In September 2017 Startel and Professional Teledata (PTD) merged with Alston Tascom (Tascom) to further expand product offerings, broaden markets, and enhance technical resources and expertise. Since then it’s been full speed ahead.

Over the last several months, the combined company has unveiled a new unified brand and revamped website, launched new customer resources, welcomed a new chief customer officer, formed a unified product advisory board, and successfully completed a HIPAA assessment.

These initiatives support the combined companies’ commitment to deliver greater value to their customers, employees, and the contact center industry.

Greater Value through a Unified Brand

Startel, PTD, and Tascom revealed their new unified brand and revamped website to users at their first combined user group conference in April.

The new branding follows Startel’s 2015 merger with PTD and 2017 merger with Tascom. The new brand is visually represented by uniting all three company logos and includes the addition of “Powered by Startel” to the PTD and Tascom logos.

In conjunction with the new visual branding, content previously found on three separate company websites is now located on a unified site: startel.com. The website includes all product information, a timeline of the combined companies’ history, and an overview of the three user groups.

Startel, PTD, and Tascom’s president and CEO, Brian Stewart, believes the new unified brand will go a long way to reinforce the company’s unity and communicate their efforts.

Greater Value through Unified Customer Service

Appointment of a New CCO: Startel, PTD, and Tascom proudly announced the addition of a new senior-level management position in May when Renita Dorty joined the company as chief customer officer (CCO).

Dorty is responsible for all aspects of the company’s customer service strategies and will provide a comprehensive view of the user experience to create initiatives focused on maximizing customer retention, developing more efficient processes, and facilitating client communications.

Dorty has more than thirteen years of experience in the contact center and telephone answering service industry, most recently as the executive vice president of Nationwide Inbound Inc., a full-service customer contact center that provides telephone services and live customer support for businesses across North America.

Having worked with Dorty at Nationwide Inbound, Stewart knew that her unique qualifications made her the perfect fit for this new role. “She is a highly skilled management and operations professional and has a strong background in the customer service industry. We are thrilled to have her join the team at this exciting time in the development of the unified companies,” continued Stewart.

Since joining the team, Dorty has standardized the company’s process for call handling, implemented a new monthly Tech Tips newsletter for customers, and is leading the charge on unifying departments, projects, and procedures.

Launch of a New Marketing Resources Center: The combined company recently launched a Marketing Resources Center, making promotional materials available to its customers. The Marketing Resources Center is a web-based repository housing a variety of promotional videos, flyers, infographics, and user guides that can be branded for use by the companies’ clients to promote the solutions and services provided by their contact center.

The Marketing Resources Center came to fruition by request of customers. After receiving requests for assistance to help them sell their services and provide them with tools to assist them in doing so, Startel, PTD, and Tascom are thrilled to offer this needed and value-added service to all its customers.

Launch of a New Customer Portal: The combined company unveiled a new customer portal, The Customer Spot (TCS), at the user group conference in April. TCS allows Startel, PTD, and Tascom clients to open new support cases, track existing cases, and view the status of all cases associated with their account. Users can also access a knowledge base of product information, manage their account, and stay current on company and product updates.

Stewart believes that sharing the company’s resources and knowledge is the key to helping its customers achieve greater success with their software solutions. “Given the nature of the contact center industry and the fact that the company’s customers are located around the world, it is essential that we provide users with one central platform that they can access 24/7 at their convenience,” said Stewart.

Since its launch, several hundred Startel, PTD, and Tascom customers are now taking advantage of TCS. The company plans to further expand The Customer Spot’s self-service functionalities to ensure that its customers have everything they need to be successful.

Greater Value through a Unified Product Strategy

Startel, PTD, and Tascom have formed a unified Product Advisory Board (PAB) consisting of twelve individuals selected to represent each of the company’s respective user groups. The primary responsibility of PAB members is to provide input related to the combined company’s strategic product planning.

“Our vision of the PAB is to have customers share how they are using our products in the real world and for the company to share with PAB members our current plans and future directions,” said Stewart.

Startel, PTD, and Tascom are working with the unified PAB to help set future product direction. Feedback generated from the PAB will assist the company in building the next generation of products.

Greater Value through Unified Security Measures

In April, Startel and PTD successfully completed their HIPAA assessment. This marks Startel’s fourth and PTD’s first assessment for HIPAA compliance which reinforces the companies’ commitment to protecting consumer data and privacy.

SecurityMetrics, a global leader in data security and compliance, performed the third-party compliance assessment. Following an evaluation of Startel and PTD’s office locations, data centers, and software solutions, SecurityMetrics determined that the companies’ implemented policies and procedures fulfilled their obligations under HIPAA and HITECH. Both companies received scores of 100 percent for compliance posture of administrative, physical, and technical safeguards as well as organizational requirements. Next year’s HIPAA/HITECH assessment will include Tascom and its operating environment, data center, and solutions.

