Industry News

October 2008

ATA Favors FTC Amendment to Telemarketing Sales Rule

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced two amendments to the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR).  The amendments will clearly bar telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages unless a consumer previously has agreed to accept such calls from the seller, as well as technically modifying the TSR's method of calculating the maximum permissible level of "call abandonment." 

"We are pleased about the FTC's decision to measure abandonment rate on a thirty-day basis similar to the FCC," stated ATA CEO Tim Searcy.  "Although previous petitions stalled, subsequent comments and efforts by the ATA, in collaboration with the FTC, created a new opportunity to address the abandonment rate issue."

An outbound call is "abandoned' if a person answers it and is not connected with a sales representative within two seconds of the person's completed greeting.  Both the FCC and FTC prohibit abandonment at a rate of 3 percent; however, until the amendments today, they differed in their standard of measuring that 3 percent.  Beginning October 1, 2008, both the FCC and FTC's standard measures the 3 percent rate over a thirty-day period.

Reach ATA at 317- 816-9336.

Startel Announces New President

Bill Robertshaw, president of Bilrob, LLC, and owner of Startel Corporation, announced that William (Bill) Lane has been appointed as president of Startel Corporation.  Bill Lane, who has now relocated to Irvine, CA as of July 15th, replaced Bill Robertshaw who has been acting president of Startel since the acquisition February 1, 2008. 

"After conducting a national search that identified several superbly qualified candidates, I have decided that Bill Lane is the best choice to lead Startel Corporation into the future.  I am extremely excited that Bill Lane has joined Startel.  Bill brings a wealth of experience in customer service, software development, hi-tech sales, and marketing," said Robertshaw.  "Bill's leadership experience and business acumen have been put to the test on many occasions throughout his lengthy and broad-based career, and I am confident that he will be a great new asset to an already wonderful team at Startel." 

For more information, call 949-863-8714.

Professional Teledata Announces PI-Fax2

Professional Teledata announced the availability of PI-Fax2, the next generation fax delivery product for PI system and TBS billing users.  In the tradition of FMDS, the first and most successful fax delivery system in the telemessaging industry, PI-Fax2 offers new features, greater reliability, and updated technology than its predecessor product, PI-Fax.

In addition to providing seamless integration for the delivery of TBS billing invoices and PI orders, PI-Fax2 offers fax success tracking and management, a fax viewer, and the option of multiple modems.  PI-Fax2 is compatible with Terminal Server, Citrix, and Windows Vista.  Single port configurations of PI-Fax2 software are available at no charge all current users of PI and TBS.

For more information, contact Karen Black at 800-344-9944 x112 or kblack@proteledata.com.

Telescan's Prism Switch Integrates with CenturiSoft Voicemail System

Telescan announced the integration of their patented Spectrum Prism Digital Switch and the CenturiSoft Unified Communications System.  This blended approach of technologies provides more flexibility for telemessaging businesses that require more advanced call routing features such as follow-me, find-me, and time of day call routing.  The integration of both the Prism Digital Switch and the CenturiSoft voicemail system offers a cost-effective pass-through connection to the telephone network, using fewer ports, saving potentially thousands, and equipping Telescan users with more sophisticated call routing solutions for their clients.

"We finished testing the integration between the Telescan and the CenturiSoft Unified Communications System," reported John Robinson, president of Answering Service Inc. of Southfield, MI.  "I'm happy to say that everything works just like it should.  John Jones (of Telescan) did a splendid job of tweaking the software.  John Pope (of CenturiSoft) and John Jones got this done in record time.  This kind of service is what brought ASI to Telescan.  I want to thank Telescan and CenturiSoft for a job well done."

To find out more, call Patty Anderson at 314-616-2445.

Amtelco Infinity XDS VoIP Board Installation

ACT Teleservices, a division of AMAC Corporation, is the first to install an Amtelco XDS Technologies Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) board in an operational Amtelco Infinity call center system.  The 72 seat call center in Newington, CT added the VoIP board as the next step in the effort to VoIP enable their call center. Tom Gelbach, managing director of ACT Teleservices, said the plan is to VoIP-enable their local and remote operators, and to VoIP-enable their telephone trunks.

