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There’s no argument that CTI applications provide a valid, and by today’s
standards, necessary business utility. But they can be a bit difficult to
design, breeding long development periods, suspending company resources,
and creating a mediocre final product with limited functionality. As a
result, customers can be left with little choice but to endure their
inefficiency. Applications with unintuitive layouts, heavily nested menus,
and too many frontline choices can generate consumer confusion and
frustration, and possibly undermine the very premise for which a company
turns to CTI -- better customer service.
Pronexus has been developing fully customizable CTI solutions for
years. Its latest release, VBVoice 4.3, has the same easy-to-use,
flow-chart-style, component-based GUI that’s become the product’s
trademark. VBVoice 4.3 is a true application generator (app-gen) lending
itself to developers of all levels and abilities. Though the product does
have a simple and intuitive GUI and appends the Visual Basic toolbox with
a diverse group of components (controls), the code for each control can be
modified or changed entirely by a developer, thus not limiting design
capability to the “out-of-box” functionality.
INSTALLATION
The Pronexus system requirements suggest that the application is installed
on a machine with a 333 Pentium processor or equivalent and 64 MB of RAM.
It’s compatible with Windows NT or Windows 2000, and Visual Basic 5.0 or
6.0 (Standard or Professional edition). The hardware requirement is a
configured voice card with resource requirements that may include I/O port
addresses, IRQs, and dual port memory depending upon the type of card
installed. Check with your dealer if you plan to run the software on
certain models of Compaq, Micron, Dell, and other popular name brand PCs
because special utilities may be required to free resources. A Dialogic
41E voice card was installed on our test machines.
The software also runs in conjunction with Lucent/Rhetorex (now
Brooktrout), Brooktrout, and Aculab voice cards, although it should be
noted that Aculab hardware installation instructions were not provided
with the documentation. There was only a note directing the user to the
manufacturer’s instructions. The only tuning required was dialing in the
ID on the board switch. The Pronexus Installation CD supplied us with the
latest Dialogic board drivers, which set the precedent for the rest of the
installation. An industry-standard wizard, a few directory choices, and a
couple licensing agreements later, the installation was complete. The
Active X controls were added directly to the Visual Basic toolbar. We were
ready to reboot and begin testing.
DOCUMENTATION
TMC Labs received three spiral-bound volumes of documentation with the
software. Pronexus’ documentation is a plenary collection of
well-organized data arranged by application -- VBVoice merited an entire
manual unto itself, while VBFAX, VBWAP, and Announce! shared another
volume. The third manual was dedicated to voice card setup. All three
manuals contained both an index and a table of contents, providing several
avenues to facilitate reference.
Pronexus also chose to incorporate “The E-Z-Flow Software Company”
example in the VBVoice manual, which is aimed at new users, allowing them
to build a simple audiotext application with step-by-step instructions. We
found several minor discrepancies between the diagrams provided with the
example and the instructional text.
The application’s online help is of similar quality to the print
version, in both presentation and depth of information. Presented in a
split-screen GUI of its own, the left half offers search options and the
right half simultaneously displays the help text. We prefer this
split-screen architecture to the launch of a new window because quite
often with the latter the search window closes -- an unwelcome
consequence. The documentation also contains appendices including VBV4 .ini
file settings, VBV4 .ini hardware-specific settings, and log messages.
FEATURES
Pronexus’ continued use of GUI and drag-and-drop components once again
allows the user to simply and quickly create applications such as
auto-attendants, voice mail, audiotext, and IVR with database integration.
Some notable new features for release 4.3 include: Windows 2000 support,
wireless application protocol (WAP) support, VerifySpeaker control
(requires Nuance Verification engine and license), new text-to-speech
engines, and speech recognition featuring Dynamic Grammars. This expanded
functionality addresses needs of additional types of customers by
providing information via telephones, speech technologies, wireless
devices, data storage, and the Internet. VBVoice 4.3 Professional also
includes Announce! (sound recording and editing software), VBFAX, VBVoice,
five WAP sessions, and several additional features, including:
- Workgroup telephony.
- Agent X technology.
- Remote control (permits voice applications to interact with client
workstations during a voice call).
- Client and remote administration access for real-time monitoring of
line status, channel logs, call statistics, and system performance.
- NT service control.
- Voice line simulator (allows demonstration of applications without
installing Visual Basic, VBVoice, or voice cards).
- Call queue control (provides ACD functions for status, transfers,
and messaging on-hold).
- Configuration manager.
- Dialogic MSI support (allows administrators to transfer and connect
calls through station sets without a phone switch).
