AT&T Announces Electronic Commerce Solutions

AT&T has announced the availability of its Electronic Commerce Solutions - Transaction Platform (ECS-TP), a value-added network service that allows companies to complete an entire business transaction by interacting with consumers through common methods of communication - phone, fax or PC.

The platform is designed to help businesses build an integrated, private business network for automating the entire commerce cycle - from handling requests for information to ordering goods, paying for them and processing shipments.

ECS-TP collects information, converts it to digital form and routes it to a customer's database, called a data warehouse, for processing. Companies can use the data to automate such routine business functions as travel reservations and registration, order entry, brochure and price list fulfillment, warranty registration and surveys. They can also use the data warehouse to fax back value-added acknowledgments and customer order confirmations.

By mid-1996, AT&T will expand ECS-TP to include credit card processing and Internet links. Additionally, AT&T has a Professional Services Team of technical consultants who assist customers in designing and installing their ECS-TP applications.

ECS-TP provides businesses a flexible way to design a single application for completing a transaction, regardless of whether their customers contact them by phone, fax or PC. For example: PC users can access a company's secure, private Web server with Internet-like text, graphics, pictures and other downloadable objects such as software, programmed audio and video files; consumers using fax machines can transmit specially designed forms to an intelligent character recognition (ICR) unit that scans the forms and converts entries to data; and for those conducting business by phone, ECS-TP offers an interactive voice response (IVR) unit that greets callers with a personalized menu for entering orders or retrieving information.

Behind these access capabilities is the private data warehouse that collects and processes consumer requests. The data warehouse has the ability to calculate prices, validate order and payment information - such as credit limits - and give end user acknowledgments of receipts with value-added data such as customer order number or estimated delivery schedule.

Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, Hawaii's largest full-service lodging hospitality company with 28 hotels and resort properties, is one of the first companies to use ECS-TP, automating reservations from the nearly 30,000 travel agents it serves and arranging for ordering and fulfillment of brochures to potential guests. Outrigger's ECS-TP platform will process transactions it receives in all three access methods, including reservations made through a private Web server.

For example, travel agents with multimedia-capable PCs will be able to dial into Outrigger's server and visit accommodations along with a potential traveler. Outrigger will supply these travel agents with a reconfigured Netscape software browser.
As a result, agents and travelers can use their PCs to review pictures of hotels and rooms, see maps of surrounding areas, examine lists of local restaurants and even read notices of special events occurring during a visitor's stay. Once a hotel is selected for the trip, reservation information can be entered online.

Outrigger will also use ECS-TP's Fax Form capabilities for those travel agents who prefer to submit reservations by fax. Agents will complete a specially designed reservation form and fax it to Outrigger over a toll-free number. Outrigger's system will route the fax to an optical character recognition unit scanner with databases that ensure a high level of recognition and minimize the need for operator review.

Outrigger's ECS-TP application further automates the collection of names and addresses of travel agents or travelers who call Outrigger for a vacation brochure. The service uses AT&T's network-based IVR technology to guide the caller through ordering brochures and automatically searches a consumer database to determine callers' addresses. The service prompts a caller to confirm the street where the brochure will be sent, or indicate another destination. Outrigger also can record callers' responses and forward them to the data warehouse for transcription later on.

ECS-TP is currently available on a controlled introductory basis with initial access via AT&T's 800 and 900 services. AT&T plans to expand access capabilities in mid-1996 when ECS-TP becomes generally available. For more information, contact Michael Lordi at 908-221-6382.