Call center technologies, particularly unified telephony and customer
interaction software are very hot items. Call center spending
is estimated by CIBC Oppenheimer to be worldwide at $4.5B. Spending
on these type of components range from $12k-$15k per seat. Even better,
the trend is towards different vendors converging toward a common
vision of the call center: a contact center that integrates inbound and
outbound communications, a voice/data switch that includes standard
APIs, supports multimedia relationships including synchronization of
data from different media, and provides a total customer view through
access and integration (distributed or not) with workflow and other
enterprise applications.
Go get 'em.
Greg
Ian Andrew Bell wrote:
>
> http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/sip/
> ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2543.txt
>
> RST and others..
>
> IMHO, the relationships defined in IP Telephony architectures like DCS
> and DOSA around SIP and RTP streams are identical to the relationships
> between an HTTP server that guides us through selectable MP3 streams.
> In fact, SIP could be what allows MP3 Streaming to compete on a feature-
> for-feature basis with RealAudio (ie. instream service selection or
> modification, etc.).
>
> So, given that this means that SIP has applications beyond simple IP
> Telephony and extending into broadcasting, media streaming, and video-
> conferencing, SIP servers will be the in the 00's what the web server
> was in the 90's.
>
> This leads us to Apache.org.
>
> So am I wrong in thinking that Apache, as an HTTP server, lends itself
> particularly well to being a SIP Call Agent? SIP and HTTP are identical
> in that they are stateless, can pass MIME types, and do not sustain
> connections. SIP has provision for a CGI architecture, as well.
>
> Does anyone think I'm crazy, after reading the IETF doc, to figure that
> a port of Apache code to SIP is simply a case of adding new message
> types, modifying port numbers, and broadening CGI handling?
>
> Making SIP Call Agents free from Apache.org would really open up the
> world of call control to the masses, and would steal the bread and
> butter of companies like Lucent, Telcordia, and Nortel right from their
> mouths.
>
> Need some opinions..
>
> -Ian.
> .:|:..:|:.