Abbreviated Jargon Reference
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Powerful technologies are often accompanied by acronyms, new words, and old words with new meanings. The following reference to industry jargon is by no means complete, but is provided here to hopefully assist in better understanding what TeleService Technologies and this web site are all about. We are always open to improvements for this reference. |
| ACD - Automatic Call
Distributor. When calls come in to one location,
they are either handled by a phone receptionist who then
distributes the call to its best destination or by an
automatic call distributor which has been programmed to
forward the call usually to the next available and
qualified phone agent. A receptionist more likely
uses a PBX (private branch exchange); whereas, a call
center uses an ACD. Automatic Voice Attendant - This is a computer device that answers phone calls using a series of short recordings to provide the caller with button pressing options for self-service connection to others in an organization. An Automatic Voice Attendant often connects to a voice mail system and to a live operator. (Sometimes just called an Automatic Attendant.) Alpha Testing - The first stage testing of new products or new additions to existing products. Alpha testing is done under the control of the developer; whereas, Beta Testing can sometimes be done with a real application of the product at a customer site in exchange for a benefit to that customer. Beta Testing - The
second stage of new product testing. C.T.I. - Computer Telephone Integration. This term emerged in the 1980's and come into popularity at the begining of the 1990's. It includes any goods, services or activities enabling or involving the integration of telephones with computers. DSL - Digital Subscriber Line is a service provided by typical telephone companies for connecting to the Internet most often using existing telephone wiring at data transmission speeds typically from 384 kilobits per second to over 1.2 megabits per second. Cable TV companies also provide such Internet speeds using ordinary cable TV wiring. These preferred higher connection speeds make real-time multi-media communications more within the grasp of the average Internet user. |
Inbound Call / Contact Center
- A call or contact center that specializes
in taking calls or email originated by the public.
The opposite is an outbound call center that makes
calls to people (customers or others). Some call
centers do both inbound and outbound calls. A
customer service center and a telephone answering service
are both examples of inbound call centers. Internet Phone - An Internet phone, usually running in a multi-media PC, is mostly software that utilizes the PC's microphone, speakers, sound card and Internet connection to connect to another PC with similar equipment, thus allow people to communicate in a similar manner to using a telephone. Internet Telephony - Telephony means telephones and their associated functions. Internet telephony means the functions of a telephone handled via the Internet instead by any of the traditional telephone companies. PCs are commonly used for Internet telephony. T-1 - A type of digital phone service that typically carries 24 voice channels for handling up to 24 simultaneous phone conversations at a time. However, T-1 service is configurable by the phone companies for a variety of uses, and over the last decade more and more T-1 service has been provided for Internet use. Configured for Internet, a T-1 can handle a greater number of simultaneous users. VoIP - The "V" portion of this acronym means "Voice". The "o" portion of this acronym stands for "over". "IP" is for "Internet Protocol". So VoIP means Voice over IP. For most of the 20th century, voice was transmitted over a dedicated electrical circuit. Its sound waves were directly represented by modulations of the electrical energy. VoIP transmits voice modulation as digital values contained in digital packets per the Internet Protocol. |