Exactly how “easy” is easy?

Posted on July 28, 2011 | By Voicent Customer Service

QUESTION: “I’m a part-time web developer and full-time business owner. Your website has the word ‘easy’ in like every sentence. Please tell me exactly how easy it would be to have your software generate an automatic phone call whenever a customer makes a purchase on our website.”

ANSWER: You would have to put the following script in your web form: call_text("650-123-4567", "Hello. This is Acme Web Sales. We have received your order and will ship it as soon as possible. Thank you", 1)

Then, after the page processes an order, the buyer would receive a phone call delivering the following message:  “Hello, this is Acme Web Sales. We have received your order and will ship it as soon as possible. Thank you.” Or, whatever specific message you want.

QUESTION: Right . . .  you’re toying with me, aren’t you?

ANSWER: Hey, we said it was easy.

QUESTION: OK, so which products do I need to buy if I want to sometimes do voice confirmations and other times do text-message confirmations?

ANSWER: Ohhh, you want to do BOTH phone and text-message confirmations, in that case yeah, it’s still easy. Voicent’s Gateway will handle voice and SMS confirmations.

In addition, if you would like to easily build interactive phone applications, you can get Voicent’s IVR Studio, which as a Graphical User Interface (GUI) environment that is really eas . . . , er, simple to use.

Posted in Business, How to, technology |

Beware VoIP Service Hackers

Posted on July 28, 2011 | By Voicent Customer Service

A Vancouver Sun newspaper article detailed a recent SWAT team response to a local home that turned out to be a case of “swatting,” which is the term for bogus 911 emergency reports.

In the Vancouver case, a VoIP Service on the home’s computer was apparently hacked, enabling the hoax, which claimed that a deranged man was holding hostages and had killed several people in the home.

A woman and her two children were arrested at the home but then quickly released when police determined that the call was a hoax.

The hoax highlights a weakness in the recently imposed requirement that people provide a physical address for 911 purposes when they sign-up for VoIP Service, according to an internet security expert the newspaper interviewed.

The expert noted that a 911 call generated on a VoIP service account could be made anywhere in the world, but would look as though it were coming from the physical address listed on the service’s account information.

Posted in Business, technology, VoIP |

Report: Fast growth for American Mobile VoIP Market through 2014

Posted on July 28, 2011 | By Voicent Customer Service

North American Mobile VoIP will have grown by nearly 60 percent between 2010 and 2014, according to a report by MarketResearch.com, a provider of global market intelligence products and services.

The report cited business needs to reduce communication costs as one of the drivers of the forecast growth.

“Unlike other communication mediums, mobile VoIP does not require extensive investment or equipment. Communication takes place via the internet, eliminating signal transfers through cells, base stations, and substations, thereby eliminating huge bills for mobile phones and reducing companies’ overall communication costs,” an analyst is quoted in the report.

Posted in Business, technology |