| CTI NEWS
CTI NEWS
Industrial CPU Systems Releases Single-Board Computer
With Dual Processing Power
Industrial CPU Systems has designed the Model PCpd233 single-board computer series to set
higher standards in the embedded industry. The Model PCpd233 features Intel's 430HX
chipset, the 233 MHz dual Pentium MMX, PCI performance, and a host of other on-board
high-performance peripherals. It integrates 512 MB of error checking and correction (ECC)
RAM memory and 512 KB of burst chache to protect data integrity and achieve high
reliability for demanding and high-performance applications. Additionally, the Model
PCpd233 features on-board ultra-wide SCSI with data transfers of up to 40 Mbytes/sec, SVGA
with simultaneous CRT and flat-panel displays, dual high-performance PCI bus EIDE
interfaces, two universal serial bus (USB) ports, up to 8 Mbits of bootable flash disk,
and backward compatibility with existing ISA and PCI specifications. For more information,
contact the company at 954-925-2889.
Eicon Offers ISDN Solution To Fully Support Microsoft
Small Business Server
Eicon Technology has introduced the DIVA Server BRI-2M Card, which provides an integrated
ISDN solution for Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server (SBS). With Eicon's DIVA
Server BRI-2M, Microsoft SBS users can realize a very high-speed, reliable, and
cost-efficient method for Internet access, fax traffic, and remote access. The DIVA Server
BRI-2M enables communications for the LAN to be carried over a single ISDN line, providing
users with 128 Kbps Internet access and enabling remote users to connect to the LAN via
ISDN and analog modems. The DIVA Sever BRI-2M also offers two features specifically
developed for Microsoft SBS: full support for Microsoft Fax Server, and a QuickInstall
interface that mirrors the simple installation, setup, and management capabilities
inherent in SBS. For more information, contact the company at 800-803-4266.
Advantech Introduces Pentium II Industrial Grade CPU
Card
New from American Advantech is a Pentium II processor-based CPU card, the PCA-6175.
Complete with Intel's 82440LX PCI chipset, the card works with standard ISA or ISA/PCI-bus
passive backplanes. The PCA-6175 is a full-size, complete card well-suited to many
environments and applications. The PCA-6175 accepts a Pentium II processor up to 300 MHz
and supports up to 384 MB; it provides 512 KB on-chip L2 cache, two serial ports and one
enhanced parallel port, and two Ultra DMA EIDE interface/FDDs. Other features include
Award Flash Bios, and a 63-level watchdog timer which resets the CPU or generates an
interrupt if a program cannot be executed normally. Pricing for the PCA-6175 starts at
approximately $1,200. For more information, contact the company at 408-245-6678.
NKO Expands Deployment Of Its IP Telephony Systems
NKO, Inc., announced that it has finalized agreements to deploy its IP Telephony systems
in Israel, Brazil, Australia, and Korea. NKO's carrier-grade systems will initially
provide voice and fax services. NKO will offer prepaid IP telephony calling cards later
this year. NKO's patented technology manages the allocation of bandwidth to provide a
guaranteed grade of service for voice, fax, data, and video applications, allowing carrier
grade IP telephony services. Harry Welch, Vice President-International of NKO, Inc.,
commented, "Extending our presence to these countries will allow NKO to offer
value-added services at attractive rates when compared to traditional networks. The use of
NKO's IP network provides a solution to the problems of quality and reliability often
encountered by users of the Internet." For more information, visit the company's Web
site at www.nko.com.
ILLUMINET Signs New Wireless Carriers For Its RVR
Services
Illuminet announced that Allegan Cellular L.P., Cellular Plus, Cellular XL Associates
L.P., Illinois Valley Cellular, and Union Cellular have signed contracts for Authentix
Roamer Verification and Reinstatement (RVR). RVR provides complete, economical roamer
fraud prevention, permitting full roaming to authorized users and full protection to
cellular carriers. ILLUMINET offers RVR through its partnership with Authentix Network,
Inc. The Authentix RVR System enables carriers to keep key roaming relationships open,
eliminating the need for "brownouts" and keeping the promise to subscribers of
access anywhere, anytime. Costly roamer cloning is prevented through a pre-call
verification process that confirms the identity of the legitimate subscriber -- not just
the identity of the handset, which can be cloned. For more information, visit the
company's Web site at www.illuminetSS7.com.