“HIPAA security and compliance are top priorities for us,” said Stewart. “We look forward to continuing to deliver contact center solutions and services that help our customers grow their business and safeguard electronic protected health information.”

What’s Next for the Combined Company?

In July, the company kicked off a four-part webinar series focusing on providing its users with an overview of the strengths and unique features of each company’s platform. Each presentation includes perspectives from users as well as product experts from the respective company. The fourth and final webinar of the series, which is scheduled for mid-September, focuses on what’s next as the companies continues to work together on a unified product roadmap.

The theme of unification will carry on as the combined company delivers on its commitment to provide greater value across the board to its customers, employees, and the contact center industry.

To discover more about Startel, PTD, and Tascom solutions, visit www.startel.com or call 800-782-7835.

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OnviSource’s mission is to empower enterprises and contact centers in their digital transformation. To do this, they offer cost effective, automated solutions in customer experience management (CXM), process automation, and self-service.

This mission is the basis for OnviSource’s introduction of ia.Enterprise™, a comprehensive set of intelligently automated solutions to directly assist enterprises in their digital transformation. OnviSource’s breakthrough is solutions in intelligent automation (IA) using digital transformation strategies.

Digital Transformation

Enterprises strive to develop long-lasting, positive customer experiences with customers. However, enterprises face major challenges with today’s connected, mobile, and demanding customers. They have other options if they aren’t satisfied. Customers use multiple assisted or self-service channels, including phone, email, chat, website, and social media. They expect seamless, prompt, and quality service.

Improving productivity and reducing costs are major initiatives. The top three are customer satisfaction, productivity improvement, and self-service. To pursue these initiatives, companies must adopt a new strategy: digital transformation. This embodies major changes based on four fundamental transformations: developing a digital DNA culture, designing new business models, moving to data-driven processes and decision-making, and implementing emerging, digital technologies.

OnviSource’s ia.Enterprise empowers companies in their digital transformation by delivering cost-effective, comprehensive, automated solutions. It manages all customer touch points and engagement before, during, and after service, which delivers solutions for the top three service goals.

OnviSource ia.Enterprise Solutions

ia.Enterprise offers a broad range of solutions in customer experience management (AAIRR™, Intellecta™, Inspecta™, OnviCom™, and OnviForce™), automation (Automata™), and self-service (Liaa™).

Customer Experience Management

AAIRR (automated, adaptive, intelligent real-time routing) optimizes service routing by first automatically capturing all critical data from all entities engaged in the service routing. This includes network routing elements, ACDs, IVRs, PBXs, and service centers capacity, skill sets, or capabilities. It analyzes these key performance indicators in real time using advanced analytics and decision-making engines. This provides actionable knowledge on how and where to route the customer service request. Finally, it automatically routes the customer service request to the most optimized supplier of the service.

Intellecta lets companies intelligently unify and analyze 100 percent of data and media from all customer engagement channels. This includes calls, email, chat, surveys, and social media mentions. It then generates valuable information and actionable knowledge, followed by automatically making decisions and launching actions. The results assist enterprises to proactively improve customer interactions, agent performance, compliance management, and back-office transactions.

Powered by iMachine, Intellecta is an advanced set of voice intelligence engines, multichannel analytics, decision-making engines, and automation capabilities. Intellecta can interface with call recording systems from OnviSource or other vendors.

Inspecta provides all-inclusive, intelligent enterprise feedback management, powered by analytics and insightful reports. Inspecta’s capabilities include multichannel inbound-outbound communications; surveys, inquiries, and notifications; and analytics.

OnviCom delivers an all-inclusive, next-generation, software-based, affordable teleservice solutions. Applications include telephony, teleservice, answering service, dispatch, multimedia messaging (email, fax, and SMS), and HIPAA-compliant secure messaging. It also offers call recording, screen capture, and agent quality assurance. OnviCom fully integrates with Intellecta and Inspecta. It can interface to PRI, T1, VoIP, and SIP trunking. OnviCom can provide least cost routing and intermachine trunking to reduce telecom expenses.

OnviForce WFO and WFM: OnviSource’s workforce optimization (WFO) suite of solutions offer multimedia capture, recording, and monitoring of calls and desktop screens. Users can process 100 percent of their calls, create custom reports, and automatically distribute recordings and information. They can also manage media files and recorded calls, remain PCI-compliant, and integrate with telecom products and telephony platforms. A final feature is conducting quality assurance evaluations.

OnviSource’s next-generation workforce management (WFM), Persona™, uses information from multiple sources. These include calls, chat, email, and back-office workload. This prepares dynamic skill sets for optimized workforce scheduling. Persona offers a comprehensive set of features in forecasting and scheduling.