- Support service packages.
- Nuance support 7.0-7.03 (earlier versions of Nuance may not work
with VBVoice 4.3).
- Support for the Lernout & Hauspie PC/MM RealSpeak (v. 1.02) and
TTS 3000 (v. 6.14) and the Fonix FAAST TTS engine.
- Call transfer over ISDN lines (in North America using 2BCT).
OPERATIONAL TESTING
Pronexus certainly didn’t skimp on the sample applications they
incorporated with the latest software release. The Examples folder
contained a total of 35. None were very complicated, but they were
comprehensive enough to allow a developer to understand that the software
is capable of supporting a broad spectrum of applications. “VB 4.3
Examples” is also a shortcut added to the Pronexus fly-out menu. With so
many possibilities and so little time, we opted to test some of the
prepackaged example applications included with the program.
We also decided to build “The E-Z-Flow Software Company” example
included in the VBVoice manual. This example is intended for first-time
users as an exercise to become familiar with the VBVoice interface. We
chose to use it as a way to closely scrutinize part of the documentation
in addition to building a simple test application. The VBVoice 4.3
Professional Edition CD arrived with VBVoice, VB Fax, Announce!, Lucent
TTS and ASR engines, and several other tools (and all the authorization
codes), but we installed only the basics: VBVoice 4.3 and the Lucent TTS
and ASR engines. We decided to focus our testing in the following areas:
text-to-speech, speech recognition, and WAP.
The VBVoice/Visual Basic interface is straightforward, and even for a
novice, very intuitive and easy to use. TMC Labs recruited an eager
subject with no prior Pronexus exposure to conduct a test. Could our
tester successfully build an application with only the manual and a little
time? Within an hour, he had developed a simple audiotext application --
the E-Z-Flow example in the Getting Started section of the VBVoice manual.
It was accompanied by comprehensive, step-by-step directions, but it
seemed like a fair handicap given an experienced systems developer tasked
with building a custom application, less any instructions. (We did have to
fine-tune the line group and connect several RJ-11 lines to our voice card
to complete the system configuration).
The result was a functional system that effectively answered calls and
gave the caller several choices. Based on the caller’s information
request, the system then routed the caller to the appropriate control
block (responding to the digit selected from the caller’s keypad). A
compressed .wav file containing several phrases called a .vap file is then
played, which hopefully delivers the information sought by a potential
customer or client, such as business hours, product information, or
customer support.
Ease of use is a critical component in making an app-gen successful.
After all, learning another program to build an IVR or auto-attendant isn’t
very marketable if there’s an easier way. Pronexus’ icon-orientated
interface makes this app-gen simple to use. In the new Project dialog,
VBVoice provides its own template. Once a form is created, use the VBVoice
controls in the toolbox to begin assembling the call-flow architecture.
Set the control names and properties and link the controls together. In
short, those are all the necessary steps to build an application via
VBVoice. Of course, applications developed in VBVoice run in Visual Basic,
and the controls are fully programmable, so if you’re a Visual Basic
hard-coder, the possibilities are endless.
VBVoice uses a Lucent TTS engine, supports multiple channels on our
Dialogic voice card, and is Speech Application Program Interface (SAPI)-compliant.
Although we didn’t test any, Pronexus suggests that it is also
interoperable with other speech engines as long as they support
multi-threaded operation and a compatible voice format.
We began testing using the TTS model provided with the software. We
thought that it would make for a more realistic test to see if the
greeting was slightly longer than “Welcome to VBVoice, the telephony
tool of choice,” which is only about three seconds (and hardly
processor-intensive). We opened the TTS.vbp (Visual Basic Project) file
and made some text modifications to create a greeting that lasted
approximately eight seconds. Next, we launched the NT Task Manager so we
could view system processes and performance as means of measurement. When
idle, VBVoice is hardly a “resource hog.” It barely registers CPU
usage at all.
We then initiated a call. As soon as the first call picked up and the
greeting began to play, we dialed into the system on a second line. Still,
we were barely using four percent of the CPU. When both lines were
accessing the system simultaneously, we initiated the TTS message by
pressing the zero on one of the phone keypads. The CPU usage meter peaked
momentarily, but once the TTS.exe process handed off to our Dialogic board
to do the processing, occupied resources returned to an idle state. A
system that doesn’t meet Pronexus’ installation requirements may
experience noticeable lag times and difficulty when attempting to handle
simultaneous incoming calls.