Bay Networks Unveils SS7 Strategy For Consolidation
Of Voice And Data Networks
Bay Networks, Inc., has announced a new strategy for leveraging the Signaling System No. 7
(SS7) protocol to enable integrated voice and data networking in service provider networks
worldwide. Bay Networks' support of SS7 will give service providers the ability to
integrate voice switches and Versalar Remote Access Concentrators (RACs) to customize
their remote access offerings and leverage their existing voice and signaling facilities.
For the RBOC and LEC, that will mean Internet Offload services located across multiple
POPs freeing upstream circuits for real revenue-producing voice traffic. The IXC could
develop "Mega-POPs" -- high-density POPs that aggregate dial data traffic over
standard telco trunks. Connecting Versalar RACs with SS7 eliminates the need for PRI
upgrades utilizing channelized T1 trunks that are commonly available in the voice system
architectures. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.baynetworks.com.
Microsolutions Releases Software To Improve Call
Center Operations
Microsolutions Development Corp., a developer of Lotus Notes-based software solutions,
announces the release of its CATRAK software. CATRAK is a consumer affairs tracking system
for corporations using Lotus Notes, designed to speed contract resolution and fulfillment
in call center environments. CATRAK features a real-time drill down capability, automatic
routing of contact records, plus the automatic generation of follow-up letters and reports
to management. Using Lotus' Domino Web Server, CATRAK makes Internet-enabled customer
service a reality. This capacity lets representatives, managers, and customers easily and
securely access vital and timely call center information over the Internet or corporate
intranet via any Web browser. For more information, contact Denise Ratti at 800-897-2162
or 609-897-9530.
TelePost Debuts Value-Added Communications Suite
TelePost has announced a suite of value-added services: TelePost Conference Center,
Web-initiated conference calling; TelePost Messaging Center, unified messaging; and
TelePost CallMeNow, a Web-initiated phone response service that allows site visitors to
initiate an immediate or scheduled return-call from the company in which they are
interested. These services -- offered to ISPs, telecommunications companies, and other
communications providers -- enable TelePost partners to offer their customers a
comprehensive business communications suite that integrates the telephone system with the
Web. These services require no initial capital investment by service providers, as they
are hosted entirely by TelePost. The company provides its partners with value-added
services, allowing them to realize additional revenue from their existing customers
(particularly SOHOs and mobile professionals). For more information, visit the company's
Web site at www.telepost.net.
Clarify Unveils Next-Generation Architecture
Clarify, Inc., has announced the Clarify Business Object (CBO) architecture, an advanced
"N-tier" (multitier) object-oriented technology infrastructure. The CBO
architecture will serve as the foundation for all new Clarify products, as well as
upgrades to the existing product line. With Clarify's new architecture, developers will be
able to customize applications with a single tool and then deploy them via a LAN or WAN,
as well as via the Internet on a wide variety of desktop machines. Applications will be
viewable through both desktop clients and Web browsers, with the Web interface providing
full access to all Clarify application functionality while providing the same user
interface, regardless of platform. The scalable architecture is based on emerging
standards such as DCOM, ActiveX, and CORBA. For more information, contact the company at
888-CLARIFY.
3i Debuts New Multi-Line Sharing Switches
3i, Innovative Ideas, Inc., offers a new line of Multi-Line Sharing Switches. 3i's MLSSs
allow a business to share some or all of its voice and/or dedicated telephone lines with a
variety of industry standard telephone (IST) devices, such as modems, fax/modems, fax
machines, and credit card terminals. This sharing capability enables a company to save the
high installation costs and monthly service charges associated with dedicated lines. Two
plug-and-play models are available: The plug-and-play outgoing MLSS, designed for
applications involving only outgoing calls (for example, a company needing to create a
modem pool for Internet and e-mail access); and the plug-and-play incoming/outgoing (I/O)
MLSS, which enables users to receive incoming calls to several devices as well as to make
outgoing calls. For more information, contact 3i at 412-429-2900.