Automation

Automata provides intelligent process automation for a variety of enterprise tasks and functions. The result is a significant improvement in productivity and cost reduction. It also eliminates human error, latency in task completion, and process deficiency. Automata capabilities are robotic process automation, intelligent process automation, and workflow automation.

Self Service

Liaa is an AI-driven, automated chatbot (intelligent virtual agent). It allows a significant reduction in payroll expenses, faster response and resolution times, and a reduction in employee stress and burnout. It is a self-learning system with unlimited and rapid access to knowledge, predictive and proactive support, and interaction via text or voice. Liaa increases the productivity of customer service teams.

When combined with Inspecta and Intellecta, Liaa provides a major differentiator due to its intrinsic AI model. An important aspect of an AI engine is its ability to learn through examples. Like the human brain, the more relevant examples provided to an AI engine and its learning machine, the better. This delivers a more intelligent performance.

In most AI-driven products, relevant examples are manually prepared and fed to the AI engine. However, OnviSource offers an integrated environment. In this environment, the AI engines automatically and continuously receive relevant examples. These come from other parts of the OnviSource solutions that analyze customer engagement and customer interactions. Hence, they produce valuable and updated examples for the AI’s learning machine. This makes ia.Enterprise AI engines more intelligent in performing tasks.

ia.Enterprise Architecture

ia.Enterprise solutions require a powerful architecture. This supports advanced analytics, emerging technologies for visualization and reports, multimedia environments, and support for flexible delivery models of on-premise, SaaS/cloud, or hybrid solutions. There are four layers.

Layer 1—OnviCenter 8 Platform: OnviCenter 8 is an advanced software platform that can support the deployment of OnviSource’s new IA solutions for a broad range of enterprise and contact center functions related to CXM, automation, and self-service. It also supports and complies with the industry’s latest security measures, operating systems, user management, media players, browsers, LDAP, and database products. This enables users to tap advance technologies and security capabilities. It is highly scalable and can support the deployment of solutions as on-premise, cloud-based, or both.

Layer 2—Big Data: Layer 2 provides a broad range of functions to capture and manage big data. It interfaces and interacts with enterprise entities such as telecom systems, CRM, databases, and ERP applications. Next it captures and records in a multichannel format, such as call recording, screen capture, or interaction with Salesforce.com. Third, it unifies and organizes the data and media. Then it categorizes the data based on topics and other criteria. Lastly, it prepares and presents data to the next layer.

Layer 3—iMachine: OnviSource created the nucleus of intelligent automation, iMachine™, with an intrinsic AI capability. It consists of voice intelligence engines, advanced analytics, and AI-driven bots. It also has NLU and dialog management, plus an adaptive learning machine with decision-making engines. This powerful, all-inclusive intelligent automation nucleus is the core for all ia.Enterprise solutions.

Layer 4—Application: This layer offers a broad range of ia.Enterprise applications in CXM, automation, and self-service. This includes AAIRR, Intellecta, Inspecta, OnviCom, OnviForce, Automata, and Liaa.

Advantage Plus Program

OnviSource understands the complexity and challenge customers face when applying analytics and automation to their operation and generating true ROIs while meeting all aspects of their operational and business needs. To this point, OnviSource offers Advantage Plus, a customer-centric program for pre- and post-sale needs.

Pre-sale initiatives include free consultation, free proof-of-concept analyses to prove solution applicability and ROI, and a no-obligation expectation. Post-sale initiatives include a flexible delivery model and free thirty-day operation assistance.

OnviSource Equipment Owners Association

OnviSource is a proud sponsor of the OnviSource Equipment Owners (OEO) association user group. OEO members are users of OnviSource products. They seek to strengthen their investment in OnviSource’s solutions in a true member-vendor partnership. This relationship continues to strengthen the company’s ability to serve its customers with their technology needs. OEO also sponsors training webinars and an annual association event.

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American Tel-A-Systems, better known as Amtelco, focuses on providing call center solutions that meet or exceed customer expectations, backed by top-notch service and support.

Millions of telephone calls and messages are processed every day by Amtelco systems and software in operation in all fifty of the United States and more than twenty foreign countries.

By working closely with customers, Amtelco continues to develop innovative features and products to enhance experiences and boost profitability for their customers.

Partnering with Customers

Since the company’s founding in 1976, Amtelco has focused on working closely with customers to advance telecommunication solutions.

