BT Integrates Telephony with Web Services to Enable “Web 2.0” Communication Services Delivery
BT today announced the availability of CallFlow, an innovative capability that allows voice and data to be combined dynamically and easily, free of heavyweight Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platforms. CallFlow will enable BT and third party developers to integrate voice-enabled capability into their own Web services in minutes, instead of weeks, with just one line of code.
CallFlow uses accessible and intuitive Interactive Voice Response (easy-IVR) and is the newest addition to BT’s 21st century portfolio of Web services, developed to harness the innovation of the applications development community and available to download as Software Delivery Kits (SDKs) from BT.com. The development of Web services supports BT’s transformation in to a 21st century software-based services company.
Simplicity and innovation are the driving forces behind BT’s Web services, which include messaging, conference calls, voice calls, authentication and inbound SMS into applications. For example, the conferencing Web service enables conference calls to follow the participant—the calls are initiated automatically rather than by the person dialing in. They enable product and service developers, from one-man programmer start-ups to major enterprises, to integrate their applications with BT’s next generation of voice, broadband and Ethernet services with as little as a single line of code.
The combination of Web services, open application programming interfaces (APIs) and the world’s largest all-IP network offers developers a service delivery ecosystem that is simpler, faster and cheaper to build traditional communications functionality into their enterprise class or “Web 2.0” applications.
JP Rangaswami, managing director of service design at BT, said: “Innovation in the Web 2.0 era is agile and can originate from anywhere. Our Web services allow developers to harness BT’s multi-billion dollar investment in the 21st Century Network and focus on developing applications without having to worry about the complexity of how to enable communications. What used to take weeks now takes minutes, and with just one line of code, anyone working for a customer or a partner can add voice and messaging into their Web 2.0 applications. It isn’t just developers who gain from BT’s Web services and SDK. Ultimately customers benefit from innovative, state of the art telephony-enabled applications.”
BT’s Web services have been positively received by the application development community. SMBLive developed BT Tradespace, a fast growing business community combining the best of a business directory listing with an interactive Web presence. The BT SDK was used to build a click-to-call feature enabling customers to contact traders in their local area. BT Tradespace has enabled nearly 60,000 small businesses to interact with existing and prospective customers online. Matt Howard, CEO at SMBlive, said: “BT’s telephony services allowed SMBLive to quickly and easily develop a voice-enabled Web application on top of BT’s world-class carrier platform. They are an efficient and cost effective way for developers to create ‘communications enabled’ software applications. Other options we investigated had neither the ease of use nor the inherent backing of BT’s high-availability, world-class carrier infrastructure.”
BT has also partnered with entrepreneurs to extend their applications. Miha Lesjak, CEO of Inova IT, said: “BT’s Voice 2.0 services have allowed us to quickly and easily build a semantic click-to-call and calendar-to-conference service that BT is currently preparing for market trial. We are excited about future communications-enabled services we can build.”
SDKs abstract Web services into a simple user interface accessible through a number of different programming languages, including .NET, Java, PHP and Python. Since the commercial release of the BT SDK in July 2007, more than 8,000 SDKs have been downloaded, 300 production applications developed and 4,500 “sandbox” applications built. More information about BT’s Web services, SDKs and its their of use can be found at: http://web21c.bt.com.
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About BT
BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; higher-value broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.
In the year ended 31 March 2007, BT Group plc’s revenue was £20,223 million with profit before taxation of £2,484 million.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
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