One of the most important announcements ever made in the industry recently came from
both Dialogic and Microsoft, who have entered into an agreement that will extend Windows
by enabling developers to build cost-effective CTI solutions. The agreement comes in three
parts: Microsoft will invest 24.2 million dollars in Dialogic; Microsoft will purchase 20
million dollars worth of Dialogic's development services; and finally, Microsoft will
license Dialogic's CT Media server software.
Microsoft's first foray into CTI was the Telephony Application Programming Interface
(TAPI), and while TAPI provides the ability to connect a computer and PBX together, CTI
has evolved into so much more than just this simple connection. So while we now have a
standard API for connecting a switch to a server, most every other piece of equipment in
the CTI market is proprietary. PBXs, IVR systems, voice mail, speech recognition, ACDs,
and even PC-PBXs are still closed systems.
DEFINING OPEN
The definition of "open" is not really clear, and one can easily argue that any
particular system is either open or closed. AltiGen (www.altigen.com)
makes a great PC-PBX, but they manufacturer their own voice boards within the PC. Artisoft
(www.artisoft.com) also manufactures a PC-PBX, yet
their hardware comes from Dialogic (www.dialogic.com),
a third-party voice board developer. There are inherent benefits in both implementations,
but because Artisoft relies on Dialogic boards that are used in many other configurations,
the cost for these components decreases and there is a larger potential developer
community that could design enhancements to Artisoft's PC-PBX. So using third-party boards
in your system makes you more open than using your own boards.
But wouldn't a PC-PBX be even more open if it could use voice boards from any
manufacturer? Of course it would. Being locked into one voice board vendor is analogous to
being locked into a specific computer architecture. Just as the computer industry had a
variety of competing operating systems and hardware standards, we have a variety of board
vendors and board standards. The goal of CT Media is to abstract applications from the
underlying hardware and thus allows developers to develop a single application that will
run on a variety of hardware platforms. And Microsoft's endorsement of CT Media
instantaneously propels CT Media into becoming the industry standard.
AN ABSTRACTION LAYER
So what exactly is CT Media? CT Media is software that is used to construct a
computer-telephony (CT) server. Think of a CT server as roughly analogous to a database
server. When a company installs an Oracle database server in their organization, many
applications can take advantage of the database through open interfaces such as ODBC. CT
Media abstracts hardware in the same way that Oracle abstracts the database. In both
cases, applications can access core server functions through a variety of function calls.
The primary programming mechanism that CT Media relies on is S.100, the ECTF's media
services C language API specification. S.100 is a client-server framework and a C language
binding for using that framework. The full details of the ECTF's media services APIs can
be found on the ECTF's Web site at www.ectf.org. S.100
is a complementary, not competitive, technology to Microsoft's TAPI. ECTF S.100 is a media
services-oriented API primarily for media control while TAPI 2.x is primarily used for
call control programming. TAPI 3.0 will eventually support both call control and media
control. TAPI and S.100 are both valid interfaces, much like ODBC, JDBC, etc. on database
servers. CT Media will eventually support TAPI 3.0 when it is released.
Multiple S.100 clients on a network can send commands to the CT Media server on a
network. In this way, the CT Server becomes an open resource and not a proprietary one. In
a company that has a call center using predictive dialing, CT Media would allow multiple
devices to share this dialer. All that is required is that both applications be S.100
clients and use the S.100 API. This inherent client-server nature of CT Media allows it to
scale just by adding more clients or more servers as needed.
Furthermore, the server itself can support station sets and IP telephony - so as your
applications grow in size, you have more options to choose from. Instead of adding racks
of new equipment to your PBX, you can upgrade your CT Media server with the appropriate
hardware and have an inexpensive alternative to traditional PBX upgrades.
One of the other important specifications that the ECTF has published is S.300. By
adapting their current products to conform to this specification, all board level vendors'
products can be seamlessly used in CT Media servers.
Hardware abstraction has been one of the major catalysts in the computer industry.
Developers who one programmed in binary machine code became much more efficient when they
moved to assembly language. As higher level languages such as COBOL, Fortran, Pascal, and
C replaced assembly language, programmers again enjoyed a dramatic increase in
productivity. Other examples of abstraction are relational database languages that use
database specific commands and are often referred to as Fourth Generation Languages. These
languages abstracted the programmer from the low level details of database programming
allowing them to become much more efficient.
As a result of Microsoft's licensing of Dialogic's CT Media server, we can expect the
entire CTI industry to become more efficient. Developers can finally focus on developing
and not have to worry about re-developing the same application on various platforms - a
time-consuming and tedious task. End users and service providers will enjoy a much lower
total cost of ownership, as board vendors will focus more on price and performance as
differentiators. Developers and VARs can once and for all settle on which development
platform to use, knowing full well that they have the blessing of Microsoft, Dialogic, and
the ECTF. Open standards are the best thing that could happen to CTI and we have to give
the entire industry credit for coming together and adopting the next great industry
standard.
Rich Tehrani welcomes your feedback at rtehrani@tmcnet.com.
