SOA/Web Services

For enterprises that effectively combine wired, wireless and IP telecommunications, ‘This Changes Everything’ is more than just a slogan.

 

My previous article on harnessing the business value of IP telephony outlined some of the new technical standards versus the limitations of traditional telephony and opportunities for change. Now let’s discuss the associated technology trends and ways for organizations to adapt.

 

 

Below are some of the trends occurring within enterprises and contact centers.

 

1. Stand-alone solutions for voice, data and video such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), voicemail, e-mail, voice and video conferencing are being consolidated and extended (via wired and wireless networks) with geographically dispersed communication servers and clients (logical versus physical; peer-to-peer, etc.), through a combination of any or all of the following configurations:

 

Customer Premise Equipment (CPE)—equipment that is owned or leased which is physically located at the enterprise location(s) and operated by its own staff

 

Managed Services—equipment that is owned or leased and is physically located at the enterprise location but is operated (managed) and monitored remotely by the vendor or outside staff

 

Co-located Systems—the provision of space for an enterprise’s IT / telecommunications equipment on the service provider's premises

 

On-demand / Hosted Telecom and Contact Center Services—systems and applications that are operated at a service providers location, but which link  to the enterprise location and remote staff or mobile worker via web and telephone clients

 

Outsourced Services—using another company’s facilities, infrastructure and staff to implement and manage some or all of the functions of IT / Telecom, including contact center operations, that typically had been provided in-house

 

2. IT Departments are incorporating Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) using web services as the foundation for open systems and interoperability.

 

3. Computer-telephony Integration (CTI) is becoming easier to implement with SOA / web services. Surveys have indicated that with traditional CTI only about a third of contact centers incorporate “screen-pops” with contextual information when transferring to an agent.

 

4. The contact center is extending to include knowledge experts throughout the enterprise using presence and permission-based rules.

 

5. Traditional telephony and voice processing functions are being embedded in applications at the client level due to SIP / peer-to-peer configurations and the increasing computing power of edge devices.

 

 

Some of the reasons for adapting to these trends in your organization include:

 

 

Considering the trends and options discussed above in conjunction with the global telecom infrastructure including the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), Wireless Networks and the Internet, IT organizations have more options for fault tolerance and disaster recovery that would minimize or effectively eliminate potential disruptions in mission-critical services and applications being provided in a cost effective manner.  

 

 

Your current systems may have limitations with regard to improving effectiveness of current applications. Or you may have handicaps with automating manual processes through CTI or implementing new IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert) (IMS) capabilities and applications such as conferencing and collaboration.

 

Whether improved communication applications are required for mobile workers and home-based agents, or for collaborative sessions among staff, partners and customers, applying the right combination of technology and services outlined above can help you achieve business advantages sooner rather than later.

 

 

Oftentimes, new ideas for increasing revenue or launching new campaigns are stymied by perceived obstacles with the current telecom environment. Sometimes it just takes a little thinking outside the box to overcome such obstacles.

 

For example, you may have an old legacy PBX with little or no practical CTI capabilities. However, hosted telecom services and application service provider (ASP) solutions can be integrated together with web services—all in conjunction with your existing telecom environment (provided your staff, whether in-house or remote including home-based workers have a high speed Internet connection and a direct wired or wireless telephone number assigned). You can begin with a pilot project and then decide on a more permanent configuration later.

 

 

Solving just one of the business requirements described above moves you closer to providing the technology solutions for others. Once you gain practical experience with implementing and combining these capabilities, you might find new applications that could become unique competitive advantages for your organization in this new landscape.

 

Does your organization have ideas and initiatives that appear to be limited by your current telecom environment? Your comments, questions and ideas are welcome: [email protected].

 

 

SOA/WEB SERVICES