Hosted VoIP

It is something quite extraordinary to be able to easily add voice to enterprise applications. Now I am not talking about adding a screen pop to a CRM system mind you, what I am implying is more advanced and customizable applications. An example is a dentist who has a cancellation and can direct a system to make outbound calls to the patients on a waiting list and use text to speech to enable them to choose to come in during the vacated slot.

Appointment setting and scheduling busy calendars is in fact one of the biggest time wasters in my life and I have yearned for a solution to the problem that would reduce but not eliminate the human interaction needed to effectively allow multiple people to schedule appointments with me in an automated fashion.

In my perfect world I could allow certain people to have access to a phone number and a web page and they could have the ability to make appointments with me at trade shows. I could even allow certain companies to meet with me in certain time slots based on priority.

Of course I digress and since the company that got me thinking about of all of this is called LignUp it seems like a great time to introduce them as a VoIP

2.0 or voice 2.0 company which has been around since 2004.

The company allows companies to take advantage of advanced telephony features in a highly flexible and customizable way so that advanced applications can be constructed in a relatively easy fashion. The dentist example above shows you what the system is capable of.

Another application would allow insurance adjusters to call in and record observations on a case and have the voice file saved with the case of the accident or event. There are lots of interesting applications which can be created such as a dial-to-conference application allowing you to call a number and have it call multiple people who all connect to a conference bridge.

Another application worth discussing is for the informal call center and allows workers to leave a prerecorded message for people if they call into voicemail. In other words if someone calls to sell you a new router and the call goes into voicemail the caller can press a button and have the system automatically say, “Hello, this is Rich Tehrani and I wanted to be sure you knew this week we are having a special on our 16 port routers on a first come first serve basis. Please call me immediately at 555-1212.”

There is also a click-to-broadcast application allowing you to alert a group of parents to a cancelled baseball practice.

More examples of applications are a directions-based solution allowing you to be given directions based on where you are coming from. For example you could et one set of directions to Manhattan from New Jersey and yet another set if you are coming from Connecticut.

Another application allows you to voice annotate a photograph online. Really the functionality of the platform is unrivaled and as the company says aptly, they are turning applications inside out and giving access to complex telephony applications through web services.

There is also an application allowing you to receive a phone call to authenticate a transaction. This is a great way to stop online theft at banks and credit card companies where the phone number is a known and trusted source of authentication.

These are sample applications. There are many other things the system will allow you to do. Best of all this functionality can all be had without needing to know how to program CTI (News - Alert) or SIP

. You can get started with a LignUp Communications Applications Server for about $100k and connect it to SIP trunks and put it on an Intel (News - Alert) box. You can also get access to the company’s products through a hosted service if you like.

In short, LignUp’s mission is to bring advanced telephony development (examples) into the world of Microsoft (News - Alert) .NET and Java. You can really take advantage of web development tools to devise applications and integrate the best of the web and the best of telecom. In doing so you can generate revenue, new customers and even have your workers become more productive. The possibilities are endless.

Rich Tehrani is President and Group Editor in Chief at TMC (News - Alert) (News - Alert). In addition he is the Chairman of the world’s best attended VoIP event, Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.

LignUp: Communications Mashups Done Right

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