Information for Teleplex Developers
This page is intended for developers, and discusses the different ways to create
Call Center applications and
IVR applications.
Call Center Applications
There are three ways to create Call Center applications for agents.
1. Teleplex CallBrowser ("TPXCB")
This is the easiest and quickest way to create
basic (and a few sophisticated), web-based applications. TPXCB is a telephony-aware
web browser, and provides the toolbar and buttons that agents need to login and
logout, change the agent state, and control the telephone. Advanced telephone
functions such as coach, monitor, and conference can also be via the popup "soft
phone", which is usually left hidden to maximize the agent's screen real
estate.
Applications are web pages created with the TPXCB companion program, "Teleplex
PageBuilder", typically in about 15 minutes. In addition to the toolbar and
buttons mentioned above, the web pages have a frame in which to show the screen
pop data that you need, and a results frame where the agent can display a calendar,
register a callback call, set the call outcome code, and register a comment. Optionally,
you may create a third frame which can be to link to other web pages such as your
products page, FAQ page, and so on.
Applications can include a script that agents can refer to when talking
to the customer. The script is personalized for each customer using some of the
"screen pop" items, helping the agent to have a professional and
friendly conversation.
PageBuilder can create both Inbound and Outbound pages for CallBrowser that handle
"screen pop" and call result registration. More sophisticated data entry
or survey pages can also be created that allow the agent to fill in
answers to a set of questions. PageBuilder not only creates the web pages, but also
creates the corresponding database structure—a great time saver if you do lots of
short-term outsourcing jobs.
As a developer, you need to determine what information needs to be displayed, what
information needs to be collected, and then create, and test the web page.
2. TPXAgentApp
If the
web-based approach doesn't suit your needs, the next easiest thing is to use
TPXAgentApp. This is essentially the toolbar and soft phone functionality of TPXCB,
repackaged as a plug-in for VB.Net and C# applications. To use this you add the
TPXAgentApp control to your main screen, set a few properties, perhaps define a
few event handlers, and go—the majority of the telephone logic is transparent to
the application, so you can concentrate on the business logic.
3. TPXAppLib
The
third approach is to use "TPXAppLib", allowing you to get "closer
to the metal". Both TPXCB and TPXAgentApp are built on this library,
which itself is based on the ActiveX CT Council's "ACT" API.
TPXAppLib is oriented only toward agent-side applications, not every conceivable
telephony function. Therefore, it is easy to use because there are only about
30 functions and a small number of events to deal with. TPXAppLib is typically with
VB.Net or C# to implement your own business logic and your own presentation of the
telephone control. This approach is most appropriate when you need to create a sophisticated
application for order fulfillment, insurance policy processing, or a sophisticated
reservation system has large number of detail screens.
IVR Applications
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) applications are self-service applications accessed
via telephone. IVR applications can be either as a standalone service, or in a Call
Center as supplementary services. Examples of some applications that have been created
with Teleplex are:
- Language Net. This is an extremely sophisticated conferencing
system that provides various ways for a caller to connect to an interpreter (on
duty at the moment) with a third party.
- Voice Mail. This is a basic IVR application common in many
businesses. The Akasaka Prince Hotel uses a Teleplex-based voice mail system for
their guests, and Accel Corporation's "EveryNet" and "Message+"
services are Teleplex-based systems providing voice and fax messaging to over 1,500
companies and 100,000 users around Japan.
- Voice / Fax Information Service. FutureNet Corporation uses
Teleplex to provide generalized voice and fax "town pages" and catalog
retrieval services.
- Emergency Notification. Honda Research uses a Teleplex-based
system, "ILAS", in Japan and Thailand. Car and bike engines are connected
to monitoring equipment, which in turn is connected to ILAS. When an abnormality
is detected during testing, ILAS can contact the engineer(s) in charge, either by
phone or by e-mail.
- Order Entry. IVR-based order entry systems make life easier
both for the customer and the supplier, especially when the customer is buying repeat
items.
IVR applications are quite different from the agent applications mentioned above.
An IVR application interacts with the multiple callers through audio prompts (either
recorded or generated on-the-fly with our text-to-speech or our "speech synthesis"
feature). In response to the caller's input, the application then typically
queries a database, and plays back the answer.
IVR applications are separate executable files that run on the Teleplex server or
a separate machine on the network, and you can run any number of IVR applications
simultaneously. Teleplex routes incoming calls to the right IVR application based
on rules that you set up in Teleplex such as the dial-in number or particular trunk.
TPXIVRLib
Our IVR library ("TPXIVRLib") internally is based on the
ECTF S.100 specification. However, that specification is really oriented
towards "C" applications, so TPXIVRLib adds a level of abstraction allowing
applications to be written in easier-to-use languages such as VB.Net and C#.
Scripting
Finally, we should mention "TPXScript", our scripting language for Inbound
Call Center handling. If you need to perform either complex calculations or
have complex database interaction, you will want to use TPXIVRLib. However, for
many simple applications you might be able to implement it using TPXScript, saving
lots of development time.