Computer Telephoney

These are all good ideas, but I think many of them will be redundant now with the advent of web access and email notification etc - people prefer to view on a screen rather than listen on the phone.

Much of what you have mentioned can already be done, most voicemail systems have lots of room and student IDs/PIN Numbers can be programmed to mailboxes set to announce only with a hotline number for information access.

In terms of ordering, I personally use suppliers web ordering (with saved regular items) if they are reliable, but for many I prefer to fax or phone in with my order to ensure there are no mistakes, I don't know how much takeup there would be of an automated phone-in system.  BT used to use a system as you describe for their in-house stores ordering system for engineers But I don't know of anyone offering it externally as people are looking for web ordering now.

CTI is very popular now, though most small businesses cannot afford it or see the benefit, many medium and above are stating it as a wish-list on specifications, in terms of CTI in this respect I mean computer interface with a employees telephone - on-screen display of call logs, voicemails, numbers, phone book and screen pops of incoming calls etc.

Many PABX maufacturers develop their own, but there also many who work with third-parties to use an existing CTI software for their PABX, many of the smaller manufacturers do this, there are also many PABXs without CTI.  Interface of course is normally an ethernet connection via the internal LAN.  This could be a possible route to consider.

Something else you could consider as a possible project is PC Software developed for the Uk caller display system on analogue lines - I been asked about this many times, and the only product that could do it was overpriced and is no longer availiable.

What many people have asked for is a box or software to look at the callers number (whether it be UK, unavailable or witheld etc) and have routing rules, so for instance - all unavailable calls would receive Number Unobtainable tone, witheld would go to answer-machine, whilst rules for other callers (such as the mother-in-law etc) could have their own rules, no phone system can really do this, the ones that can are not very reliable at differentating between different numbers etc.  This sort of feature is only available currently with digital ISDN lines.

Regards

Simon

I think you are looking at a very difficult to compete market segment.

The reason is, if you are a small company which have one two phone lines, he/she is very unlikely to have the ability to invest in a solution like this. So it will be difficult to sell something to them.

On the other hand if you are average company with more than five phone lines You are likely to have a PABX system. Most of the modern PABX systems provide facilities to integrate computers. I had some experience at architecharal level on some of the PABX solutions. It seems each of them have there own way of operating. Hence You will end up developing a completly different solution for different PABX system. So you may find yourself in a bit of a soup in this market segmant.

HAving said that, I assume there can be a good growth oppertunities in the SME market. But I would suggest you to do some market research (for example, PABX systems used, the facilities with those PABX systems, Cost of ~Harware, Software and TCO etc.,.)

On a encoraging note, I ve seen in a TV programm in which one guy with a set of take away resturents set up a small call center. Which I thought was great story for SME IT solutions.

Hope this helps. Goodluck with the new venture

Cheers

K.C.