Glossary of Computer Telephony Terms
Attendant
|
A computer
telephony system that routes inbound telephone calls to PBX extensions
with caller input. Auto attendants "sit behind" the on
premises telephone system and operate on either analog or proprietary
extension lines. Callers are prompted to hit touch-tones or speak
names to route their call. The auto attendant emulates the transfer
sequences an operator would do on the telephone system. Today, auto
attendant comes standard with most voice mail systems, with features such
as call queuing, call screening, and call routing. |
| Audiotex |
A service or
program using ARU (Audio Response System) systems to provide information over the phone. The
most common Audiotex systems provide premium-pay services such as
"976" or "900" horoscopes, time & weather and
theater information. |
| Automated Speech
Recognition (ASR) |
Automated speech
recognition or Voice recognition, describes a group of special technologies that allow callers
to speak words, phrases, or utterances that are used to control
applications. In the case of voice processing, speech recognition is
used to replace touch-tone input, make for more intuitive menu structures,
and add a level of simplicity and security to some systems. Speech
recognition is often confused with voice recording or voice
digitization. Voice digitization and recording explain how the human
voice is captured, digitized, and stored for later play back. Speech
recognition, on the other hand, is a technology that uses the spoken word
as input that has an effect on the logic flow and execution of the program
in question. |
| Centrex |
A generic term for
telephone company-based PBX-like service. Centrex service is a
partition of a local Central Office switch that emulates the functions of
an on premises switch. In some cases, the Centrex service is
provisioned from a switch located on the subscriber's premises. In
all cases, the subscriber pays a fee for the use of the Centrex service,
but never owns the switch or maintains his or herself. Centrex lines
are run from the Central office to each users' phone. Features such
as transfer, conference, speed dial, etc. are provided by Centrex as they
are on PBXs. |
| Computer Telephony |
A broad term
encompassing all aspects of applying computer-based intelligence to the
making and receiving of phone calls. This takes in many disciplines including voice store & forward, computer-based fax, Internet
Telephony, Call Centers, CTI (Computer Telephone Integration, voice
messaging, voice recognition, text-to-speech, call control, IVR
(Interactive Voice Response), Web-enabled call-back, and call
control. Computer Telephony also includes the API's Apps Gens and
other software used to glue disparate systems together in order to achieve
more intelligent handling of phone calls. |
| Dialogic Voice Boards |
Dialogic
Corporation is the leader in the manufacture of open, high-performance,
standards-based, telecommunications and computer telephony (CT)
components. Dialogic products offer an extensive suite of voice,
fax, and speech technologies, telephone/IP network interfaces, PBX
integration products, and more. The voice boards are a multi-port
resource for voice store and forward that operates under software state
control. Voice boards are scalable and come is a variety of
form-factors most notably: ISA/PC, VME, Sbus and PCI. Also called
speech cards, voice cards or CT cards. Dialogic products include:
Proline 2V, D/21H, Dialog/4, D/41H, D/4PCI, D/41ESC & D/41EPCI,
D/160SC-LS, D/240SC-T1 & D/240PCI-T1, D/240SC-2T1, and D/480SC-2T1. |
Fax Back
Fax
On Demand |
Fax back service
allows callers to use touch-tones or voice commands to select and later
receive fax documents. There are two types of fax-back: 1) One-call
requires the user to pay for the call to the fax-back machine.
Typically, the caller initiates the transaction from his or her fax
machine. An audio menu prompts the caller to enter a document number
after which he or she touches the "start" button on the fax
machine and puts the handset back in its cradle. The fax is then
transmitted "on the caller's dime;" 2) Two-call-fax-back allows
callers to initiate the transaction by typing in the destination fax
machine number from any phone. A second call is then made by the
fax-back machine to deliver the fax to the designated fax number. |
IVR (Interactive
Voice Response)
VRU (Voice Response Unit) |
In computer
telephony, Interactive Voice Response is a horizontal application wherein
computer-based information is accessed over the phone - with a telephone
versus a computer. An IVR platform uses computer telephony
components to translate callers' touch-tones or voice commands into
computer queries after the callers hear an audio menu. For example:
"Please enter your account number using the touch-tones on your
telephone." These queries are the "fetched" by the
IVR platform from the host computer. In some cases, the information
resides in the same platform (self-hosted). The information is then
converted into voice commands and then spoken over the phone to the
caller. These spoken prompts can be pre-recorded, digitized speech
messages that are then concatenated to form whole sentences. For
example: "Your bank balance is five hundred and sixty-three
dollars." The responses to the caller can also take the form of
text-to-speech prompts. IVR systems can also be used for callers to
change the information in a database instead of just "listen" to
the information. This is the case with order entry
applications. One way of looking at IVR is: "Your telephone
earpiece is the computer screen. Your touch-tone pad is the
keyboard". Sophisticated IVR applications provide end user
capability for custom scripting. |
| Out Dialer / Auto
Dialer |
A special form of
computer-aided dialing in which an out-bound call center can make the most
number of call attempts in the least amount of time. This feature is
used for applications such as telemarketing, appointment reminders, etc.. |
| Scripting |
Sophisticated IVR
applications provide end user capability for custom scripting.
This enables the user to develop applications for |
| SMDI (Simplified
Message Desk Interface) |
A data link used to
communicate between the switch an the computer telephony system to carry
call progress and call control information. SMDI was developed to
allow central office-based switching services to integrate with customer
premises equipment. You can get SMDI as an Essex, Centrex, Centron,
etc. service. The SMDI protocol specifies the extension number tried
for and the condition of the called extension. |
| Text-to-speech (TTS) |
Text-to-speech
technology allows an alternate spoken method for conveying textual
information. As the name implies, text-to-speech converts ASCII text
into the spoken word. Instead of a digitized recording, however, a
synthesized voice is used in order to speak-out words and phrases
on-the-fly.
Applications for this technology include order entry systems (providing
verbal confirmation on hundreds of products), customer name and address
systems (access to thousands of addresses and names for locator
capabilities), and telephone access to e-mail messages. In addition,
TTS can be used to gain access to news information for stock quotes so
brokerage firms can give callers access to corporate news headlines along
with stock quotes. Newspaper access for the blind is another use for
TTS technology. |
| Unified Messaging |
An
advanced messaging application able to handle multiple media types.
Any system capable of storing, retrieving and acting on email
notification, voice messages, and fax messages with the same, unified
interface. A mixed-media messaging control mechanism with either a
TUI (Telephone User Interface) and/or a computerized "inbox" for
retrieving and sending mixed media messages. |
| Voice Mail / Voice
Messaging |
An application of
store and forward wherein telephone access to private messages are
retrieved by the users for playback. Imagine a shared tenant
answering machine that handles multiple telephone lines and can record
messages for hundreds of people simultaneously. Imagine the intended
parties being able to retrieve these messages over the phone with simple
touch tone commands. Imagine full security, so that no one can pick
up anyone else's message with a special, private access code. That's
voice messaging. Some systems support broadcast of messages to
multiple recipients, message waiting notification via pager, message
waiting light, email or "outdial" telephone calls. |
|