Amtelco works closely with both the National Amtelco Equipment Owners (NAEO) group and the Telescan User Network (TUNe) group to advance not only Amtelco and Telescan solutions but the industry as a whole. Both NAEO and TUNe meet annually to network with peers and collaborate with Amtelco and Telescan leaders and software developers. In addition to attending the annual meetings, Amtelco hosts webinars for both groups and participates in several committees, including the NAEO Future Direction Committee, which focuses on educating the members on industry trends and Amtelco software advancements for use by NAEO members.

The Future of Call Center Software

Genesis is the next generation of Amtelco’s Infinity automatic call distribution (ACD) and unified messaging system. Genesis is a software-only platform with the powerful features and benefits of the Intelligence Series (IS) and adds software-based switching, multichannel skills-based ACD, call logging, voicemail, and conferencing to provide a single software platform for all call center functions.

According to Theron J. Mossholder, member of NAEO’s board of directors and NAEO past president, “Genesis allows us to have a fully virtualized infrastructure giving us the ability to utilize AWS (Amazon Web Services) as our IaaS (infrastructure as a service). We no longer have the need for numerous physical servers on-site nor the needed IT staff to support those servers. Having the entire Intelligent Series and Genesis platform now virtualized in AWS, we have the full use of the AWS infrastructure, services and, most importantly, redundancy that we need as a 24/7/365 service provider.”

This all-inclusive call center software suite improves call routing and management, saves time with customizable reporting and audit functions, and enhances accountability with call logging and video capture. It also connects remote agents and simplifies on-call and workforce scheduling.

Cloud-Based and Virtual Call Center Technology

Call centers can take advantage of running Genesis in a virtual server environment or in the cloud. Virtual servers allow a call center to grow without adding additional hardware—saving time and money because there’s less equipment to buy and maintain. Large companies with multiple locations and call centers can run on a single virtual server located anywhere in the country—even if they all use different PBX telephone systems.

Cloud deployment moves the call center platform to a cloud provider such as Amazon or Microsoft. This shifts the responsibility for server management to the cloud provider.

Secure Text Messaging App

Amtelco provides secure messaging via smart devices with the miSecureMessages app. Regular SMS or text messages are stored on mobile devices and can be viewed by a third party. With miSecureMessages, encrypted messages aren’t stored on a person’s device. Unique passcodes, fingerprint access technology, and remote disabling are additional safety features.

Android and Apple mobile devices, as well as personal computers, can use miSecureMessages. Users can send text, photo, video, and audio files. There is also a voice-to-text mode, so a person can speak a message into their device and it automatically converts into text.

Bridging the Gap

MergeComm is an automated dispatch and systems integration engine that elevates the capabilities of the Intelligent Series by adding automation to become a bridge between technologies.

MergeComm reduces errors and saves labor by automating inbound message and outbound dispatch activities. MergeComm enables receiving inbound messages via email, web service API, SMS text message, TAP page, WCTP page, HL7 record from an EMR platform, and phone calls. It also automates outbound dispatching with automated retries, escalations, and dispatching for individuals and groups.

Complex Call Center Applications Made Simple

Simplification can have a big impact on the success and profitability of any business, but it has a significant impact on call centers, which are very labor-intensive. As time has progressed, the complexity of call center applications has grown and so has the time it takes to train agents and administer those applications.

Amtelco has identified four key call center areas that are simplified and streamlined with the help of Genesis:

1. System and client administration
2. Agent interface
3. Web interface
4. System maintenance

One of the benefits Genesis offers is the consolidation of system and client administration. Using an administrative process based entirely on Amtelco’s IS Supervisor allows all system software administration to be performed in a single application, eliminating confusion and repetitive data entry steps. This greatly reduces the time it takes to administer and activate new clients, generating revenue sooner than previously possible.

The agent interface used in Genesis is designed to be intuitive to minimize training, increase efficiency, and reduce errors. This is accomplished through a customizable presentation that is both keyboard- and mouse-friendly. Agents can connect to calls with a keyboard shortcut, the home screen can show any helpful tools and information, and the toolbar menu has quick access buttons for common functions.

Call center applications and data can extend beyond the call center with web and mobile interfaces. With its internet connections, Genesis provides a single point of access for all call center applications and data. This includes access to call recordings and screen captures, as well as the ability to view and initiate messages and access directories. It also provides the ability to update on-call schedules, perform status updates, and run reports. Users with smartphones and tablets can navigate the screens just as easily as desktop users. The presentation of data and applications can be tailored to each user with a customizable home screen layout of widgets. This provides each user with a streamlined interface, specific to their needs.

Genesis has an integrated event manager for monitoring and managing system events within IS Supervisor. All system events are available in the event manager, eliminating the need for a separate print capture-type application. Genesis also provides trunk configuration and diagnostics from within its configuration manager component of IS Supervisor. This allows access to troubleshooting information that previously was available only to Amtelco Field Engineering personnel via the Infinity diagnostic port.