InterDigital, Siemens Introduce Advanced Wireless
Local Loop Solution
InterDigital Communications Corp. and Siemens AG announced that they are offering a
Broadband Code Division Multiple Access (B-CDMA) technology wireless local loop solution
that delivers advanced broadband services. This first B-CDMA system, which InterDigital
calls TrueLink, is a fixed, wireless local loop application and is now commercially
available. Also part of this B-CDMA Alliance are Samsung and Alcatel. The Alliance will be
marketing the wireless local loop system worldwide. Alliance members plan to deploy
B-CDMA-based wireless local loop systems during 1998 is field trials in Asia, Africa, and
North America. B-CDMA wireless local loop systems offer a powerful combination of basic
telecommunications services with advanced features such as high-speed fax and data,
Internet access, video on demand, and multimedia applications. For more information,
contact InterDigital at 415-288-0400.
CellPort Pre-Integrates GPS Into Mobile Gateway
Server
CellPort Labs announced the third-generation release of its C/P Connect mobile
communications gateway server for vehicle-based wireless data and voice applications. The
new C/P Connect MSC-9730 platform features a board expansion that pre-integrates a global
positioning system receiver and choice of wireless airlink transceivers. With C/P Connect,
"every link can now be integrated," says Tom Kubancik, CellPort's director of
business development for data technologies. "Our developers want to provide both
IP-based data and voice telephony communications over a single airlink to their
vehicles." C/P Connect acts as a gateway between fragmented wireless and vehicle
electronic environments. For more information, contact the company at 303-541-0731.
Apropos Offers Interaction Management For Call
Centers
Apropos Technology has announced Apropos Version 4, the latest version of its flagship
product (formerly named Call Link) providing an advanced total call center management
solution. This new version introduces fully-integrated multimedia capabilities that enable
call center agents to view and respond to all types of inbound interactions -- from live
calls to Web callback requests -- in a single multimedia queue. Apropos 4 provides call
center managers with real-time information on all interaction types, so they can better
manage, control, and report on call center activity. Apropos' call center management
solution is currently employed at over 80 installations worldwide. For more information,
visit the company's Web site at www.apropos.com.
RADVision Forms Partnerships To Develop H.323 IP
Conferencing Solutions
RADVision adds to its list of H.323 partners three more industry giants: Ascend, Natural
MicroSystems, and Lucent. They join RADVision partners Accord, Corel, Dialogic, HP, Madge,
Micom, NetSpeak, Nortel, OzEmail, Panasonic, Philips, PictureTel, Polycom, Raytheon,
Siemens, Tanberg, Vcon, VocalTec, Voxware, Vtel, White Pine, Zydacron, and others. Ascend
Communications, Inc., has licensed RADVision's H.323 Protocol Stack to enable its MAX
Family of WAN Access Switches to act as gateways to implement voice over IP. Natural
MicroSystems has licensed RADVision's H.323 stack for use with its Fusion 2.0
H.323-compliant IP telephony platform. Lucent will resell RADVision's market-leading
H.320/H.323 Gateway, which translates circuit-switched H.320-based protocols into H.323 IP
packets and vice versa. For more information, visit RADVision's Web site at www.radvision.com.
FaxSav Introduces The Virtual Fax Server
FaxSav has launched its second generation of software products and services which complete
a fully functional and accountable Internet faxing solution for PC users. The new
releases, FaxCourier and FaxLauncher Pro, eliminate the need for companies to invest in
costly fax hardware and software and sharply reduces the associated maintenance and
upgrade costs. The FaxCourier service allows users to receive their faxes to email -- no
matter where in the world they happen to be. FaxLauncher Pro software allows them to fax
documents from any PC through the Internet to any fax machine in the world. The
combination enables customers ranging from global enterprises with thousands of users to
the individual road warrior to communicate via fax with the same ease and convenience as
e-mail, but with the reliability and universality of fax. For more information, visit the
company's Web site at www.faxsav.com.
DSPR Releases TIGER 6201/PCI Development Board
DSP Research has designed a new DSP development system based on the TMS320C62x family of
digital signal processors from Texas Instruments. Called the TIGER 6201/PCI, the new
product is an ideal DSP development platform for multichannel telecommunications
infrastructure applications such as H.323 VoIP gateways, IS-136/IS-95 cellular base
stations, remote access servers, wireless local loop gateways, and satellite base
stations. The TIGER 6201/PCI features the TMS320C6201 DSP, a very long instruction word
(VLIW) processor based on TI's VelociTI architecture. The C6201/PCI delivers 1600 MIPS and
400 MMACS (million multiply-accumulates per second). The jumper configurable memory
architecture of the board includes 1 Mbyte of SBSRAM, 128 Kbytes of SRAM, 512 Kbytes of
FLASH, and 16 Mbytes of SDRAM. For more information, contact the company at 408-773-1042.
