We are pleased to announce a next Webinar event with our partner Avanzada7 to talk about all our products suite, last updates, and all advantages and benefits on working with VoiceXML over Asterisk servers. This Webinar is a new way to discover our products sharing questions and comments with our product’s manager in short keynote of 30 min duration.

Please register here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/339450910

When:

• Title: “VXI*, Plataformas IVR / VoiceXML para Asterisk con I6NET”
• Wednesday February 1, 2012 at 4:00pm (CET Europe/Madrid)
• Language: Spanish (ES)
• Duration 30 min

Contents:

• Introduction to I6NET
• Why Asterisk and VoiceXML?
• VXI* VoiceXML browser for Asterisk
• Software Extensions
• Cloud-Ready Telephony
• IVR Packages for Avanzada7 Online Store

Space is limited, reserve your webinar here!

Flash or HTML5 that is the question? Piehead has compared the two approaches, and compiled an infographic outlining the pros and cons of each. Overall,  neither Flash nor HTML5 can safely be ignored.

Source: http://www.piehead.com/blog/2012/01/flash-vs-html5

We are pleased to share this very good article by John Stepp from InsideCTI about The Future of Video in the Contact Center. There’s very few contents about video contact centers but technology is ready for the next big thing for human communications and businesses.

By John Stepp, InsideCTI

When I was on the phone recently with my website provider, I really would have liked to have had a video connection. I am certain that I could have gotten more out of the call if it was video. At least it was a real time call and not through e-mail. The voice inflections gave me enough doubt to go ahead and pursue an alternate provider. Then again, video might have given my web site provider the ability to instill the confidence necessary for me not to pursue and alternative provider. And that is the point. Sometimes the best way to communicate is through video.

Someday our one on one communications will be mostly video. Pinpointing that exact time is difficult, but my proposition is that it will be sooner rather than later. Once the transition is in full swing, contact centers will already be fully video operable. Even today, there are some trends that will make video communications between callers and agents viable for many.

Some of the trends are:

• Inexpensive Video Services Available on any Computer
• Smartphones and Tablets with Front and Rear Cameras
• Push Technologies to Computers and Mobile devices
• A Growing Comfort Level with Video Communications
• The Greater Collaborative Experience with Video

Inexpensive Video Services Available on any Computer

With free, freemium and low cost access to video communications, more and more people are taking the plunge and communicating with friends and family over video. The new adoption of video within social media makes video calling extremely easy, eliminating the need for users to download and configure software. So just about anyone that wants to can join a service and start seeing the person on the other side. It might not be the “immersive” HD experience that expensive telepresence units have, but it sure beats voice only. And many of the “immersive” HD providers are beginning to offer extremely low cost personal clients for the home and office which could be expanded to handle video sessions for contact centers and important clients.

Smartphones with Front and Rear Cameras

Do you ever with you could just show someone your problem versus trying to describe it over the phone? This is where the smartphone can be your anytime, anywhere portal to your balky device, or stalled lawnmower or your impossible to understand assembly instructions. The shortage of strong reliable 3G and 4G/LTE signals plus the growing bandwidth charges and the throttling of bandwidth by mobility providers are potential roadblocks. But video from mobile devices is already happening and will grow to the point that it is as inexpensive as today’s voice only charges. If I can show you what is going on or what I want by pulling a smartphone out of my pocket, it just makes things easier for everybody. Customer satisfaction, first call resolution rates and speed of resolution will all be enhanced as mobile video integrates into the contact center.

Push Technologies to Computers and Mobile Devices

Mobile Push is already being used by contact centers for a variety of needs. Callers can download apps for specific contact center applications and the contact center agents can push interactive screens to the caller. Applications such as technical assistance for high end automotive mechanics and wholesale to retail product help are just two of the many applications that mobile push is doing right now. Interactive screens are easier for callers to deal with than traditional IVR’s and agents can provide greater interaction with the caller enabling them to solve issues quicker. Videos for a variety of purposes like instructional videos can be sent to mobile devices with or without agent interaction.
A video client compatible with the contact center could be utilized as a future offering for contact centers using mobile push technology. Video conference providers are beginning to offer low cost licenses for use by individuals beyond the enterprise network that are dynamic. These licenses can be used and reused repeatedly as long as you have enough to satisfy demand for them. In the future, agents may be able to send links to callers that integrate with video cloud providers to speed up the process of converting a voice only call to a collaborative video call.

