Pronexus VBVoice™ Interactive Voice Response (IVR) software enables fast development of feature-rich inbound and outbound IVR solutions that cut costs, improve customer service and streamline internal processes. The GUI-based VBVoice toolkit is complemented by powerful programming capabilities. This page explores VBVoice’s powerful features that come with every free toolkit.

 

Key Features

• Microsoft® Visual Studio® integration
• Dialogic voice hardware support
• Intuitive graphical user interface
• Event-driven framework
• Programmable components
• Easy database connectivity
• Prompt library (English (UK & US), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish (Castilian & South American))
• Sample applications (tons of VB6, C# and VB.NET sample applications; e.g. help desk, speech attendant, fax service, predictive dialer, etc.)

 

VBVoice Controls

 

AgentX is an independent component which provides the ability to program screen-pops to the desktop and remote interaction with database applications. Remote Control is integrated into the call flow and manages data calls to AgentX to present screens, process call information or negotiate call control.

CallQueue control implements call routing and queuing functionality and is used to provide custom ACD capability to an application. CallTimer control maintains a call duration timer and allows a maximum call time to be set on all or part of a call.

Conference Control allows multiple voice card lines to be merged into an audio conference or connects two or more voice card lines together. The developer can set properties like the maximum number of callers, time of the call and the method for backing out of a call. Additional functionality includes forced disconnect off the conference, sending a notification message to a specific channel, and introducing a user to a conference in listen only mode. The control also support special conferences like coach-pupil scenario where a caller can hear the pupil and the coach is only heard by the pupil, this is very useful for customer care training and call monitoring.

Count control maintains an internal counter which can be reset and incremented by call-flow.

DataChange control changes one or more fields in a database record. DataFind control can select a record from a database for input validation and for subsequent data selection and update operations by DataSwitch, DataChange, and Dial controls.

DataSwitch control retrieves the value of a field that a previous DataFind control read from a database record.

Delay control implements a waiting period for the caller while some other activity takes place.

Dial control is used to go offhook and to start a call, transfer an existing call to another extension or phone or dial some digits to an automated system, such as a pager service.

GetDigits control plays a greeting and waits for digits from the caller for a predetermined amount of time.

GetResource control allocates a voice/fax resource for the current channel using an available voice/fax resource from a specified resource group. GrabResource control allocates a voice/fax resource for the current channel using an available voice/fax resource from a specified ResourcePool. FreeResource control releases any voice/fax resource allocated to the current channel.

ReleaseResource control releases any voice/fax resource allocated to the current channel. ResourceGroup control is used to collect voice/fax resources into a group for allocation purposes.

ResourcePool control is used to collect voice/fax resources into a pool for allocation purposes. When a resource is required, it is allocated out of a specified pool.

IniSwitch searches for an entry in a Windows initialization (.INI) file and routes the call depending on the result found.

Language control allows you to develop multilingual applications without re-writing the call-flow. It supports English, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, German, or any user-defined language. System prompts are included for the built-in languages.

LineGroup control owns a group of telephone lines and receives and initiates calls on these lines. LineStatus OCX shows the status for all the lines in the system.

Modularity delivers unparalleled load balancing, independent provisioning, reliability and scalability as you can host system resources and services on one or more master machines while the applications themselves run in separate processes on separate machines. Even better, debugging and development are the same as in stand-alone mode and communication across the network is completely transparent to the application logic. This feature consists of two controls: SlaveStart and SlaveEnd. Together, they allow you to break an application into multiple cooperating modules, distributed over a local are network (LAN).

OnHook control plays a greeting and then hangs up the line.

PlayGreeting control plays a greeting and then passes the call to the next control. PlayMsg control plays messages from a voice mailbox.

SendFax control provides the ability to send one or more faxes on a channel in VBVoice. ReceiveFax control provides the ability to receive one or more faxes on a channel in VBVoice.

Record control records a wave file by either creating a new file or appending to an existing file.

Ring control rings a station set.

SubStart control is used before entering a group of controls that will act as a subroutine. SubEnd control transfers the call to the last SubStart control that was entered by this call.

TapRecord Control provides supervisory recording or “tap” recording of a voice channel. You can record all or part of a conversation between a caller and the IVR or between two bridged callers. The TapRecord has two modes for tap recording. The first will record the interaction between a human (caller) and a machine (IVR). The second mode, if the current channel is bridged, will record the interaction between two humans (the two callers that are bridged).

TimeSwitch control transfers the call to another control according to time of day and day of week.

Text-to-speech support in VBVoice is provided through a prompt type. In conjunction with the high flexibility of prompt creation and manipulation, this feature allows you to build powerful prompts either dynamically or statically. TTS enablement is provided through connections to industry leading TTS engines; support includes Nuance and MRCP Speech Servers.

User control allows code to define all operations and provides complete control over the call flow.

VBVFrame control functions as a container for the other VBVoice controls, providing an environment where VBVoice can draw the control connections. It also provides project-wide properties and methods that control both the design environment and system operation at runtime.

Voice Recognition and Dynamic Grammar controls let you add speech recognition capabilities to your IVR application. They support Nuance 8.5 (ASR) speech recognition, large vocabularies and natural language processing (NLP). The Dynamic Grammar control lets you create and modify grammar sets on the fly via text-based interface or voice-based enrollment. Once these grammars are created, they can be immediately recognized in a Voice Recognition control.

WebQuery Control allows data retrieval from any web site identified by a URL and a further identifier. Useful for accessing directory information or other web publications for use in a VBVoice application.

WorkerThread control executes lengthy code in a separate thread to avoid blocking the primary thread.

 

About Pronexus

Established in 1994, Pronexus specializes in telephony, speech and database integration technologies. It’s flagship product, Pronexus VBVoice™ Interactive Voice Response (IVR) software enables developing feature-rich inbound and outbound IVR solutions that improve customer service and streamline internal processes.