MultiTech Systems Increases Throughput Of
Intelligent Serial Interface Card
MultiTech, Inc., has announced its newest intelligent serial interface card. Designated
Model ISI4608, the new card quadruples the per-port data transfer rate to 460 Kbps. The
new interface card enables use of the ISDN terminal adapter and new 56 Kbps modern
technology at their highest throughput levels, without transfer bottlenecks. The ISI4608
provides eight high-speed ports via a single ISA-bus slot, thereby expanding the capacity
of a multi-user host or communications server in a wide-area network. Using its own
processor and 256 KB of RAM, the ISI offloads communication processing and data buffering
from the CPU, and ensures that data rates to 460 Kbps per port are sustained without data
loss. For more information, contact the company at 612-785-3500 or 800-328-9717.
Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum Announces H.110
Specification
The Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum (ECTF) has announced the availability of H.110,
the Interoperability Agreement covering the CT Bus Implementation on the Compact PCI
(cPCI) form factor. H.110 will allow development of robust, open-systems architectures
that offer all of the advantages of the cPCI chassis over PCI. These include running the
CT Bus on the backplane rather than on a ribbon cable, hot swapping of cPCI cards, and a
form factor that is acceptable to a wider audience, including telcos. The ECTF also
announced the availability of A.001. This is the industry's first framework for defining
application interoperability. The new framework defines the concepts of Computer Telephony
(CT) application interoperability for all system integrators, system administrators, and
application providers in the CT industry. For more information, or to download the H.110
Interoperability Agreement or the A.001 framework, visit the ECTF Web site at www.ectf.org.
Nortel Introduces Symposium Agent
Nortel's (Northern Telecom's) Symposium Agent is the newest addition to the Symposium Call
Center product portfolio. This desktop application not only reduces costs for call centers
but also improves agent productivity. Symposium Agent is packaged to match the
requirements of any call center. The first package is designed for customers who require a
screen pop to be delivered to the agent along with the arrival of an inbound telephone
call. The second package includes the addition of a desktop softphone. Along with the
capabilities of an advanced telephone and ACD functionality (answer, release, dial, hold,
conference, transfer, login, logout, not ready), this package includes individual agent
statistics, call logs, and dialing plan support. The third and most comprehensive package
incorporates workflow automation and call scripting functionality. For more information,
visit the company's Web site at www.nortel.com.
PulsePoint Communications Unveils Carrier Grade,
Internet-Ready Application Platform
PulsePoint Communications, formerly Digital Sound Corp., has introduced an Internet-ready,
open-system, enhanced application platform for carrier-grade applications, called the
Enhanced Application Platform. The new platform is geared toward progressive and
competitive communication carriers, including CLECs, convergence and digital cellular
carriers, Internet service providers, and carriers operating in liberalized markets around
the world. The company also introduced the PulsePoint Communication Management Suite of
Applications, which is the first of a modular set of applications based on the Microsoft
Windows NT Server operating system. The first implementation of the PulsePoint Enhanced
Application Platform and PulsePoint Communication Management Suite of Applications is
being offered by GTE through an agreement that calls for nationwide, central-office
deployment. Three architectural elements are key to PulsePoint's enhanced application
platform: a rich application environment using state-of-the-art computer industry
solutions; wireline, wireless, and Internet integration; and open, third-party technology.
For more information, contact the company at 805-566-2000.
Buffalo International Releases Developer's Kit For
Object Telephony Server
Buffalo International, Inc., has announced the release of OTS NT SDK (software development
kit) for the native Windows NT version of the company's Object Telephony Server. Object
Telephony Server is a call center application platform containing built-in predictive
dialing, ACD, voice processing, and agent monitoring and coaching, among many other
powerful telephony functions. The system is a server only and is specially designed for
integration with third-party agent and campaign-management systems. The features of OTS NT
may be licensed individually to suit a particular user's needs and budget. Included in the
SDK is a dialing simulator, 32-bit DLLs, one sample control and one sample agent
application with source code, a manual describing the company's legacy system, and a
supplement with NT-specific information. For more information, visit the company's Web
site at www.buffalo-int.com.
