Application generators (app-gens) have become more sophisticated. Using telephony and
speech boards, a developer can build an entire CTI system from the ground up to suit
specific requirements while easily modifying the systems as requirements change. As the
graphical interfaces of app-gens become easier to use, the applications for these products
also become more understandable and easier to implement.
A fine example of an exclusively GUI-based app-gen is the Envox CT studio 3.0. There
are many building blocks used when creating flowchart scripts, including telephony/fax
functions, ODBC database access, e-mail, voice recognition, text-to-speech, DHTML, and
cryptography. Each block can seamlessly integrate with others to form scripts that satisfy
your corporate requirements and are relatively simple to implement. Of course, programming
languages such as Visual Basic and C++ can be incorporated into the scripts.
INSTALLATION
Before you do anything, a Dialogic board (with the drivers set up) must be installed onto
your workstation. As far as we can tell, CT studio works only with Dialogic boards. If you
don’t have a Dialogic board, you can buy it with the CT studio software for an
additional cost.
There is only one snag that might impede your installation of the board. Even if you
are just installing an analog board, you still must select the GlobalCall ISDN option.
This ensures that CT Studio will read the Dialogic Board you are using. Although you need
to check this box, it is not obvious that you must do so. The manual tells you to check
the GlobalCall box, but the directive is well hidden within the text. In any case,
administrators often neglect to read the manual during this procedure. Once you add the
board to your workstation, you can install the CT studio software, consisting of the
Control Panel and the Script Editor.
To check the default settings of the Dialogic board, you must open the Envox Control
Panel and click on the “gear” button to view the hardware default settings. We
did not need to change any of the default settings, but we did have to authorize the
Control Panel. To do so, we simply clicked on the “question mark” button and
then the Authorization button, to make sure that the licenses were properly displayed in
the Hardware Channels option. Envox also allows for many other licenses, such as for
software channels — e-mail, screen pops, etc. — and IP channels .
DOCUMENTATION
Envox includes every piece of information you can think of for both the help files and the
manuals. The user is presented with three manuals: a Getting Started user’s guide, a
Control Panel user’s guide, and the bulky Script Editor’s user’s guide. The
first two guides are straightforward and thorough. The Script Editor’s user’s
guide shares these qualities, but there is so much that needs to be discussed that this
manual runs 550 pages. Sounds daunting? It isn’t though. The manual is organized in
such a way that you can usually find what you need quickly. Occasionally, information
about certain features may be hidden in the text. The Help files mitigate this problem
since they are easy to search.
Even though Envox does supply some examples of scripts, a few more examples would have
made the documentation very user-friendly. Overall, however, the documentation is
convenient and it supplies an abundance of information.
FEATURES
Envox CT studio provides an extensive array of features for developing a CTI system from
the ground up. We have already mentioned some of the product’s attributes, but here
is a more detailed list of CT studio’s features:
- PC-PBX and call center features — can connect channels together, can connect
headsets or phones, screen pops include dynamic html, DDE, or TCP/IP.
- Uses any ODBC/SQL compliant database.
- Send and receive e-mail messages.
- Low-level ISDN signaling.
- Support for many foreign languages.
- Uses Visual Basic and C++ programs.
- Sends and receives faxes. Converts text to fax, html to fax, and e-mail to fax.
- Security — voiceprint identification, cryptography (encrypt/decrypt data, create a
digital signature).
- Uses Windows RAS to connect to Internet.
- Support for Lernout & Hauspie for speech recognition. (Any SAPI-compliant
text-to-speech engine can be employed.)
- Variables and expressions — multiple system variables, unlimited user variables.
(Expressions can combine variables, strings, database fields with Boolean, and many other
types of mathematical functions.)
OPERATIONAL TESTING
When examining CT studio, we created a few small scripts in the Script Editor and
tested them by playing them over a telephone calling into the NT server. Forming the
scripts is a relatively easy process. With the help of the manual, the user can, with
moderate effort, administer simple scripts. The first step is placing the correct sequence
of particular blocks and connecting them together. This part is literally like
“connecting the dots,” or in this case, blocks. You can make the screen the size
you need by having the diagram of the script take up as much of the screen as you desire.
