Communications technology provider Aculab (News - Alert) announced C3, a supplier of telecommunications platforms for Interactive Voice Response (IVR), messaging, call conferencing and customized call handling solutions, has deployed Aculab’s Prosody X media processing boards at the Cambridge University.

C3 (News - Alert), a long-term partner of Aculab, was able to deploy Aculab’s Prosody X to add conferencing services to the Cambridge University system without any major upgrade being required.

C3 has built C3 Apcentia platform based on Aculab’s Prosody X media processing boards. The platform already supports messaging, IVR and conferencing features as standard, so the upgrade was straight. An upgrade to add capacity was all that was required to future proof the system for the expected increase in usage.

“Aculab’s Prosody X technology allows us to deploy TDM and SIP-based systems that can be fully migrated to 100 percent IP Telephony with no application disturbance, or the need to replace system components,” said John Wood, Joint Owner C3, in a statement. ”The flexible enabling technology also provides an extensible foundation to facilitate the adding of more applications. This extends the usefulness of the system and the end customer’s ROI.”

According to Andrew Nicholson, Aculab product manager, the Prosody X platform can be used in the future to extend the University system. “One example might be an upgrade from the current system’s G.711 audio, to wideband audio (HD Voice) support, for both messaging and conferencing. Prosody X resources already include support for wideband audio, so an upgrade to support this capability would be an easy win for C3 and ourselves.”

When it comes to designing and implementing an IVR system at your business, simplicity is key, according to a recent TMCnet piece. Self-service solutions leveraging IVR can offer great value if they’re easy to use from the customer perspective, and easy to adopt from the business perspective.But organizations shouldn’t go overboard in leveraging IVR-based self service, says JR Sloan, product director of portfolio management at Enghouse (News - Alert) Interactive, which touches on all aspects of customer interaction management. If they do, he says, they will risk frustrating current and potential customers, and negatively impacting their own businesses.  

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