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| CTI™
EXPO To Feature Internet Telephony Heavyweights! As voice and data
converge, it is imperative that you stay on top of the latest developments from the major
players. CTI EXPO is the only show to bring these exhibitors to you - 400 exhibitors and a
full five learning centers focused on all the important topics you need to know about to
further your career and your company's future. As of this writing, I have an advance list
of companies that will be participating in the learning centers at CTI EXPO. There may be
some modifications at the last moment, but this list should be close to perfect come show
time. We should have at least six vendors per learning center by the time the show starts.
Please see the white paper on the learning centers for more information. The learning
center lineup includes:
Internet telephony:
Voice/Data Switches:
CLEC/ISP Enhanced Services:
Unified Messaging:
TAPI 3.0:
THE CONSULTANTS' CORNER ROSTER
All CTI EXPO Spring 1999 attendees are able to attend at no charge our new Consultants'
Corner - an area of the exhibit hall floor dedicated to objectively educating attendees on
various subject areas. We will have a variety of consultants on hand who will share their
expertise in the fields of Internet telephony, CTI, call centers, customer service, and
sales and marketing. The following leading industry analysts and consultants have agreed
to dispense their wisdom:
Kevin Yackley is president and founder of Millennium
Telecommunication, a Southern California-based consulting firm that provides professional
consulting and implementation services to large enterprise and carrier customers.
Specializing in next-generation technologies, such as compressed packetized voice and IP
telephony, Mr. Yackley is one of a relative few professionals experienced in
voice/fax/data convergence technology deployment.
Dean Minuto is president of Teligent Corporation, a training and
consulting firm located in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Mr. Minuto is a nationally
recognized marketing professional, sales trainer, and public speaker. He provides
consulting, training, and project management services to large corporate clients and
companies nationwide. He is also the author of numerous articles that focus on telephone
sales, sales coaching, script development, role playing, relationship marketing, account
planning and penetration, and marketing tools for business development.
Jeanne Lambert is the founder, president, and CEO of Telesales, Inc.,
a consulting firm specializing in the design, development, and implementation of
customized high technology marketing and sales strategies, systems, and solutions.
Jeanne's prior experiences include marketing, channel, and sales cycle development at
Index Technology Corporation and Intersolv. She has also consulted with Easel Corporation,
The Mathworks, LBMS Corporation, Texas Instruments, SQA, Lowry Corporation, VMARK, Iris
Graphics, GTE Internetworking, and espire. Jeanne recently completed the "Birthing of
Giants" Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has been granted a
Certificate of Recognition in the Entrepreneurial Executive Leadership Program.
Martin Wales, otherwise known as the computer-telephony "Customer
Catcher," is a leading CTI business developer, published columnist, and speaker. He
is the driving force behind Business Results, a CT marketing and business development
firm. Mr. Wales was a former vice president Marketing at Banksoft Canada, vice president
Marketing of WildCard Technologies ("PureData"), and director of Marketing for
Simplified Telephony. He originally entered the CT industry working in sales for a
multi-million-dollar, regional, interconnect company, Telecommunications Equipment
Corporation.
Stephen M. Riddell is president of The Corporate Consulting Group and
past president of American TeleDirect, a telemarketing service agency. Based in Houston,
Texas, he is dedicated to providing telemarketing services, as well as consulting and
training programs to the sales and telemarketing industry. Mr. Riddell has successfully
managed startup telemarketing organizations for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma, Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Virginia, Zenith Data Systems, Compaq Computer Corporation, and
American TeleDirect. He is known as the "Billion Dollar Sales Executive," having
produced over a billion dollars in sales for organizations he has managed.
Michael W. Cox is an experienced consultant in the Telecommunications
Business Consulting practice in the Call Center group in Chicago. He has over six years
experience working with the design, selection, implementation, and support of
telecommunications systems and call centers in a variety of industries. Mr. Cox managed
the overall design, selection, and implementation of a national auto service company's PBX
and wide area network with multiple, distributed call centers and assisted in the design
and reconfiguration of a call center for a large computer periphery manufacturer. He also
coordinated the design and implementation of a PBX network for a multiple location
healthcare facility, which included procurement of all telecommunications services, as
well as, coordinating the implementation of all voice and data equipment. Michael received
his Bachelor of Arts, Political Science degree from the University of Notre Dame in
Indiana.
Chad McClennan is a senior manager in Telecommunications Business
Consulting practice and leads the Customer Management & Call Center group in Chicago.
Since joining the firm in 1991, Chad has worked on process improvement, re-engineering,
cost management, strategic and other consulting projects mostly involving customer contact
operations across several industries. Prior to Arthur Andersen, he worked for three years
as a securities analyst and trader. Chad is also co-editor of the Arthur Andersen Business
Consulting "In Contact" newsletter, a monthly publication focused on customer
management and call center topics of interest. Chad received his Bachelor's degree from
Middlebury College in Vermont and his Masters in Management from Northwestern University's
J.L. Kellogg School.
If you are interested in speaking with the consultants at CTI EXPO, register today for
the exhibit hall at www.ctiexpo.com. Once you are
registered, you can contact any of the following Consultants' Corner analysts for more
information or to set up a meeting time in advance of the show.
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