To customize a particular block, you can either double-click on the name of the block
on the left side of the screen or on the actual block itself. Depending on what you
select, a number of tabs will appear under the Properties screen. These include General,
Specific, Prompts, and Events tabs. In the Prompts tab, you can select or create a VAP
file (which stores several voice phrases in one single file), select a particular file,
select a system file, or use text-to-speech. Of course, you can edit these prompts with
the ability to add particular variables and expressions if you require them for your
script. You can also select any number of Events, such as CreditOut, FaxSendTone, and
Notify (all events are described in the manual or in the help files), to satisfy your
script requirements. Incidentally, it is also recommended that you clear the DTMF buffer
whenever possible.
Several other features enhance CT studio’s Script Editor, making it a very
powerful building tool. For example, you can add notes that can help you remember what
each block is used for, or to keep track of everything when you create longer scripts.
Another feature is error checking. After you are finished with the script, you should
check for errors by clicking on the Check Script button. The idea is to detect some of the
errors that may have occurred while creating the script. A display even shows where an
error has occurred by highlighting it with a flashy 3D effect on that particular block. An
example of a common error would be “Output ‘Next’ not connected,”
which simply means that you didn’t connect two of the blocks. While testing our
script, we heard a "play error" message on the phone even when the GUI error
checking feature did not detect it. In this case, we had just added an inappropriate file.
We just changed to the appropriate .vap file to fix the error. However, this shows that
not all errors are caught by the error checking feature.
CT studio’s Control Panel shows the status of each call. You can set which script
you want to use for each channel you have. You can also set the number of rings before the
auto-attendant picks up. But perhaps the most impressive feature is the single-step
debugging tool. The single-step option proceeds through the entire script execution,
step-by-step so that each block of the script can easily be supervised, and exposed to
troubleshooting.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
Envox CT studio has almost all of the features we look for in an app-gen, but there are a
few features we thought of that might make this app-gen even more impressive. First off,
it would be nice if Envox offered reviewers or other product testers the option of using a
software-based telephony simulator for testing without the use of a Dialogic board.
Second, it would be nice to have a built-in script or block that gives you a
rudimentary voice mail system and some basic call control features incorporated into the
system. (We have been informed that Envox is releasing a unified messaging system that
should be out by the time this review is printed. This system will be able to integrate
with CT studio 3.0, which should add to the functionality of both products.)
Third, even though the single-step debugging tool is very impressive, it would also be
nice if there were some type of execution mode integrated with the Envox Control Panel so
that the user could see each block highlighted as its function is executed.
The GUIs for both the Script Editor and the Control Panel are extremely impressive.
They follow Windows conventions, are easy to use, and are intuitive. The Script Editor
even adds little features that other app-gens might neglect. For example, they allow for a
Multiple Document Interface (MDI), which allows multiple scripts to be open at the same
time, a choice of color for the script blocks, and the efficient use of bookmarks.
There are only two improvements we could think of for the Script Editor’s GUI.
First, an undo function should be added to the edit menu so that when we make a mistake
(TMC Labs consists of humans after all), we can eliminate that mistake with little more
than a click of the mouse. Second, on the Property screens, a help button that is
context-sensitive (loads the help information that the user is currently highlighting)
would aid users. Currently, when you press the F1 key, the Help files do not open to the
topic you are consulting, but rather they open to the general help. Also, the Control
Panel should include “tooltips” that would tell you what each icon represents
(even though there are only a few of them).
CONCLUSION
As far as entirely GUI-based app-gens are concerned, CT studio 3.0 is one of the best
we’ve seen. Anyone who wants to build CTI applications from the ground up will have
little difficulty navigating through CT studio. It is a user-friendly, feature-rich,
well-designed app-gen. It definitely merits an Editor’s Choice Award. |
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