In a bid to breathe life into its lack-lustre System X public telephone exchange business, GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd is continuing the refocussing of the product away from simple switch to applications environment. The latest target is the voice processing market and the company has announced the signing of an exclusive three-year agreement with Digital Sound Corp to resell and market its VoiceServer products in the UK. These are designed to be attached to public networks, to give capabilities such as information services, voice mail, and navigation systems such as call back when free. The two companies are currently working together to develop a CCITT Signalling System 7 interface to connect VoiceServer to public networks, and Digital Sound has already made sure that the product is compatible with GEC Plessey’s public switch, System X. However, the company is also trying to find completely new markets for System X – GEC Plessey says that it will be selling VoiceServer to non-System X sites as well. Stephen Harbour, marketing director, says that VoiceServer will be sold both for existing network switches, and as a package with System X for new networks. Sales are to be handled from a new operating unit dedicated to voice application systems, and GEC Plessey is known to have been talking to its existing System X customers already. The question, though, is whether public telephony operators really want to add voice messaging to their switches, given the pretty dismal uptake in Europe of Centrex-type services which provide customers with a virtual PABX at the telephone exchange by adding intelligent features to the phone switch. The present high-end VoiceServer product is based around the Intel 80386 chip, and is a rack-mounted box which attaches directly to the network operator’s switch. This will, however, be superseded in May when Digital Sound launches its replacement, a more powerful 80486-based model. Digital Sound also has less sophisticated products for attachment to PABXs, although at the very low-end the exclusivity agreement will not apply. The agreement has been announced at the same time as GEC Plessey has been investing in the development of System X. According to the company, much of this development is centred on software additions to bring extra functionality. The digitalisation process which many networks are undergoing means that rather than modifying the existing switch, additional features, such as call divert, can be incorporated using computer application programs that interface with System X. Developing the product in this way is an attempt to appeal to the existing user base, as well as potential new customers, since current users will be able to upgrade existing equipment.