VBVoice relies heavily on the TTS engine, using it to process text in
many of the standard toolbox controls as well. Lucent’s engine performs
very well, incorporating the Synthesis method (though the diphone
concatenation method seems to create more of a smooth-sounding flow) to
generate more natural-sounding speech. The result was very good. TTS would
certainly not be mistaken for an actual person, but it does allow the text
to be played with certain modifications -- different pitches and cadences,
for example.
An automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine is also provided by
Lucent. Though TMC Labs didn’t have access to a Nuance 7.0 or higher ASR
engine, VBVoice release notes say that when it runs in conjunction with
VBVoice, it enables the VerifySpeaker and Dynamic Grammars functionality.
We ran through the speech recognition example provided with the software
without a problem. It’s a simple model that routes calls to the correct
party through the use of a few audio prompts. The TTS engine provides the
initial SayText prompt, “Please say sales or support.” You are then
given a short period of time to respond. Two .txt files are also found in
the SpRec (speech recognition) directory. Called name1 and name2, these
files provide the names for which the ASR engine is “listening.” The
SAPI engine has no problem processing the speech (although the application
is structured in such a way that requires mostly one-word, monosyllabic
answers). No lag time was noted as the ASR engine referenced grammars and
processed speech, even though we conducted tests on the system with
multiple callers using the ASR engine simultaneously.
WAP functionality is also provided with the Professional edition. Five
sessions comprise the stock allotment, but you can purchase up to 240
based upon your needs. VBVoice provides the capability to deliver
formatted text pages, including images and hyperlinks, database
integration, the ability to build and present menus, and compile a user’s
data input. VBVoice also claims to support the mixed functionality of both
voice and WAP, a sort of hybrid application, but we were unable to test
this functionality. TMC Labs tested some simple WAP applications using
both a WAP-enabled cell phone and a simulator.
We have no technological or functional problems to report. The software
seemed to function without error…well, almost. It should be noted that
we did install the software on both an NT 4.0 server and a Windows 2000
server. Both are supported, according to the documentation. We had no
problem with our NT installation. However, the Windows 2000 server wasn’t
functioning correctly. We initiated a brief investigation, and it was
determined that the VBVoice installation failed to create a virtual Web
directory pointing to the WebRoot folder (the NT machine was running IIS
3.0, which performed flawlessly). We did have to manually create the
directory within IIS 5.0 on the 2000 machine before WAP was functional.
WAP is also Personal Web Server (PWS) compatible.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
As stated at the outset of this article, Pronexus has been in the business
of manufacturing CTI development tools for years. This app-gen in
particular has been refined time and time again, as it is now on release
number 4.3. We struggled slightly to produce some suggestions that would
make this product even more marketable or refined, but managed to think of
a few.
With most server applications, once it’s built and tested the server
will probably sit in a dark closet where no one will ever pay any
attention to it. Still, we would have liked to see some sort of log
protection. Depending on the nature of a business, and the types of
applications VBVoice is used to generate, sensitive information such as
credit card numbers, social security numbers, account numbers, and account
information can be broadcasted in the application’s channel log session.
But a general Windows-, system-, or application-specific password really
isn’t practical. Perhaps a different access level affiliated only with
the channel session logs (Figure 3) would be better. This wouldn’t
hamper server maintenance or the IT department, so full access to the
system and programs would still be available. It’ll also help to keep
people honest.
Although initially pleased with and surprised at the number of examples
included with the software, after becoming more familiar with them we
found ourselves wishing for slightly more complex samples. If CD real
estate is an issue, swapping several of the simpler examples in lieu of a
more sophisticated one might be the answer.
We understand that VBVoice was designed to run with Visual Basic, but
we wonder about also running with the C++ programming language (we
consider this more a wish list item, not something we deem necessary to
improve product quality). Even with multi-threading capability, Visual
Basic can still be somewhat memory intensive. And VBVoice’s Active X
controls in theory should be interoperable with C++. Perhaps some sort of
hybrid product isn’t too far off. It would be nice to have the option.
This would seem to broaden the potential user group, and as a side effect,
could make the product more marketable.
CONCLUSION
VBVoice is a true app-gen with fully customizable components that can be
configured to create comprehensive communications solutions. Visual Basic’s
open architecture makes it highly compatible with other software and
simple to upgrade. Aside from the possibility of revealing sensitive
information in the channel log session, we think it’s a solid product.
The new features -- especially WAP support -- keep it competitive while
offering additional avenues for businesses of any size to expand their
customer support and potential revenue. Its ease of installation, seamless
integration with Visual Basic, simple yet comprehensive GUI, detailed
documentation, and open code, make Pronexus’ VBVoice 4.3 well suited for
an Editors’ Choice Award.
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