The latest release of the award-winning Infinity supports the XDS VoIP board, which eliminates the need for a third-party VoIP gateway.  The XDS VoIP board provides native VoIP switching directly within the Infinity server.  The XDS VoIP boards are available in multiple configurations ranging from 100 to 600 VoIP channels.  Each channel is the equivalent of an operator audio port or a telephone.

The XDS VoIP board also supports VoIP agents.  This can replace current hardwired and dial-up analog remote operators, eliminating the need for dedicated agent audio boards and cabling.  With Infinity software version 5.5, agent stations can now be implemented over the TCP/IP network.  This can be used for both local and remote agents connecting via the Internet.  Office telephones can also utilize VoIP as their base.

For more information on Amtelco's XDS VoIP Board, contact Amtelco at 800-356-9148 or info@amtelco.com.

Direct Line Grows Through Acquisition

Larry, Ruth, and Ken Goldenberg from Direct Line TeleResponse, located in Berkeley, California, have acquired all the accounts from Computel, Inc, a Bay area telemessaging service located in Santa Clara, California, with Robert Huff as its president.  The cutover of accounts was initiated in August and was almost seamless according to Ruth, who said, "Now that the phone company has released the lines to us, we're doing great…learning the ins and outs of our new accounts."  Their new PInnacle system was a tremendous advantage, allowing their current staff to get up to speed quickly as well as hire staff from Computel to work as remote agents.

 "We're happy to celebrate the growth of Direct Line," said Larry, who is also ATSI president-elect.  The transaction was handled by Steve and Chris Michaels from the brokerage firm of TAS Marketing, located in Trout Creek, Montana.

Contact TAS Marketing at 800-369-6126 or tas@tasmarketing.com.

ATA to Celebrate Twenty-Five Years at Upcoming Convention

The American Teleservices Association's (ATA) 2008 Convention at the Grand Hyatt on the River Walk in San Antonio will mark a milestone in ATA history: The association will celebrate its twenty-fifth year as they convene October 5-8, 2008.

"Over the course of the past twenty-five years, we have improved benefits which enhance business for our members, our industry has survived the Do Not Call legislation, our association has developed strategic relationships with the FCC, FTC, and other governing bodies, and we have strategically crafted self-regulatory standards and created the ATA Self-Regulatory Organization to support those standards," said ATA CEO Tim Searcy.

Content to highlight ICE -- the Ideal Customer Experience -- remains central to this year's convention.  The ATA-PAC, the association's political action committee, will host an entertainment/fund-raiser event.  The two-day schedule of educational seminars and networking events will be followed by a day of philanthropy as the ATA launches its first national Call Centers Care project, working with Habitat for Humanity.  Keynote speakers are Mickey Alam Khan, Michael Abbott, and David James.

OrecX Debuts Open Source VoIP Recording Technology

OrecX LLC, a provider of open source voice recording applications, debuted its Oreka Total Recording (TR) software solution for customer service management professionals.  Oreka TR allows organizations to comply with regulatory requirements and improve customer service by recording and retrieving phone calls without disrupting operations, exhausting annual budgets, or paying for extra implementation services.  The open source platform allows for all-call, on-demand, or selective recording, while providing managers with options for live call monitoring.

"We've created a platform that can be indexed by time, agent/employee, date, and a variety of other fields, facilitating hassle-free and instantaneous record retention, search, and retrieval," said Bruce Kaskey, cofounder of OrecX.  "The advantages of open source lie in increased flexibility, lower cost, and better value for the customer."

Oreka TR works by recording VoIP SIP sessions and passively listening to network packets.  Both ends of the conversation are mixed together, and each call is logged as a separate audio file.  The recording is logged by using a standard sound device and can record multiple channels at the same time, storing each recording as a separate audio file.