A Growing Comfort Level with Video Communications

One of the factors slowing the adoption of video is the fact that many people are naturally camera shy. It is easy to meet with people and engage in a dialogue, but stick a camera in the mix and it gets to be daunting. This applies to contact center agents as well as the general public. With a little training, though, everyone can get over the first time video jitters and begin to work the camera like a pro. Plus, so many people are taking the plunge at home and in company conference rooms, that it is beginning to become second nature for a lot of people. As evidenced by the popularity of video sharing services, there is no shortage of people that are willing to use video to communicate. And the numbers are growing rapidly.
Evidence of video going mainstream is abundant in popular culture as well. Even Wendy’s encouraged people to shoot videos about Wendy’s sweet potato fries for their commercials. I must admit, I am more comfortable with video than with sweet potato fries. Then again, I have not tried sweet potato fries yet. Of course, product placements of desktop video and telepresence systems have been around for years. But, Lisa Kudrow’s hit Web Therapy takes it to a new level. Web Therapy is ninety percent shown as a computer screen video conference. And the show’s popularity as a web only offering prompted Showtime to pick it up and broadcast it with additional content. These are just a few examples of the growing acceptance of video communications.

The Greater Collaborative Experience with Video

A video call to the contact center can make a dramatic difference in customer and agent satisfaction. For the caller, you can see who you are talking to and get a better sense that your need is being addressed properly. If a caller is video enabled they can show a video enabled agent the reason they are calling and give an indication of what might need to be done for call resolution. The agent can benefit by quickly resolving issues and could gauge the possibility of up selling their caller. Plus, it is harder to yell at someone that you are looking at than it is on a voice only call. Instances of rudeness would be dramatically cut using video.

The millennial generation and upscale consumers of all generations have been using video for years now. These same demographics are also demanding quick resolution to their questions and issues. Many, perhaps most will change their buying habits after one poor experience with a contact center. So if you are company “A” and you have the capability to upgrade your contact center to include video to gain a competitive advantage against company “B”, it makes sense to do so before company “B” does it.

Final Thoughts

Some might argue that contact centers are not equipped to handle video because there is no current way to queue video callers and that there are few people that really want to communicate through video. This is much the same positioning used relative to social media integration into the contact center just a short time ago. Now that more and more contact center providers have the capability to effectively integrate social media into the contact center, the tune has changed. Now, social media integration is a “must have” for any company wanting to protect their image and effectively communicate with the public. Amazing how that perception has changed almost overnight, isn’t it?

So if you hear from contact center manufacturers or their pundits that video is not that important or too expensive or impractical or technologically unfeasible, rest assured that the R&D labs are currently working on it with breakneck speed. And when someone is ready to introduce video integration for the contact center, it will be important, inexpensive, practical, technologically feasible and a “must have” for any company wanting to effectively communicate with the public. And they will be right. After all, except for face to face contact, there is no better way to communicate than with video.

Source: http://insidecti.com/wordpress/implementation/the-future-of-video-in-the-contact-center/

Table of contents:

• Slide 01: Title
• Slide 02: VXI* About…
• Slide 03: Why VoiceXML
• Slide 04: VXI* Linux Packages
• Slide 05: VXI* 32bit/64bit
• Slide 06: Asterisk 1.4, 1.6, 1.8
• Slide 07: VXI* Update/Upgrade
• Slide 08: Hardware Servers
• Slide 09: Asterisk Telephony boards
• Slide 10: VXI* Cloud-Ready
• Slide 11: Xtras* Software Extensions
• Slide 12: Xtras* Text-to-Speech
• Slide 13: Xtras* Automatic-Speech-Recognition
• Slide 14: Xtras* MRCP Client
• Slide 15: Xtras* Outbound Dialer
• Slide 16: Xtras* Video IP/3G
• Slide 17: Xtras* Flash/RTMP Server Channel
• Slide 18: Xtras* Call Recorder MP4
• Slide 19: Xtras* IP Cameras RTSP
• Slide 20: 5 years of VXI* since 2006
• Slide 21: Thank you!

