September 1998

VBVoice 3.0

Pronexus, Inc.
112 John Cavanagh Road
Carp, Ontario, Canada K0A 1L0
Ph: 613-839-0033; Fx: 613-839-0035
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.pronexus.com

Price: A basic 4-port system, without the fax and prompts modules, costs $1,495. More elaborate systems are more expensive. Also, customers must purchase a voice board. Contact Pronexus for a pricing sheet.

 

RATINGS (0-5)
Installation: 4.5
Documentation: 5
Features: 4.5
GUI: 4.5
Overall: A

By the time a software reaches its third edition, you have to wonder whether the new version represents a significant improvement, or whether the software has become a locus for superfluous and possibly distracting accretions. In the case of Pronexus’s VBVoice — a CTI application generator software already esteemed in this industry — the 3.0 version definitely represents a significant improvement. VBVoice now offers helpful capabilities such as call queue controls, workgroup telephony, and AgentX/remote controls.

VBVoice 3.0 is a complete application generator, which means it minimizes the need to tweak source code while allowing developers to create real-life CTI applications. The new version offers programmers another convenience: built-in testing software, which eliminates the need for every programmer’s PC to have its own voice board. Thanks to its competitive pricing, focused documentation, and powerful debugging tools, VBVoice — previously a winner of our Product of the Year award for version 2.5 — merits an Editors’ Choice award as well.

INSTALLATION
Installing VBVoice 3.0 is easy. After Visual Basic version 4 or 5 is installed, run the VBVoice autorun.exe installation wizard. The wizard will check for previous versions and available disk space, and it will require you to insert an authorization disk. When the wizard is done, reboot. It’s really that easy. (Some users may also have to install Microsoft DCOM 95.)

Of course, we’re assuming that your voice board is properly installed and configured. Like sound cards, modems, and other peripherals, voice boards (especially under Windows NT) are notoriously over-complicated and difficult to configure. Fortunately, the VBVoice technical writers considered this problem, devoting a full 63 pages to voice card installation.

VBVoice works with boards from Dialogic, Lucent (formerly Rhetorex), and Pika, running under Windows NT, 95, or 98. Other system requirements include at least a Pentium 90 processor with 16 MB of RAM or 24 MB for NT. Optional modules include VBFax 3.0, Announce! (a voice prompts studio), and technical support services.

DOCUMENTATION
We commend Pronexus for producing a very, very good instruction manual. However, we suggest that they acquaint themselves with spellcheck before printing the next edition! We’re serious. We found dozens of typographical errors, mostly simple mistakes that would have been caught by any decent word processor.

That said, we should point out that the product’s 460-page manual is well illustrated, well organized, and — above all — thorough. It covers every facet of VBVoice. In addition, the text includes special callouts wherever there’s a reference to a new feature or a changed feature from a previous version. Also, there’s an entire "what’s new" section (which, if you’re an upgrade user, provides all you really want to know).

FEATURES
Workgroup telephony, according to Pronexus, is a "client/server communications architecture that automates user interaction and office workflow with computer telephony." For the VBVoice application, it’s essentially a network platform for groupware based on Microsoft’s Distributed Component Object Model. The workgroup telephony components include remote control, conversation objects, and AgentX control.

Remote controls, which augment the Visual Basic tools, let voice applications work with client stations. For example, an inbound call routed through a remote control automatically builds and removes conversation objects (explained below) as necessary, and then follows a 12-step process that could serve to display screen pops at client stations. Client operators in turn could use a remote control to route the call further or to manipulate it in other ways.

Conversation objects are ActiveX library objects, deemed "the core of all AgentX communications" by Pronexus. Each represents one half of a point-to-point connection. Users configure conversation objects with either a SetData method or a Send method. The GetData method retrieves these data.

AgentX controls, again in Pronexus terms, are "a thin wrapper around a Conversation object." These controls, providing for connections, changes of status, and disconnections, are what allow programs to communicate with telephony hardware and software outside of the Visual Basic environment.

Other VBVoice controls (totaling 27) are equally powerful. There are controls for timing calls, querying and editing databases, delays and telephony, language phrases, faxes, subroutines, prompt recording, recording and playback, and control customization.

Another VBVoice feature, multithreading, is useful … well, sort of. Visual Basic itself is not a multithreaded development environment, but VBVoice 3.0, when used with version 5.0 of Visual Basic, exploits a multiple thread loophole when running executable files. However, the documentation cautions about using this feature in critical applications, and there seem to be more instances in which Visual Basic multithreading would fail than instances in which it would succeed.

VBVoice’s text-to-speech and speech recognition features and documentation are phenomenal. Microsoft SAPI and the included Watson and FlexTalk engines serve as mouths for the SayText system phrase, and the SpeakPad application is useful for recording and testing new prompts. (The TTS and SR portions of the documentation would make a linguist proud, with its detailed explanation of exactly how the technology works and how best to implement it in CTI programs.)

Other features of VBVoice include:

• The ability to scale to 192 lines for IVR systems.
• Open TAPI integration.
• Support for 24 languages.
• ODBC access.
• T1/E1/ISDN support.
• Global error/digit handling.
• Several available voice file formats.

OPERATIONAL TESTING
There’s a school of thought suggesting that application generators (app gens), for all their ease of use, simply can’t replace a good hard-coder and a text interface. If app gens let even the marginally competent create working programs, the pundits ask, then why are programmers in such great demand? We admit that we sometimes think that way ourselves, yet we think it is at least as likely that programming skills and powerful app gen suites simply don’t conflict as much as pundits might suppose. After all, strong app gens, like VBVoice, appear to coexist with cadres of crack programmers. Thus, concerns about dummified programming may be exaggerated.

Even hard-coders want to make their lives easier, and (like the rest of us) they seldom have time to learn another software package. To appeal to these programmers, Pronexus made the VBVoice platform easy to use. The drag-and-drop interface is the most intuitive we’ve ever seen in an app gen.

To help programmers get started, VBVoice provides a sample, the E-Z Flow Software Company. This sample can guide even a weak programmer through the actual creation and testing of a simple auto attendant.

In the E-Z Flow sample, and in all VBVoice controls, clicking inside an object opens its properties panel; clicking an object’s exit node and dragging it to another object’s entrance node creates a link. Users will find several guides and snap-to-guides features reminiscent of CorelDraw or AutoCAD, and advanced users can view and tweak the actual VB code behind each object. The bottom line? VBVoice pushes the limit of app gen functionality ever closer to the hand-coder asymptote, and the normally steep app gen learning curve just isn’t an issue here.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
Although we wrack our brains trying to find ways to suggest improvements, we simply couldn’t find much to criticize about VBVoice. It works with both major and current versions of Visual Basic. Its manuals are superb. Its GUI is exemplary. All we could conjure is a need for a more sophisticated example than the E-Z Flow software. One idea could be an optional CD with several sample applications and white papers about their design and use. We’d also like to see a simplified pricing model.

CONCLUSION
VBVoice counters the dummified programming myth, and does so with style. Also, VBVoice is relatively inexpensive. It makes even the most stubborn programmer’s life easier. And there’s no end to the customization it allows through code tweaking. Now all we need is a product reviews generator.