Computer |
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by Tom Lassiter |
"I, Peter Personal Computer, do hereby take thee - Tessie Telephone, along with all thy PBX, Cellular, Digital, and Analog relatives, to be my lawful wedded netmate into the blessed 21st Century of computing nirvana - till lack of bandwidth and disconnects us do part."
PCs + Telephones = Computer Telephony. It's here, it's now - and nobody even warned us it was coming. Jump on this bandwagon! PCs and telephones are truly a marriage made in heaven. PCs can really push data but omit the usual communication mode - speech. Telephones transmit speech but lack anything to say unless they are connected to a source of information - human or computer. Years ago telephone equipment started using computers to increase the feature sets available to users. If you hooked a special little computerized telephone instrument to a monster telephone mainframe in the basement you could do some cute tricks. Then when you outgrew that system you did a "forklift upgrade" and hauled that phone system out of the basement and replaced it with another. And forget the little guy with a one line system - he could use tin cans and a tight string to communicate.
Lo and behold, the world has changed. Now the SOHO market can avail itself of the latest and greatest bells and whistles; and the larger companies and mega-sized call centers can do Star Wars tricks.
Picture this: You are sent to Timbuktu on a business trip. You call your office from the airport while awaiting Trans Nowhere's latest flight, and not only pick up your voice-mail but have e-mail and faxes (or other info in your PC) read to you over the phone in your choice of languages.
Or this: You are in your office and the phone rings. Your PC screen tells you it is X calling. You may have the PC automatically play a response to this call you were expecting from him - "I got us a 10:30 tee time Saturday, see you there" while you continue to play Solitaire. Or maybe it is from Client #1 so, relying on the data in your PC PIM and caller ID, you look at the screen and answer "Hello J.R., happy 33rd birthday, is Mary (his wife) throwing you a party tonight? I'm glad to see you received the proposal that was delivered last night - may I answer some questions on it? Oh yes, the cancellation clause. There, it is on our screens now - just type in or point to whatever changes you want to make. Legal - sure, I'll get them joined in here with us onscreen in video so you can see those beady little eyes I told you about."
Or security: Call a phone number, say a selected phrase, have that transmission compared to a voice-print you recorded originally, receive a one-time password good for the next 10 minutes only, and use it to access your protected site on the internet, intranet, etc.
Get the picture? Anyone who has a PC and a telephone involved in their work is going to wind up connected to the new hardware and software that is already here and more that will be rolling through the floodgates in the next year or two.
Live 15 minute demonstrations by 69 invited vendors, one at a time on a high tech stage, at the Computer Telephony Demo Fall 96 in Orlando on October 30 to November 2 made believers out of all who had a chance to see it. Young, yes; but maturing fast. In an arena where bright minds, mature judgment, and almost unlimited venture capital meet, there will arise great things in a relatively short time span. Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) is here now. Don't buy a phone system without taking a look at this wondrous new marketplace.
Hint: most of the good stuff is not coming from the big traditional telephone equipment vendors but from smaller companies who can assimilate and integrate software and hardware to meet individual needs in scaleable fashion. Lots of building blocks are out there for them to work with; and boy, do they know how to mortar them together.
Stay tuned for Part 2 next month. See you then.
Tom Lassiter is a HAL-PC member, Chairs the Steering Committee of the Build or Buy a PC SIG and emcees that weekly SIG meeting, is a HAL-PC Ambassador to the America Online (AOL)User Group Forum, and was one of the initial HALNET beta testers.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.
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