Entering 2012, we are please to announce a new important packaging update of the VXI* VoiceXML browser 6.3 release. First, we will provide more packages for most Linux OS kernels, base on Linux Debian and CentOS/Redhat distributions. Now, you can install VXI* on latest CentOS 6.0, 6.1, 6.2 kernels both 32bit or 64bit. By the way, the previous packages for CentOS 5 have been updated too.

Download all our packages:

• Debian 6.0 Squeeze 32bit | 64bit
• Debian 5.0 Lenny 32bit | 64bit
• CentOs 6.0-6.2 32bit | 64bit
• CentOs 5.4-5.7 32bit | 64bit

More information: http://www.i6net.com/downloads/

We are very pleased to present the 6.3 release ref. 2011-01-05 of our VXI* VoiceXML Browser for Asterisk. There’s improvements and new specific features that will provide you the best IVR / IVVR experience for your voice and video telephony projects. VXI* 6.3 is suitable for production platforms running with all latest Asterisk 1.4, 1.6, 1.8 kernels! (all Asterisk’s packages are available for download too). Now, our development team is working on the 7.0 release!

Many Linux OS Distributions versions available based on:

• Debian 6.0 Squeeze 32bit | 64bit
• Debian 5.0 Lenny 32bit | 64bit
• CentOs 6.0-6.2 32bit | 64bit
• CentOs 5.4-5.7 32bit | 64bit

You can download these new binary packages from this website for registered users.

Powered by I6NET Software

New features added and modifications:

• add: Support of date/time DTMF builtin grammars.
• add: Configuration parameter to disable to touch the entries (no write in the table).
• add: Support audio attributes maxage and maxstale.
• mod: Correction of the false VXI connection lost.
• add: Parameter monitorformat to set the monitor file format.
• mod: Support attribut expr in the tag grammar to evaluate the url (not standard).
• mod: Support attribut tag in the tag grammar (not standard).
• add: New transfer prefix “outgoing:”, better then the standard originate.

Thank you for your continuous support!

I6NET will be present at next GSM Mobile World Congress (formely 3GSM World Congress) Barcelona, 27 February – 1 March 2012, at French Pavilion UbiFrance on Hall 2, Booths 2F49 and 2E47.

The venue for Mobile World Congress, is located in Fira Montjuïc the centre of Barcelona:

Fira de Barcelona
Avinguda Reina Maria Cristina, s/n
08004 BARCELONA

To meet us, please send an email and select our company I6NET at ULEX‘s booth for a meeting during the congress with our managers.

About 3GSM Mobile World Congress

The GSMA Mobile World Congress (formerly 3GSM World Congress) combines the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry with a stimulating and insightful congress that brings together prominent leaders and personalities from mobile operators and equipment vendors, as well as Internet and entertainment professionals.

The 2012 Mobile World Congress – Barcelona is expected to attract approximately 50,000 attendees and 1.400 exhibitors, so don’t miss this unrivalled opportunity to conduct business, discuss the hottest trends in mobile communications, and help define the industry’s path to continued growth.

Official website: www.mobileworldcongress.com

Table of contents:

• Slide 01: Title
• Slide 02: Mission
• Slide 03: VXI* VoiceXML Browser
• Slide 04: Why Asterisk, The Open Source PBX
• Slide 05: Why VoiceXML
• Slide 06: 360º Voice & Video Solutions
• Slide 07: Management Team
• Slide 08: Partners and Customers
• Slide 09: Digium Partnership
• Slide 10: Support
• Slide 11: Datacenters
• Slide 12: Social Networks
• Slide 13: Thank you!

I6NET and Avanzada7 are business partners since 2008 providing many value added services and products for Asterisk’s platforms. Avanzada7′s online store is leading VoIP and Open Source Telephony products distribution in Spain, now offers VXI* software to deliver advanced IVR solutions for Asterisk powered by the VoiceXML open standard. The online store is expected to be of particular value to spanish and portuguese’s VAR’s who seek the convenience of online retailing for their projects’ needs.

More information:

http://www.avanzada7.com