Appendix B: Technical Terms & Definitions
Below are some basic terms used when you're dealing with voicemail, fax and email systems. Once you read through all of them, you'll have a much better idea of what makes this technology work.
PC REQUIREMENTS - To operate a voice or fax application, your personal computer must have the following minimum system configuration: 586 - 550 mhz - 256 megabyte RAM - 20 Gigabyte drive, Windows NT Service Pack 5/Windows 2000. Available slots are required to insert voice card. You must be sure you have the correct amount and configuration (ISA or PCI) of slots.ANALOG PORT - A conventional telephone line sometimes called POTS (plain old telephone service). Many newer telephone systems are digital in design and therefore require special telephones. Call us... we'll help you determine compatibility.
AUTOMATED ATTENDANT - The ability of an incoming caller to select an internal phone extension via their touch-tone phones. This generally requires a Centrex or PBX type transfer service.
BACKGROUND/FOREGROUND - The ability of two different programs to operate in the same computer at the same time. This is not advised as there are often memory conflicts that can cause intermittent system crashes and slow down the overall performance of each application. But if necessary, you can run two programs at the same time in MS-Windows.
CALL BRIDGING - Transferring a phone call to another line internally. The only way to do this is by using a second line in your system to "bridge" the call to the other line. The system dials out on another line electronically connecting each one through a voice card. This feature is a necessity where three-way calling or call transfer is not available from the phone company or PBX.
CALL PROGRESS - The various electronic signals created by the telephone company central office when you receive or initiate calls. (i.e. dial tone, busy, ring, disconnect, etc.)
CALLER ID/ANI - A format where the phone company transmits the actual calling party's phone number at the same time that the call is delivered. This way you know who is calling you before accepting the call. Caller ID (where available) is offered on analog lines where ANI (automatic number identification) is sent on T1 Spans.CENTRAL OFFICE - The source where telephone lines for any given community originate. Generally an extremely large computer switching system is located there and all dial tone and busy signals are managed from that point.
CENTREX - An external phone system or set of enhanced functions which you "rent"; from the phone company instead of having to buy your own. It offers most of the features found in PBX's without the cost of purchasing one. Centrex complies with all 4 of the features needed to run PC voicemail and fax back services.COMPRESSION - An adjustable sound parameter which relates to the voice storage quality ranging from 80,000 to 400,000 bytes per minute. A typical value is 200,000 bytes per minute or 12 megabytes for every hour of captured speech on the hard drive. .Wav files for multimedia could easily double this space requirement.
CONFERENCING - Similar to line bridging except that call conferencing allows 2 or more calling parties already connected to converse back and forth. This kind of service is often referred to as a "chat line".
DID/DNIS- A feature that lets each voice mailbox holder have their own 7 digit phone number instead of just an extension or mailbox number. This special type of telephone service automatically sends the last four digits of the telephone number the caller dialed to your voicemail system. This is required so each client can have their own unique seven digit telephone number. Often used by answering services for call forwarding. Requires special DID hardware. DNIS digits are sent on T-1 trunks.E1 SPAN - A digital technique that allows the transmission of 30 simultaneous voice channels over a dual twisted pair of wires. This requires a special connection to the phone company and hardware to match. E1 is a internationally used term whereas inside the United States it is called T1 and provides for 24 channels. There are many technical settings for digital service with other terms like signaling, bits, and superframe references.
FAX CARRIER - The sound faxes make when communicating with each other. This high frequency but audible signal is transmitted by the sending fax card to establish communications with the receiving fax card after the call has been rung and answered.
FAX ONE-CALL - When a person on the line chooses to receive a fax from the voicemail system immediately on the same phone call instead of having the system call back with the fax. This saves the business from having to pay the cost of transmitting a fax-on-demand with a separate phone call. To do this, the callers dial in from their own fax machine and press receive to get a document. To set up this type of system, the voice system must have a fax card installed on each voice line. Although the thought of avoiding toll charges sounds advantageous, the initial hardware costs are much higher. Very often callers may request that the fax be sent elsewhere and this would not be possible in a single call mode.