Artisoft Announces Bundling Agreement With Telrad
Following a newly signed agreement, Telrad has begun bundling the host portion of
Artisoft's CoSession Remote software with its ImaGen voice mail software package. The use
of CoSession Remote will permit Telrad and its dealers to provide remote support and
administration to customers using the ImaGen voice mail and auto attendant system. In
particular, the software will enable technicians to dial into any PC running ImaGen to
remotely diagnose customer problems and reconfigure the system quickly and easily.
Telrad's ImaGEN is a fully integrated voice mail package that provides Telrad Digital
System users with a user-friendly, dependable means of communication, both internally and
outside the organization. Artisoft CoSession Remote lets users access and control a
distant PC and its resources from any location as if they were there. For more
information, visit Artisoft's Web site at www.artisoft.com.
Ericsson Launches Wireless Link To The Corporate
Network
New from Ericsson is EVO, wireless communications software that gives mobile business
professionals fast and secure wireless access to the corporate network. EVO provides
remote access to such corporate business tools as e-mail, personal files, and the
Internet. It has full functionality over a wide range of wireless networks with minimum
airtime cost and end-to-end encryption for maximum security. EVO users enjoy reduced
connect time over dial-up networks by over 50 percent compared to standard GSM remote
access. Over packet data networks, startup time is eliminated entirely and the user is
"on-line" continuously. In addition, EVO provides users with e-mail notification
off-line directed straight to a GSM phone with SMS capability. EVO runs in a standard
Microsoft Windows environment. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.ericsson.se.
NEC Introduces Integrated PBX Wireless
Communications
NEC America, Inc., announces the next generation of premise wireless communications:
Integrated PBX wireless. With this product, NEC offers a newly designed wireless handset,
the Dterm PSII. At 3.8 ounces and with a standby time of 500 hours, the Personal Station
offers the size, weight, and battery life demanded by the user constantly on the go. The
Dterm PSII also delivers a host of personal productivity features, including a 100-name
telephone directory. This unlicensed personal communications service focuses on the
integration of wireless communications capabilities into the NEC NEAX family of PBX
systems. NEC now makes adding wireless communications to the traditional NEC PBX as simple
and economical as inserting a wireless card into the cabinet, installing the required
number of zone transceivers, and equipping mobile employees with the new NEC Dterm PSII
telephone. For more information, contact the company at 800-TEAM-NEC.
Micro-Integration Releases New TAPI Voice/Fax Board
Micro-Integration Corp. announced the release of the new multichannel CTPlus voice/fax
board, a powerful 4-port development platform for computer telephony (CT) applications. It
includes multiport hardware-level TrueSpeech voice compression and offers high-quality
voice capabilities over low-bandwidth Internet connections. The product's use of
board-level audio compression overcomes the prevalent Internet telephony issues of voice
quality, bandwidth, latency, and lost packet recovery. In addition to four TrueSpeech
coprocessors, the board has four 14,400 bps Rockwell fax modems which are fully
programmable. Each modem supports full-duplex data transmission, the AT command set and
ITU-T Group 3 fax specifications. CTPlus supports the Microsoft Telephony Applications
Programming Interface (TAPI) and works with today's most popular telephony programming
tools. For more information, contact the company at 800-832-4526.
NetCore Systems Router Simplifies Large-Scale
Routing
NetCore Systems, Inc., announces a 10-gigabit-per-second router, called the Everest
Integrated Switch. The combination high-speed Internet Protocol (IP) router and
asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch will allow Internet service providers or net
managers of large private networks to use low-cost IP and Internet connections to send end
user traffic with quality of service. A system of these Everest routers can be configured
to route at 2.56 trillion bits per second and can be managed with one Unix-based
management station. A major advantage of the Everest is that it saves system
administrators money. It maps IP-encapsulated voice, video, and data of any kind onto ATM
connections. And via an aggregation technology called virtual circuit merging, NetCore's
router lets network administrators avoid over-buying ATM circuits. NetCore plans to ship
the product in November. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.netcoresys.com.
