Implementing traditional voice mail using analog CTI boards is quite tricky. If the switch of EPABX does not support certain features, than it is almost impossible to implement traditional voice mail system with traditional operation. The major issue is finding out information of caller ID.

In a traditional voice mail system as I explained in the previous post, Voice Mail System and Answering Machine, it becomes difficult to provide two caller ID to the voice mail system. For example, C is the extension line to which voice mail system connected. Now if A calls B, B does not pick up so needs to transfer the call to C. So now C needs both caller ID, A and B, in order to store voice mails of B from A.

Voice Mail System using analog CTI board:

Voice mail systems are built in with EPABX or telephone exchanges. One can build a Voice Mail System using a simple 4-port analog CTI board and a PC. To build voice mail system, one will need the following hardware:-
1. A PC with one PCI slot free to install the analog CTI board.
2. Operating System to be installed on the PC as per driver availability for the CTI board. I think, only Dialogic provides driver for multiple or all operating systems for its CTI boards.
3. A database. Microsoft Access is a good option for Windows based PC and smaller voice mail systems. For large voice mail systems, either MS SQL or Oracle is recommended.
4. One 4 port CTI board
5. Four telephone lines of extension lines of EPABX
5. VMS software
VMS software is nothing but an IVR application which will record voice with caller ID and time stamp. And it will also playback the recorded voice messages as per owner or recipient of the voice mail messages over telephone. The recipient of the voice mail can also manage his messages like delete, purge etc.

Now, how to solve the the caller ID problem ?
The simplest way is to program the EPABX such a way that, when B ( as per above scenario) dos not reply, call A should be forwarded to C with caller ID of both A and B clubbed together with # as separator between the two! But, does the EPABX support this kind of intelligent programming ? If it does not, than most probably, you can not implement a voice mail system using analog card. You will have to use a digital CTI board where you will get these information easily. SS7 is the best as you get maximum information about the call.

There are few work around. For example :-

1. To ask the caller enter his number using DTMF. It may be little difficult for the caller and time consuming, but it is good option.

2. Map every voice mail account to every port of the analog CTI board. For example, port 1 of the CTI board will record messages only for B as in example above. This will requre some programming in the EPABX, but this is workable solution. The only problem will be future increase of number of users! But if number of voice mail users is large, one should never opt for analog CTI board!

Actually, implementing voice mail system using CTI board and IVR software has many advantages over built in VMS in the EPABX. For example :-

1. Customisation
Customization of voice mail system become much easier. New prompts, call flow of voice mail can be changed, upgraded much easier and quicker.

2. Many enhancements and features
Many enhancements and features could be added to voice mail system. For example, as soon as a voice mail is received for particular VMS user, SMS alert can be sent to him. Email alert along with the voice message itself could be sent to him immediately. In fact, it can be integrated with outbound IVR System which will dial out to the voice mail user, play the mail, give options to reply! This kind of simple application was marketed in India as voice SMS quite successfully by many mobile operators!

3. Stored voice mail can be hard by local LAN as well as remotely over telephone. Better MIS and usability can be increased.

So, voice mail system with CTI board and smart IVR application can add many enhancements, killer features to any voice mail system. UMS ( Unified messaging system) is an example of such application.

Without doubt, interactive voice response (IVR) has become the ubiquitous technology in telecommunications applications. IVR solutions have a myriad of uses that are mostly taken for granted, however, the essence of an IVR system is its ability to offer ‘self-service’ for the user, thus it can help to reduce cost and improve the customer experience.

Since introducing the world’s first ‘all-in-one’ voice board in 1998, Aculab has been setting the standard of enabling technology components – e.g., CTI cards – for IVR applications. Whatever your needs for advanced IVR functionality, Aculab has the media processing technology and APIs – voice, fax, call progress, etc. – to drive your success.

Beneficially, Aculab is able to offer a choice; from its range of IP-centric, DSP-based Prosody X boards to its host-based (SoftDSP or HMP) option, Prosody S. And you can use Prosody X for converged or mixed IP/TDM environments, where you still need E1 or T1 PSTN connectivity.

Additionally, Aculab\’s VoiceXML/CCXML interpreter set offers a powerful and scalable design option for platform vendors and service providers alike. It is the fastest, most cost-effective, high performance solution available today, which is an effective combination in any language.

IVR system features and capacities vary depending on the market segments they target. Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) may look to enhance their IP-PBX with an IVR-based auto-attendant using Prosody S, while larger companies will require a Prosody X board-based solution for a hybrid contact centre or voice portal, perhaps also using automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS). Carriers and service providers need IVR to provide a wide range of subscriber messaging and large scale, hosted or VAS and mobile VAS service offerings. And, undoubtedly, TEMs (of all descriptions; Tier 1, Tier 2, etc.) and platform vendors supplying these user communities will also benefit from Aculab’s board and software options.

Check out Aculab at http://www.aculab.com/solutions/IVR-solutions.asp

Many people seem to confuse with IVRS and Auto-attendant and Answering Machine!

Though  Auto attendant and Answering Machine may be compared, but comparing IVRS with either of them is comparing armored vehicle with F-117! ( Hope I have given the right analogy.:) ), they have similarities but they have major difference in usage, scale and features.

What is IVRS, to know one can read What is IVRS, a previous article in this blog.  Or one can search in Yahoo or Google or Wikipedia. And here are few differences I am listing:-

1. Auto Attendant attends a call, and can transfer a call to extension as per caller dialing. IVRS can do all these too. But IVRS can retrieve data and playback information which Auto Attendant can not do! Answering Machine normally has one prompt which gets played after certain number of rings if the calls go unattended, and record a message from the caller. Also it plays back the recorded messages. These are the functons of Answering Machine.

2. IVRS is very smart and intelligent system while, Auto Attendant and Answering Machines can not be said to have any intelligence! They do few things as per pre-programmed! IVRS has vast applications! It has not applications in almost every industrial sectors including pharmaceutical  research activities too.

3. IVRS can work like an answering machine or auto attendant, but they can not work like an IVRS apart from the above tasks!

4. IVRS can work like a voice portal while no one can even imagine auto attendant or answering machine to work like voice portal.

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5. Auto Attendant and answering machine are low cost equipment, normally built in phone instrument or EPABX. While IVRS requires Server Class PCs to run, costly CTI cards and costly software engineers. Also IVRS can have few dedicated IVRS blogs, while I doubt if auto attendant or answering machine will have more than 2/3 pages in some websites.

6. Auto Attendant and Answering Machine has limited configurations and limited recording options, IVRS has almost unlimited applications and configurations!

I hope these six reasons should be enough to convince anyone the difference between IVRS, Auto Attendant and Answering Machine! There is a Voice mail System too which is a CTI application again, but a single function of storing recorded message! So, one can think of Voice Mail System (VMS) as a one kind of IVR Application .