Amtelco’s Commitment to Better Call Center Solutions

Amtelco’s revolutionary products continue to make a big impact on people’s lives. They are committed to continually improve their Intelligent Series to reduce complexity, streamline the agent interface, simplify system administration, and reduce maintenance overhead and costs.

For more information go to callcenter.amtelco.com or email info@amtelco.com.

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Szeto Technologies is a manufacturer specializing in developing equipment for telephone switching and voice and data communication. For over thirty years it has provided technical solutions for the answering service industry to automate and enhance service offerings. 

Open Source: Its latest products include the SSS-100 Call Linx, a Linux-based system with an internal built-in Asterisk telephone switch. Linux, being an open-source operating system, is reliable, secure, and constantly maintained by thousands of technical users worldwide. Its license-free availability makes this operating system very cost-effective.

Asterisk, being a Linux-based telephone switching software, harmoniously forms a natural bond with Call Linx with its internal built-in voice logger and VoIP SIP trunk capabilities. Szeto has integrated Asterisk software seamlessly with its Call Linx TAS system.

Innovative Solutions: Call Linx comprises local and remote work stations, which are connected to active, redundant servers via a computer network. Functions and features are always designed with an architecture that emphasizes redundancy, reliability, capability, and flexibility, the main criteria for a service-provider system.

As telephony, computer, and internet technologies evolve, Szeto relentlessly experiments and develops new features and functions for its products, as well as tools to help its customers stay ahead of their competitors. These capabilities help Szeto users streamline operations and diversify revenue streams. Sometimes they are custom-fit to a user’s specific requirements; other times they are separate modules that create new service offerings.

Szeto products offer turnkey solutions. Users of its equipment include a vast variety of industries: telephone answering services, call centers, radio-paging services, airlines, and the U. S. military.

Powerful Design: The Szeto Call Linx TAS system is designed with reliability, flexibility, and user-friendliness, where all human interface is conducted via graphical tables in window-style displays. All functions are easy to navigate. No command keys need to be remembered. Auto-fill technique keeps typing at a minimum.

Call Linx has many expanded features to reduce the stress in telephone answering, not only making the task pleasant and enjoyable, but most importantly minimizing errors and ensuring service reliability. Its fully integrated and versatile Linx scripting, OnCall reminder, and built-in appointment features, coupled with automatic “chain deliveries” and many automatic functions, form a powerful system.

Evolving Technology: The technology behind telephone answering services has changed in the past thirty years. While answering calls, taking messages, and delivering information continues to be the basic service offered, the nature of how this service is handled has changed considerably. Computer technology has given rise to service automation. The widely accessible internet has fueled market expansion.

The major characteristic of Szeto Technologies can be summed up in one word: customization.

Streamlined Operation: Call Linx provides many automatic functions to relieve operators from manual executions of routine functions. This is especially valuable during high rush-hour traffic. These functions are designed to improve work quality and reduce operator workload. Some examples are:

• Automatic verification of call-forwarding lines and confirmation of forwarding calls
• Automatic identification of subscriber calls to operators
• Automatic telephone line audit to assure the phone lines are working properly
• Automatic follow-up calls and reminders
• Automatic inhibition of call recording during credit card entry

Call Linx also provides many automatic functions to facilitate call processing and message delivery efficiencies. It helps to decrease operator training time, minimize typing errors, and increase delivery accuracy. Some examples are:

• Auto-fill for “repeat entry” in scripted processing
• Auto-fill entries based on caller profile
• Auto conditional call branching based on caller answer
• Automatic selection of message recipient dynamically from on call lists
• Automatic web launch
• Order entry and nearest dealer locator

Secured Messaging: Information security and privacy has become a major concern to clients using answering services, especially for the medical professions with the need to ensure HIPAA compliance. Szeto Technologies offers bidirectional secured message mobile apps under a generic label (with a Szeto designed icon) or a private label (with a unique icon dedicated specifically to the call center).

Software for both options resides in the customer’s equipment and is solely owned by the call center. Key features include:

• Bidirectional service operators-to-users and users-to-users among groups
• Speedy operation coupled with cell battery conservation
• User and operator reminders for unread messages after timeout
• Message transactions logged for traceability
• Mobile APP locked for added security
• User-defined quantity and duration of message retention in the device
• Personalized ringtone for certain models of cell phones
• Multiple recipients and contact groups for message broadcast
• Option for delayed message delivery
• Note attachments with transmitted messages

To ensure the flexibility of services in the offering of secured-message service, Szeto Technologies also provides software interfaces to third-party providers (TigerText, OnPage, eVigil, DocHalo, and SecureBridge) via specially designed APIs (application program interface).