FAX TWO-CALL - Where many voice lines can be answered at the same time with only 1 fax card set up to send back faxes that are requested. Callers make their requests and the fax documents are sent when the party disconnects. With this setup, the system operator must pay for the toll call but it is much easier and less costly to set up than fax one-call (see above).
FAX BACK - A technical term meaning that fax documents are transmitted to callers upon demand. Faxback can be set up with either a one-call or two-call system (see above).
FLASH-HOOK TRANSFER - Required by voicemail systems to transfer phone calls within a business office or to a remote location. One example of a flash-hook transfer is when you push down the disconnect button, enter the extension the call is to be transferred to and then hang up.
IN-BAND SIGNALING - A feature found in newer telephone systems that upon an internal extension not being answered or busy, a touch-tone stream of digits identifies the line status. For example, if you have voicemail that picks up if you're not home, the phone system will realize that you're not answering after x number of rings and switch the call over to your voice mailbox, which is really at another number. In-band signaling will even recognize if your number is busy, and automatically signal the call to your voice mailbox.
INTERNET - An international network of computers and end users allowing free interchange of information. In recent years this has become a commercial media for everybody and will expand rapidly into the next century. A Proxy Server is used to connect the internet and it's world wide web into a Windows NT/2000 network and a VoiceStamp software package.
MESSAGE NOTIFICATION - A voicemail feature that lets the system call a box owner at another number to let him or her know that (s)he has a new message waiting.
MINIMIZE/MAXIMIZE - A way to designate which software in your computer takes priority when more than one are used. Used by Microsoft-Windows to describe whether an application has the primary or secondary processing priority. Voicemail or faxback should always be maximized as the primary task operating in the system.
PAGING DIGITAL/ALPHA/VOICE - Provides immediate feedback to voice mailbox owners who have received messages. (Similar to message notification only touch-tones are used to spell out a code).
PBX - Abbreviation for a customer-owned private business switch (phone system). A PBX is usually necessary when your business has more extensions than telephone lines. A PBX is required for intercoms, message waiting lights and paging.
PREDICTIVE DIALING - A special voice software and hardware configuration for telemarketing centers that automatically dials on more outbound lines than there are live operators to respond to them. This eliminates the dialing or busy signals which take away the productivity of successful sales closers. When a prospect answers their telephone they are bridged to the next available sales attendant. VoiceStamp has a product called Personal Predictive Dialer or PPD that performs some of these tasks.
QUEUING - putting callers in line according to the order they called in when waiting to speak with someone. This term describes the automatic handling of multiple telephone callers waiting to speak with single phone extension or department. Typical prompts would say "you are caller number 5... if you would like to hold press 1 or press 6 to leave a voice message."
TEXT-TO-SPEECH - Lets your computer "speak" text over the phone. This software can actually generate speech from an ASCII text database to create talking mail order catalogs, banking, and appointment setting systems.
TOUCHTONE/DTMF - The keys or dialing signals generated by your telephone to indicate the desired 10 digit destination or internal PBX extension number.
T1 SPAN - A digital technique that allows the transmission of 24 simultaneous voice channels over a dual twisted pair of wires. This requires a special connection to the phone company and hardware to match. T1 is a domestically used term whereas outside the United States it is called E1 and offers 30 channels. There are many technical settings for digital service with other terms like signaling, bits, and super frame references.
VOICE PORTS - A port is literally where you plug each phone line that's used in the voice system into your PC. It's where the phone line is connected to your voice board. Each telephone line to be answered requires that 1 voice port be assigned to it. If you wish to have 16 callers receiving prerecorded audio text information or requesting faxes then there must be 16 telephone lines connected and 16 voice ports to handle the traffic.VoIP - An alternative communications channel to the major telephone networks. Instead of analog lines the telephone signal is converted to a digital data stream and sent through the internet. This requires extensive hardware and both the input and output of the telephone call.
WINDOWS 95/98/ME - Microsoft's consumer oriented operating system for providing a graphical user interface to your computer system. We do not support this operating system.WINDOWS NT/2000 - Microsoft's business oriented operating system for providing a graphical user interface to your computer system. This environment supports full internal networking as well as connections to the world wide web and internet through a Proxy server and DSL line or cable modem.