Industry Overview

The advent of telephone applications hosting has enabled many organisations to gain simple, low cost entry into the automation market. Traditionally, however, available hosting services have been largely limited to simple touch-tone applications.

Organisations that have been unwilling to take the risk of deploying mission-critical, speech-based applications outside their own infrastructure have faced either the capital and development costs of premise-based deployment or the high on-going cost of serving calls using live agent resources.

But developments in speech technologies have lowered these barriers and organisations are now increasingly extending the boundaries of what can be automated within a hosted environment. The key to maintaining this trend is to ensure that organisations can reap the benefits of application control within the attractive commercial models that the hosted world offers them.

The Problem

One of the key concerns facing organisations looking to host their speech-based systems is how to maintain control over applications they develop. Organisations – understandably - view hosting as an opportunity to avoid significant initial investment in equipment and infrastructure. Yet they still want – and expect – to be able to create, deploy and modify applications quickly on the hosted platform.

How xPress™ can help

xPress™ provides an opportunity to combine the commercially attractive models offered by hosting providers with the level of application control that have been previously possible only with premise-based equipment. As a result, world-class speech applications have never been so accessible.

Using xMP’s integrated multi-tenancy solution, organisations can remotely and securely control externally-hosted applications without having to invest in or install their own premise-based infrastructure. Moreover, they can also quickly create and deploy applications using xPress™ pre-built modules without the need to develop or acquire detailed in-house coding skills.

xMP’s open architecture provides for a variety of options that determine how services can be deployed and where elements of the architecture are situated. The entire architecture can be situated within a hosted environment, with all application development and maintenance being outsourced to the hosting company or alternative application partner. At the other end of the scale, organisations can establish a complete premise based infrastructure, undertake all application development and maintenance in house, and use a hosted overflow model simply to cope with exceptional demand.

xPress™ can enable organisations to work within either of these models – and any of the significant number of options in between - with the peace of mind that their “day-one” decision will not restrict migration at a later date. xPress™ gives complete flexibility over how much of the architecture they wish to manage themselves, and the freedom to migrate in either direction over time.

And whichever infrastructure options they select, they still retain control over deployed applications and the ability to construct and deploy new applications from pre-created best-practice modules.

Key to this capability is the secure, web-based xMP Service Management Console, which provides complete control over deployed applications regardless of the platform and technology models they select. Vicorp’s support for hybrid technology models also means that premise-based equipment choices do not restrict our customers to using only those hosting partners that have made the same technology decisions.

But technology is only one aspect of how xPress™ provides such a compelling model for hosted platforms. xPress’s Component Library uses pre-built application elements to provide key application functionality - augmented by custom functionality created within xMP, the worlds leading independent toolset avoiding potential restrictions in the applications that can be developed.

The benefits of xPress™ within a hosted environment include:

Complete control over application deployment provided by xMP Service Management Console
Remote updating and alteration of applications “on-the-fly”
Rapid application development using xPress™ components
Flexibility over deployment models – own as much or as little infrastructure as you like
Freedom to migrate between deployment models and across technology platforms.

Vicorp xPress™ speech solutions

xPress™ addresses the issues of intelligently managing a client and providing pertinent information in any format at the right time and place, enabling organisations to build a relationship whose qualities are experienced each time a client makes contact.

Vicorp deliver an end-to-end solution that enables organisations to address their voice services in a complete manner. Vicorp also works with a number of partners across the globe to deliver the same level of quality worldwide.

Vicorp uses its own highly advanced development tools and platforms to deliver voice services and solutions: its xMP product suite is the leading independent Service Creation environment available in the market.

Vicorp provides all the tools and a runtime framework for assembling, deploying, delivering and managing dynamic communication services. Single and multi-channel application environments are available that strongly support Service Creation, reuse, development and extension by non-technical people. Vicorp also builds sample services, prototypes, proof of concept services and full production services to any scale, running on any infrastructure.