Summary: The digital communications and internet world is continuously developing new technologies and protocols. The engineering team at Szeto Technologies is committed to keeping their clients ahead in this ever-changing industry. Szeto firmly believes that every piece of equipment its customers use should be oriented to their unique business needs. All Szeto products are customizable and flexible. They are designed to be simple to use, smart in functions, and cost-effective.

For additional information please contact them at info@szeto.ca or 877-MY-SZETO (877-697-9386).

Many years ago AT&T contracted with Alston to build a telephone answering system they could install in their central offices. Tascom built that system. However, the business portion of the deal fell through, so Alston had a system with no customers. They then decided to sell the Tascom system directly to end users. The first Tascom system was installed in 1980.

It was a thirty-two-seat Tascom redundant system, and for many years Tascom dominated the large system market. Tascom was the system most everyone wanted—it was considered the Cadillac of the industry. Today, Tascom’s largest system is over one hundred seats, far larger than the thirty-two seats in the early days. Call center systems are at the heart of the information age and will remain an intricate part of information distribution for small businesses for many years to come.

Tascom technology goes beyond the systems that helped start the information age. All Tascom systems are a seamless design of Microsoft™ SQL database and Asterisk softswitch and have the following feature tools in common: http and native SIP connections for all system communication (trunk, operator, and internal), HIPAA compliance, monitoring of operators to train and improve callers’ experience, and client web to enable customers to manage their own accounts to the degree allowed, such as handling their own on-call schedule.

Tascom ADAM (Alston Developed Asterisk Machine) is their full-featured large premise-based system. One of the special things about ADAM is that the communication is accomplished through http, which makes configuration easy because the stations communicate to a web server. Their wallboard apps are web accessible, making it easy to see what ADAM is doing.

ADAM in its purest software configuration has only a LAN connection. Virtually everything is possible because it is all programmable.

Tascom-Express, also a premise-based system, is for answering services with a smaller client base that still want to provide top-tier service at prices affordable for small businesses. Tascom-Express has virtually everything the large ADAM system incorporates, with some space and size limitations (up to eight seats).

Tascom’s hosted system installed its first two clients in 2006 and continues to service numerous businesses in multiple states on their multi-tenant hosted platform. The hosted system is like a large office building that leases office space to businesses. In this case, the flexible Tascom hosted platform leases system space to call centers and tele-messaging businesses. The space is measured by the number of operator seats or workstations wanted.

The hosted system has all the essential features as their premises ADAM or Tascom-Express system, with a few restrictions that Tascom personnel perform for their clients due to access security. They have a true multi-tenant hosted platform; customers do not buy a system.

Tascom follows the same model as most other hosting industries, whereby the cost of the system is far less than a system purchase. They add their customer’s business to their robust hosted system and spread the cost of software, software licenses, hardware, secure datacenter, SIP ports (talk path or voice trunks), and technical expertise to all users so that the individual site cost is reduced.

Tascom’s cloud system is a single-tenant hosted system located in their secure datacenter and designed for larger businesses or clients that want to offer a wider array of services. Clients on the cloud have decided that they are much better at managing their business than managing a system, so more of their resources can be dedicated to their business.

In their cloud solution, each business has its own complete system. This is a proprietary system exclusively for Alston Tascom’s customers with special needs. Although users share the facility and their technical expertise, they do not share software, hardware, or SIP ports. Businesses on Tascom’s cloud system tend to be larger corporations that require greater access or special requirements that are not available on the hosted system.

When looking for a call management system, consider Tascom. Contact them at www.alstontascom.com, info@alstontascom.com, or 866-282-7266.

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The goal of Startel/Professional Teledata (PTD) is to be a complete technology solution provider. CEO and president Bill Lane indicates that they are now the largest vendor in the TAS industry, but this is not what makes them different from other vendors. Startel/PTD sees itself as a partner to their customers. They work in concert with customers to build relevant, cost-effective, complete solutions with the goal of bringing technology to bear in increased profitability, efficiency, and enhanced experiences for their customers and their customers’ clients.

It all starts with innovation. The following are a few examples of how Startel/PTD continues to deliver superior technology solutions to its customers.

Technological Innovations

• One hundred percent soft switch (released in 2009)
• Cloud-based SMS solution
• Open source soft switch
• Utilization of the robust Microsoft SQL Server as the database repository within its contact management center (CMC)
• Logical scripting software
• HIPAA-compliant system validated through annual third-party audits
• Interactive video monitoring software
• Platform independent billing solution
• Multi-tenant hosted solution with coast-to-coast high availability
• Hosted solution housed in a SOC 2 Type II- and SOC 3 HIPAA/PCI-compliant data center

There are, and will be, many more innovations for Startel/PTD. Why does innovation matter? Because innovation makes their customers money, saves money, ensures compliance, or provides the confidence that their customers’ competitors are behind them, not ahead. The size of Startel/PTD’s growing research and development team results in a hastened pace of innovation. Increased innovation benefits their customers by delivering an ever-increasing number of new products, integrations, and technological capabilities that provide customers with an edge over their competitors. Another by-product of their ever-increasing research and development efforts is the technological advances it provides to their customers.

