from NMS can be found in many of the leading gateways, such as Inter-Tel’s Vocal’Net. Surpassing their success with Fusion was not easy, but they have recently announced Fusion 2.0, which they say is the only H.323-compliant IP telephony platform capable of supporting multiple T1/E1 spans in a single chassis. This scalability, coupled with their improved vocoder support and programmability, makes Fusion 2.0 ideally suited for the high-value enterprise and service provider markets.

NMS has also recently announced a "hot swap" CompactPCI network interface and DSP resource board for high-value voice processing and telecommunications switching solutions. There has been a tremendous buzz in the industry over this new specification and industrial computer manufacturers are scrambling to be competitive in this new market. Visit NMS at the show and ask them about their CompactPCI product plans.

HIGH-TECH FOR CALL CENTER
Windows NT products are heating up the call center market like never before. Buffalo International has been promoting their leading "truly open" predictive dialing solution for some time now. Based on Dialogic cards and the SCSA bus, their new Object Telephony Server NT can scale up to thousands of ports across multiple hot swappable hardware modules.

Their new product has so many features that I cannot do justice to them all. Inbound/outbound blending, IVR, voice messaging, digital recording, supervisor monitoring and coaching, and fax processing are just a few. This great call center product is a must-see.

Interactive Intelligence has another great call center product that is really everything you could ever want in a call center packed in a single NT box. We liked their Enterprise Interaction Center so much that it was named "Overall Winner" of CTI magazine’s 1997 Product of the Year award!

The Enterprise Interaction Center (EIC) is a client/server software product that turns a Windows NT server into a comprehensive communications system for call centers and other interaction-intensive organizations. By combining the various call center functions on one server, they eliminate the need for additional PBXs, ACDs, IVRs, voice mail systems, fax servers, and CTI gateways. Every PC connected to the EIC becomes a graphical phone with screen pop and universal inbox capabilities.

One feature that sets the EIC apart from many other products in the market is its support for BackOffice products including Exchange, SQL Server, and IIS. EIC uses a multithreaded, Java-based engine capable of processing thousands of telephone calls, e-mails, faxes, Internet chats, Web callback requests, Internet telephony sessions, and other interactions per hour. Many ACDs are now beginning to copy the EIC model of queuing and distributing not only incoming telephone calls, but e-mails, faxes, chat sessions, etc. As we have preached in CTI and our sister publication, Telemarketing & Call Center Solutions ™ , customers should receive the same level of service regardless of how they choose to interact with an organization. This is one of the many products you can see at CTI™ EXPO that will help make this concept a reality.

EXPO TRAVEL PLANS
By the time you read this, our show hotels will probably have been sold out for some time. The response to CTI™ EXPO has been overwhelming — over 5,000 people will attend this first-time event. We did not expect this incredible response. I suggest that you book your hotel and travel reservations as soon as you can, and also check our Web site at www.ctiexpo.com for up-to-the-minute news and overflow hotel information.

S.100 is made up of a set of C-based APIs managing resources and hardware. Device shar-ing and contention management is inherent in the specification.

IMPORTANT TERMS AND CONCEPTS
Runtime control objects (RTCs) allow specification of runtime control actions to be taken by a particular resource in the group when one or more conditions are detected by some resource in the group. Examples of this could be terminating a record operation on the Recorder resource of a Group upon the detection of a tone by the Signal Detector resource. “Press # when you are finished recording,” in a voice mail system is a perfect example.

An S.100 server exists to make media processing technologies available on a telephone call. Call control can be of the first- or third-party variety and call control services can be an API or a device driver, or can even be network-based, such as SS7.

S.100 allows interoperability between disparate Telephony Service Providers (TSPs) such as TAPI or TSAPI. In order to interoperate with S.100, a TSP must provide access to the stream of a call known as a Call Channel Resource (CCR.) CCRs are terminated in a computer, typically through a DSP resource board. The S.100 framework separates call control and media services. A call processing application is structured into blocks of media services code surrounded by other code blocks that take inbound calls, make outbound calls, or terminate calls.

The S.100 Framework allows the media services blocks to be written as separate appli-cations, which operate on Groups that have already had the call control functions performed on them.

RESOURCES
Resources consist of a call channel; vendor independent player; recorder; signal detector; Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR); T.30 Fax; T.611 Fax; and telephony net-work interfaces for CTI applications. Communications between these resources is handled through a mech-anism whereby one resource is the root node in a tree and secondary resources are leaves on the tree. This can also be considered a “hub and spoke” model. To elaborate, a CCR could be considered the hub (let’s say S.100 — A Developer’s Overview a call with someone speaking at the other end) with the choice of spokes being ASR or a record resource. Imagine a voice mail application with an ASR interface and you can see how this model comes into play.

An S.100 server may integrate tech-nologies from multiple vendors and present a common interface via the S.100 framework resource APIs. Application binaries are not affected by an upgrade to newer technology or by a change from one vendor to anoth-er. To use new resources or vendor-specific extension features, the appli-cation must be coded accordingly.

The S.100 Computer Telephony Framework defines a collection of server-based services and associated APIs that support multiple client computer telephony applications.

The framework is open with respect to different server implementations. The framework is also open with respect to different underlying com-puter telephony hardware. It is intended to scale from small resources with no isochronous switch fabric up to large-scale systems, and to be independent of the technology used to implement the switch fabric.

The S.100 Framework facilitates the development of multi-technology, multi-application platforms that meet the varied requirements of today’s computer telephony systems.