Guideless-Lines? New Application Interoperability Guidelines and Certification Process To Enable Multi-Vendor Computer Telephony -Value Network- For Communications Solutions
March 5, 1999
Dialogic Corporation, the global leader in open
computer telephony, today announced
guidelines for a new program for testing
applications to receive CT Media(tm)
interoperability certification. The program will
be a key component enabling a value
network of products and services for
computer telephony (CT) servers.
Assured of Interoperability
With the new guidelines in place, CT server
system integrators and system owners will
have the assurance that their CT server
application has passed a certification test
suite designed to support multiple-vendor,
multiple applications environments for
mission-critical solutions. Dialogic is
publishing the new guidelines in conjunction
with input from several companies currently
developing to CT Media telephony server
software, including Apex Voice
Communications, ATIO Corporation,
Mediasoft Telecom, PRIMA, and Rockwell
Electronic Commerce. The guidelines will be
submitted to the Enterprise Computer
Telephony Forum for consideration as a
standard for application interoperability.
Objective third party interoperability
certification, a key element for a healthy CT
server value network, will be provided by
Genoa Technology, a firm specializing in
independent testing services. Genoa will
provide a service to make sure that
applications comply with the requirements.
Certified applications will be permitted to
feature a "CT Media-certified" logo on their
product advertising to alert customers that
they have been verified to interoperate.
Value Network
"Install and run" interoperability will allow
unimpeded growth of a value network of
servers, applications, supporting hardware,
technology, and services that serve the CT
system owner. This value network of CT
products and services will provide CT Server
owners the resources they demand for
obtaining, maintaining, and extending the
communications-driven applications that
make their business more competitive. The
interoperability-driven model enabling the
new CT value network is analogous to the
open standards-based model that has served
database system owners so successfully for
years. "The application interoperability
guidelines are an important step in the
ongoing drive toward open-system CT
servers and the value network that serves
them," states Dean Trumbull, vice president,
CT Switch Products, Dialogic Corporation. "
While ECTF S.100-based applications running
on CT Media are currently capable of
inter-operating with each other without
these guidelines, the certification process
insures that applications won't step on each
other, and gives systems owners and system
integrators the assurance they need to build
multiple vendor multiple-application systems."
CT Server - Leveraging Data Network/Phone
Network Convergence The cooperation of
multiple CT vendors on the interoperability
guidelines reflects the growing momentum for
an open computer telephony system solution
in the form of a CT server acting as a peer
to other back office resource and access
servers such as database, messaging, Web,
file and print, etc. These CT Server
application guidelines will continue to evolve
to validate increasingly rich levels of
interoperability between independent
applications.
CT Servers are based on an open systems
model that provides connectivity and media
processing services for multiple vendors'
telecommunications, media processing, and
other communications applications. The CT
server can support all telecom services from
the traditional PBX/KSU, router, remote
access services (RAS), voice mail, and IVR to
sophisticated call center solutions. CT
servers also enable independent software
vendors to develop innovative applications
such as intelligent agent, self-service
transactions, customer management, sales
force automation, messaging, help desk, tech
support, collections, and other "front office"
applications that drive business
competitiveness. Just like other back office
servers, a CT server provides a single point
of administration to manage pools of
mission-critical resources that are shared by
any number of applications, dramatically
lowering total cost of ownership. The key
differentiator of a CT server over existing
telecom systems is that it enables choice of
different vendors' software and hardware
through its support for multiple standard,
open interfaces. A CT server can supplement
or replace the generations of proprietary
communications equipment deployed today,
including those systems executed with off
the shelf operating systems. For the first
time it is possible for business process
automation to integrate communications
services as seamlessly as database services.
CT Media - Enabling Application Convergence
Dialogic's CT server software, CT Media for
Windows NT, is unique in its ability to allow
applications to be written once and deployed
-- without modification -- on systems of
different sizes, using different network
protocols, and even different network
fabrics. CT Media is switch fabric "neutral,"
and will enable applications like KSU/PBX,
ACD, or intelligent agent to operate
transparently on a packet (Internet
Protocol), circuit (Public Switch
Telecommunications Network), cell (ATM or
Frame Relay), or hybrid (combined via
transparent gateways) infrastructure.
Therefore, a CT server based on CT Media
with a PBX application driving it will be an IP
PBX, ATM PBX, Circuit PBX, or a
hybrid--defined only by the resources that
are installed under the control of the server.
For more information on CT servers, visit
Dialogic's dedicated server World Wide Web
site at www.ctserver.com. |