Bakara-Intracom Debuts Full-Screen Video
Conferencing Software
Using a new pixel interpolation technique and advanced wavelet technology, Bakara-Intracom
has created a high-quality, full-screen video conferencing software product. The new
product, called VidCall 32PW (32-bit/pixel/wavelet-enhanced), offers up to 640 x 480
resolution over analog phone lines, larger and more lifelike than the typical video
conferencing format for standard phone lines. Its new wavelet compression technology,
"TruePix," compresses video at rates up to 300. The 32-bit compression
software-only system requires only a sound card and camera. It is compatible with Windows
95 and Windows NT and works on regular analog phone lines, the Internet, ISDN, Ethernet,
and (TCP/IP) LANs/WANs. VidCall 32PW features full-duplex audio and data sharing that lets
users share notes, talk, and see others in real-time. For more information, contact the
company at 310-787-7097.
NETRIX Improves Its Network Exchange 2210
NETRIX Corporation has announced improvements to the performance, price, and scalability
of the Network Exchange 2210. With this release, NETRIX is aligning the product for the
emerging service provider and Internet service provider (ISP) markets. The Network
Exchange 2210 with Vodex software provides a highly scalable voice/data/fax-over-IP
gateway, which delivers high-quality Voice over IP (VoIP) and voice over frame relay. The
production expands the number of switched compressed voice channels supported in a single
2210 chassis by 100 percent, from 90 to 180 simultaneous calls. Benchmark testing
indicated that a single Vodex gateway will terminate as many as seven DS1 or six E1 PBX
interfaces. This makes the Network Exchange, which began shipping March 31, ideal for most
next-generation service provider networks as well as for larger corporate networks, for
$400 per digital voice channel. For more information, contact the company at 703-742-6000
or 800-949-2737.
VIVE Synergies Designs Call Routing Devices For Use
With IT And Internet Fax Service
VIVE Synergies has introduced two new versatile, line-powered, low-cost automated
call-routing devices for users of alternative carrier services. The new dialers are called
AutoCTD and AutoCTD+. They enable users to simply dial a long-distance call directly as
usual, while VIVE's AutoCTD or CTD+ (call through dialers) performs the necessary dialing
procedure to process the call through the alternative carrier in a manner totally
transparent to the user. AutoCTD and AutoCTD+ automatically route calls through the
alternative carrier or through the telephone company network according to its least-cost
routing programming to achieve the greatest savings. The dialers automatically seize every
call that a user wants to capture for routing through their alternative carrier services,
thus optimizing on revenue earning on that particular installation. For more information,
visit the company's Web site at www.vive.com.
Cortelco Intros Orbit For Wireless Communications
Solutions
Cortelco Systems has introduced the Orbit Communications System for the unlicensed
personal communications system (UPCS) 1.9 GHz frequency band. "This is our first real
entry into the wireless segment of the industry, which we anticipate being a major growth
segment of our company in the coming year," said John Harbor, Cortelco's director of
marketing and product development. Orbit can be added to an existing network to keep
employees completely mobile. It works with an existing PBX system, such as Cortelco's
Millenium. The Orbit system includes an intelligent base station, a system controller, and
intelligent handsets. For more information, contact the company at 901-365-7774.
INTERFAX Implements Worldwide Internet-Based Fax
Network
INTERFAX LP has announced the successful implementation of its Internet-based
international fax-to-fax network. INTERFAX's proprietary network provides wholesale
services to the company's marketing partners, currently offering worldwide fax delivery in
16 countries on five continents. As a network provider and manager, INTERFAX maintains a
central control facility utilizing advanced monitoring and diagnostic techniques. Using
the TCP/IP Internet backbone and the INTERFAX network, messages can be sent via fax to any
other fax machine in the world, bypassing long-distance lines and therefore incurring
significant savings. The INTERFAX service does not require Internet access, computers, or
software -- only a fax machine. Transparent to the end user, the INTERFAX network is
accessed by simply dialing the destination fax number with a normal dialing pattern. This
fax service also offers: resend capabilities, confirmation reports, accounting codes, and
encryption features. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.interfax.uk.com.
Sphere Communications Announces Sphericall Version
1.3
Sphere Communications, Inc., developers of Sphericall, a Windows NT-based network PBX,
has released the Sphericall version 1.3. Sphericall version 1.3 has further integrated
Microsoft's Outlook and the Microsoft desktop application environment into the telephone.