Integrations: Long ago Startel/PTD made a commitment to utilize standard APIs and protocols when building their 100 percent software solution. This makes it not only possible but relatively easy to integrate with customers’ critical third-party software. A major benefit of integrations for Startel/PTD customers is that they are able to more effectively accommodate their clients’ requests and thus provide them with the ability to acquire and retain more clients. Some of the integrations Startel/PTD have performed to date are Law Ruler, Amion, QGenda, Clinical Solutions, Parlance, Nuance, and dvsAnalytics.

The process of requesting integrations is open to all Startel/PTD customers. While Startel/PTD may not choose to perform every integration requested, they do promise to evaluate each opportunity fairly. Integrations that benefit the largest number of customers receive greater priority and are typically free, while integration services that are unique or benefit only a subset have less priority and minor fees.

Partnerships: Why are partnerships important? Because the savings Startel/PTD enjoys due to key third-party software and hardware partnerships enables them to offer their customers more cost-effective solutions than could otherwise be obtained. Just like any large retailer, volume purchases result in increased price concessions. Startel/PTD passes those cost savings on to their customers. Some of their partnerships include Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Avaya, Lenovo, and Dell EMC.

Customer Feedback Mechanisms: A Listening Ear: In order to build a comprehensive technology solution, it’s necessary for Startel/PTD to listen to their customers. In an effort to do so, they have constructed an array of opportunities and platforms to gather as much quality feedback as possible regarding existing product enhancements as well as new product development.

Startel/PTD employs a product manager model similar to that which large corporations enlist to gather customer feedback. Product managers are customer facing with the goal of collecting, assimilating, and providing customer input to development resources within the organization. Product managers gather customer ideas and requirements through on-site visits, focus groups, alpha and beta testing, and a variety of other means. By tracking product enhancements, features, and functionality, they are able to prioritize each item and present them to the product review committee within Startel/PTD that ultimately decides development priorities.

This disciplined approach to product development serves Startel/PTD customers well. It maximizes the development effort by streamlining the process of customer feedback, batching the results, and efficiently communicating development needs to the software engineers who ultimately build the products. Other ways Startel/PTD lends a listening ear to customer issues and ideas include:

• Regularly scheduled wish list meetings
• Semiannual product advisory board meetings
• “Ask Startel/PTD” sessions at annual user group meetings
• Open “wish list” sessions at annual user group meetings
• Dedicated customer experience director level positions
• Customer site visits

Professional Research and Development Team: Startel/PTD claims the largest research and development team in the TAS industry, and the group is ever growing. Startel/PTD only hires about 5 percent of the software engineers they interview. Prior to becoming permanent members of the research and development team, each engineer undergoes prescreening grades, intense interviews, practical application tests, and a ninety-day trial period where they are assigned a small, individualized project to complete. Startel/PTD only hires and retains software engineers who love technology and exhibit potential for becoming architectural software engineers.

The result of this stringent hiring system is that Startel/PTD deploys software engineers who develop products from the ground up without the crutch of expensive third-party code libraries that often contain royalties and thus are more expensive to produce. By utilizing royalty-free software code based on open source wherever possible, Startel/PTD’s products are the most cost-effective on the market.

Software Assurance: Startel/PTD is committed to providing customers a cost-effective and complete technology solution. Eight years ago, they did away with the traditional pricing model and implemented comprehensive low-cost pricing of the Startel solution coupled with software assurance.

At the same time Startel/PTD introduced the concept of “core technology.” Any product deemed to be core technology – whether new or an enhancement of existing products – will cost nothing for customers who subscribe to their single support plan. An example of this is the new Startel auto-dialer launched in spring 2016 at the annual Startel National User Group (SNUG) meeting.

A completely new product, the auto-dialer was deemed a core technology because it did not require a separate infrastructure to support it. Therefore, by implementing simple comprehensive solution pricing and the core technology concept, Startel/PTD has reduced the total cost of ownership for its customers. This helps users keep more of their profits while at the same time providing them with more revenue generating opportunities.

Startel/PTD is successful today because they are technology savvy, listen to their customers, and build relevant and quality products. In addition, they have implemented an efficient and disciplined royalty-free product development process and are able to pass on volume-pricing concessions to their customers.

To discover more about what makes Startel/PTD solutions the best in the industry, visit www.startel.com or contact your local Startel/PTD sales representative.

