talkbase Blog

Sometimes it seems as if there is only Skype for Business. Skype for Business here, Skype for Business there, Skype for Business everywhere. But what do the other applications actually do? But do they even exist? Of course, they do. Take Cisco, for example, which has for some time been prominently marketing its equivalent to Microsoft Teams: Cisco Spark. Heard of it?

Session Initiation Protocol – SIP for short – is a modern communication protocol which is currently widely used in audio and video communications. What is special about it and how does it work?

Analog telephony

Not too long ago, telephony was only analog. This required switching though a cable connection from the caller to the person called, which was maintained until the end of the call. Voice data was transmitted in both directions via this connection using analog technology, and signaling for call setup, call tones and ring tones and call termination was carried out with what at that time were relatively sophisticated methods. However, a separate connection was required for each call.

Are you still using a conventional desktop phone at your workplace which is connected to a conventional telephone outlet? Hardly likely. You are also probably already working with a modern IP set or even a so-called soft client. For a huge technological change is taking place, where pure telephone networks are disappearing and instead, telephony is being shifted to the computer network. This change also calls for a new technology for audio communication, which has become known as Voice over IP. This article sheds light on the key aspects of this modern technology.

As previously summarized in one of my blogs, there are major differences in terms of architecture between today's attendant solutions. The three present-day architectures are attendant solutions without a server, server-based and web-based attendant solutions.

Today I would like to discuss web-based attendant solutions. These attendant solutions shift the user interfaces to web browsers and therefore introduce a technological change. 

Have you already noticed that there are big differences with regard to architecture in current attendant solutions? This article highlights the key differences of the various architectures and the resulting possibilities for companies who make use of them and for their attendants.

WebRTC is a technology which allows audio and video connections to be established directly from Internet browsers. It was published by Google in 2011 as an open source project and since then has been constantly developed further and standardized. This technology is integrated in modern browsers such as Opera, Chrome and Firefox. And because it enables communication without the need for any other devices, it is becoming increasingly popular; the browser only needs access to the headset. There is no need to install any soft phones or desktop phones. But how does WebRTC actually work?

As is often the case, there is also some confusion with regard to terminology in the field of call handling. The many technical terms, although precise to some extent, don't exactly make life easy. What are the names of the solutions I am looking for? What do I have to Google to find them? What features do they include? What do I actually need? In this article I will highlight the differences between attendant console, call center and contact center.

Put differently, does your company have a critical need to be available 24/7? Imagine, you are a healthcare organization that isn’t reachable in case of emergency or a bank that isn’t able to deal with transactions requested from their customers. The consequences of a potential outage could be disastrous. Therefore, redundant system components are a must for many businesses around the world and that also includes the operator consoles, also known as attendant solutions.