Sphere's latest release provides call conferencing as a fully integrated network telephony
feature. Implemented as a distributed software application, it does not require separate
hardware or conferencing bridges as do traditional approaches. Rather than electronically
mixing calls at a centralized PBX, in Sphericall, voice media streams are combined at each
connected telephone station to achieve conferencing via distributed processing. Since
Sphericall includes built-in CTI capabilities, conference calls may be set up using the
computer screen or from a stand-alone telephone. For more information, visit the company's
Web site at www.spherecom.com.
Inter-Tel, Glocalnet AB Form Multinational IP
Telephony Network Alliance
Inter-Tel and Glocalnet have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) outlining the
multinational IP telephony network alliance they are forming. The companies will soon be
able to provide international IP telephony to users by interconnecting and exchanging
traffic between their two networks. Glocalnet has established a packet-switched
long-distance network on a managed backbone in Europe using Inter-Tel's Vocal'Net IP
telephony gateway. Glocalnet's network will exchange voice traffic with Inter-Tel.net,
Inter-Tel's alternative North American long-distance network built on managed bandwidth.
Glocalnet is currently deploying a pan-European Voice over IP (VoIP) network and has
installed Points of Presence (POPs) in Stockholm, London, and Amsterdam, and is scheduling
eight more POPs in Europe. Inter-Tel.net currently maintains POPs in Phoenix, San Jose,
New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Reno. For more information,
contact Inter-Tel at 602-302-8900 or Glocalnet at +46-8-566-341-00.
Cable Set-Top Boxes To Deliver Cheap Internet Access
Several cable companies have announced major initiatives to put cable subscribers on the
Internet via their television sets. By taking advantage of a little-known capability in
the current generation of cable-top boxes and providing servers at the cable head-ends,
low-cost Internet TV could become a reality by the second quarter of 1998. "By this
September there will be over 100,000 cable subscribers surfing the web on their TV
sets," says Andy Sernovitz, president of the Association for Interactive Media.
"We expect to see 2 million cable subscribers by the end of 1999." A major
advantage of set-top boxes is that they are addressable and therefore more secure than the
Internet. For more information, visit the Web site, www.etvworld.com.
Prime CTI Debuts CTI Link Software
Prime CTI has announced the release of CTI Link Software, the third generation in a series
of CTI middleware programs from the company. This user-friendly middleware program allows
users to easily connect their PIMs, contact managers, or other database programs to their
business core phone systems for greater speed, accuracy, and productivity in handling
communications with customers. CTI Link is a low-cost, 32-bit open-architecture program
that supports the industry standards for phone systems and databases, such as TAPI, TSAPI,
DDE, OLE, Windows 95, Windows NT, and Novell. The program uses the latest enhancement to
DDE, Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), for seamless integration to Microsoft Outlook.
Further, CTI Link's new Installation Wizard greatly simplifies the installation and setup
process. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.cti-software.com.
Hewlett-Packard Revises Visual Programming Language
Hewlett-Packard is offering a major revision of its popular visual programming language
for test-program development in manufacturing test, design characterization and
verification, and data-acquisition applications. Called HP VEE 5.0, the revision will
speed and simplify creating test programs. HP VEE 5.0 programs can utilize Microsoft's
ActiveX Controls and can control other ActiveX Automation applications; users can now add
to HP VEE 5.0 such ActiveX controls as barcode readers, file encryption and compression,
databases, scientific functions, project-management utilities, application- and
program-version control, high-speed graphics, and calendars. In addition, its new
Web-monitoring capabilities, using standard HTTP protocol, enable engineers to implement
measurement systems that can be accessed and controlled remotely. For more information,
contact the company at 800-452-4844 x5778.
Fujitsu Unveils New CTI Application For Call Centers
Fujitsu Business Communication Systems has released IntelliQ, a computer-telephony
integration (CTI) application. IntelliQ is designed to integrate the company's F9600
Multimedia Platform PBX with any integrated voice response (IVR) system that complies with
the Open Database Connectivity standard. IntelliQ functions as a centralized information
resource for customer calls and caller-related database information. Integration of
IntelliQ allows a call center agent to receive a screen pop with customer data collected
in the IVR system based on customer-specific data, or caller information collected over
the telephone network. IntelliQ reduces the time call center agents spend gathering caller
information and allows agents to anticipate customers' needs by quickly reviewing account
information and any outstanding customer issues prior to answering the call. With a list
price starting at $15,000, IntelliQ is available in the United States and Canada through
Fujitsu's direct sales organization and authorized distributor channels. For more
information, visit Fujitsu's Web site at www.fbcs.fujitsu.com.