Vendor Profile on Szeto Technologies

Szeto Technologies is a manufacturer that specializes in developing equipment for telephone switching and voice and data communication. For thirty years, Szeto has provided technical solutions for the teleservices industry to automate and enhance call center service offerings. Its latest product includes the SSS-100 Call Linx, a Linux-based system with an Asterisk telephone switch.

What is Linux? It is an open source, free computer operating system. Open source means it is reliable and secure, maintained by technical users worldwide. Free means it is license-free, which makes the use of this operating system cost-effective.

What is Asterisk? It is a Linux-based telephone switching software, originally built for simple phone systems. Its comes with a voice logger and a license for VoIP SIP (voice over internet protocol session initiation protocol) phone line capabilities.

Szeto products offer turnkey solutions. Users of its equipment include telephone answering services, call centers, radio paging services, airlines, and the US military. Szeto has integrated this software to function seamlessly with its Call Linx TAS system.

Call Linx Platform: Call Linx is comprised of local and remote workstations, connected to the servers via a computer network. Functions and features are always designed with an architecture that emphasizes redundancy, reliability, capability, and flexibility, which are the main criteria for a teleservice system.

As telephony, computer, and Internet technologies evolve, Szeto relentlessly experiments with and develops new features and functions for its products, providing tools to help its customers stay ahead of their competitors. These capabilities help Szeto users streamline operations and diversify revenue streams. Sometimes they are custom integrations to a user’s specific requirements; other times they are separate modules that create new service offerings.

Powered by Linux, Szeto’s SSS-100 Call Linx TAS system is built to be reliable, flexible, and user-friendly. Its call answer screen is window-based and graphical. All functions are easy to navigate. No command keys need to be remembered, and the auto-fill technique keeps typing at a minimum.

Call Linx has many expanded features to reduce the stress in processing calls, not only making the task pleasant and enjoyable, but most importantly minimizing errors and ensuring service reliability. Popular features like Linx Scripting, Linx OnCall, and Linx Appointment are all fully integrated. Coupled with automatic message delivery functionalities, it is a powerful system.

Industry technology has changed in the past thirty years. While answering calls, taking messages, and delivering messages continues to be the basic services offered, the nature of how these services are handled has changed considerably. Computer technology gives rise to service automation. The widely accessible Internet has fueled market expansion.

Call Linx Automation: Call Linx provides many automatic functions to relieve operators from manual executions of routine functions. This is especially valuable during peak rush-hour traffic. Some of these functions improve work quality and reduce operator workload. Some examples are:

• Automatic forwarded line check with automatic call-forward confirmation
• Automatic identification of subscribers to operators
• Automatic telephone line audit to assure phone lines are working properly
• Automatic follow-up calls and reminders
• Automatic inhibition of call recording during credit-card entry

Call Linx also provides many automatic functions for the purpose of call processing and message delivery efficiencies. It helps to decrease operator-training time, minimize typing errors, and increase delivery accuracy. Some examples include:

• Auto-fill for repeat entry in scripted processing
• Auto-fill entries based on caller profile
• Auto conditional call branching based on caller answer
• Automatic selection of message recipient dynamically from on-call lists
• Automatic Web launch
• Order entry and nearest dealer locator

HIPAA-Compliant Secured Messaging: Information security and privacy has become a major concern to clients using call centers, especially for the medical professions. Szeto Technologies offers bidirectional secured messages in two fashions: generic label and private label. Generic label is identified on the phone by an app icon designed by Szeto Technologies, whereas private label is identified by a unique app name and an icon supplied by the call center service provider.

Software for both options resides in the customers’ equipment and is owned by the call center. Features include:

• Bidirectional messaging between the teleservice company and subscribers and among individual subscribers
• Speed and cell phone battery conservation
• Reminds subscriber and operator if message delivered is not read after timeout
• Messages read or deleted by the recipient are logged for traceability
• Mobile APP can be locked to add security
• User-defined quantity and duration of messages to be retained in the device
• Personalized ring tone for certain models of cell phones
• Allows multiple recipients and multiple personalized contact groups for message broadcast
• Messages can be delivered later

As a tool to enable call centers to sign up new customers already subscribing to third-party secured messaging service, Szeto Technologies also provides interface software with third-party providers (such as TigerText, OnPage, eVigil, and DocHalo) via specially designed APIs (application program interface).

The Future: The digital communications and Internet world is continuously developing new technologies and protocols. The engineering team at Szeto Technologies is committed to keeping their clients steps ahead in this ever-changing industry.

Szeto firmly believes that every piece of equipment its customers use should be oriented to their unique business needs. All Szeto products are customizable and flexible. They are designed to be simple to use, smart in functionality, and cost-effective.

Learn more about Szeto Technologies at www.szeto.ca.