Clarent's Roaming Package For Internet Telephony
Clarent Corp. has launched a comprehensive suite of roaming and settlement products.
Together, these four new products will enable service providers to develop multifaceted
partnership agreements and share network resources with other network operators around the
globe. The Clarent Roaming Server allows consumers to initiate Internet telephony calls
when they are away (roaming) from their home network. The Clarent Connect enables a
carrier to designate specific phone numbers for routing to a partner's network, while
retaining full security and control over the gateways in its own network. Clarent's
Collector harvests billing records for transactions involving subscribers and traffic from
partners. The Clarent Collections Manager automates the process of collecting and pooling
data from a group of Clarent Collector servers. For more information, visit the company's
Web site at www.clarent.com.
PakNetX Supports Continued Development of Internet
Call Center Solution
PakNetX has announced that Fidelity Capital, Intel, Natural MicroSystems, and St. Paul
Venture Capital have invested a total of $5.25 million in equity and/or technology in the
rapidly growing company. PakNetX will use the influx of capital and technology to support
its continued growth and development of an Internet call center solution, to be launched
in the first half of 1998. As part of the agreement, Intel granted PakNetX license for
certain Internet call center technologies in exchange for equity in the company. PakNetX
is the creator of the PNX Internet ACD (automatic call distribution) solution. PakNetX's
Internet ACD is specifically designed to perform call processing in accordance with the
H.323 standard; thus the Internet ACD uses the IP network for its switch matrix. It
performs such software functions as processing protocols, manipulating routing
information, and performing application-level processing. The result is a truly
distributed call center, without expensive networking packages or remote equipment. For
more information, contact Chris Botting at 888-273-8623
Xantel Makes Its DSP Board Available To Third-Party
Application Developers
Xantel has announced the availability of its plug-and-play CTI digital signal processing
(DSP) board to third-party application developers. Called X-DSP-X, this board is Windows
NT based with 400 MIPs of scalable DSP processing. Audio-in and audio-out ports support
music-on-hold, microphone recording, and headphone "eavesdropping"
functionality, eliminating additional hardware board resources within the system. Xantel's
DSP provides 48 channels of voice processing with 12 channels of Group 3 fax. It is a
full-length PCI board, eliminating the need for hardware jumpers for system resources such
as interrupts, I/O, and memory configuration. In addition, multiple X-DSP-X boards are
able to operate on a single interrupt (IQ) setting with the host PC system. For more
information, contact the company at 800-926-8357.
Bay Networks Introduces DSL Services Concentrator
Bay Networks, Inc., is debuting a DSL Services Concentrator designed to act as a gateway
connecting two-layer DSL networks to revenue-producing IP services. The DSL Services
Concentrator software enables Bay Networks' Backbone Node (BN) routers to offer leading
ATM-based DSLAMs a connection to high-speed IP networks. It offers scalability of 2,048
permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) per slot. With its highly scalable architecture, Bay
Networks is capable of supporting over 20,000 users per DSL Services Concentrator. As part
of the Bay Networks DSL Services Concentrator offering, the third-party DSLAM OC-3 ATM
link can be handed off to a Bay Networks BCN router. The DSL traffic is simply bridged
until it reaches the Bay Networks equipment where it is converted to IP packets suitable
for routing through to the Internet. For more information, contact the company at
800-8-BAYNET.
Cothern Announces CallPro Server For Windows NT
Cothern Computer Services (CCS) has added the CallPro Server for Windows NT to its line of
CallPro server platforms. CallPro Servers for Windows NT offers simplified integration of
CTI functions with user applications in a client/server environment, eliminating all or
most of the programming and modification usually required for a CTI interface.
Installation, setup, and maintenance are all menu-driven for ease of use. The open-systems
architecture of the NT Server product allows the integration of applications across
multiple platforms. Also, multiple switches can be controlled, allowing users to take
maximum advantage of available switch features. A virtual call center can be created using
centralized or distributed servers to support multiple distributed call centers. For more
information, contact the company at 601-969-1155. |
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