Almost every major company from IBM Corp with Rolm Corp through L M Ericsson Telefon AB with Datasaab to STC Plc with ICL have pursued what came to be seen as a chimera, the convergence of computers and telecommunications. But now Novell Inc and AT&T Co’s announcement of a a strategic partnership designed to build a general-purpose link between PABX switches and NetWare file servers programme (CI No 2,080) could finally lead to computer-integrated telephony applications realise their potential. The aim is to produce application programming interfaces (APIs) allowing developers to phone enable their software with ease. The technology will take advantage of existing phones systems and computer networks and won’t require wiring or new boards to connect each phone and micro.
StarGroup
Telephony Services will be accessible from MS-DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macintosh and Unix. The first product, which is due this year, will be the Telephony Server NetWare Loadable Module, linking Novell’s NetWare and AT&T’s Definity line of PABX systems. Application programming interfaces will be defined to enable third-party developers to integrate telephony services into applications; integration of electronic mail, facsimile and voice mail are planned, and other possibilities include voice-mail management products, simplified conference-calling capabilities and call-centre applications. Other peoples’ systems will be integrated, although only AT&T’s NCR Corp subsidiary is currently involved, with a plan to provide similar support in its Unix-based StarGroup software line – inherited from AT&T – with applications complimentary to NetWare. They are promising a multimedia desktop down the road and a user interface that is a pleasurable and useful experience. By the second half of the year, AT&T should have developed the Telephony Server NetWare Loadable Module, which will use AT&T’s Adjunct Switch Application Interface language to pass commands between the switch and the server. The physical link between the two devices is through a single basic rate ISDN interface, with the Adjunct Switch commands sent via the signalling D-channel.
Importance
The importance of the alliance, however is that is not limited just to AT&T switches. Art Schoeller, AT&T’s Callvisor product planner said that the telephony NetWare Loadable Module will be generic, with the ability for other companies to develop specific drivers for their own PABXes. Building a generic model that will cope with the full range of manufacturers’ facilities is not trivial – indeed it is the stumbling block that has slowed the progress of computer-integrated telephony standards. Schoeller acknowledges that fundamental differences in the basic call models used by different switch manufacturers can lead to to problem when trying to control some of the more esoteric PABX facilities. AT&T’s pragmatic solution is to keep things simple by implementing just the essential functions such as call pick-up, transfer and the like. The application programming interfaces that switch vendors need to use to build their NetWare Loadable Module drivers should be published by the second half of the year. AT&T is surprisingly keen on getting other switch manufactures on the act, following that old Novell pitch that growing the total market is the best way to grow its own revenue. At the same time that the PABX programming interfaces are published, the companies are planning to release the desktop drivers. The priority will be Windows and Macintosh says Schoeller, but its a fair bet that Unix will not be far behind. To start users off, the NetWare Loadable Module kit will include AT&T’s PassageWay desktop application, which gives users the ability to speed dial and automatically recall notes associated with previous calls. The programming interfaces go a good deal further than that, though, and developers should be able to do innovative things in the mixing of electronic mail, auto dialling and conference calling. One further set of programming interfaces exists which is designed to enable server-based appli
cations to interface directly to the telephony NetWare Loadable Module. In this way, says Schoeller, it should be possible to build complex applications that do cunning things such as examine the incoming telephone number, use that to retrieve a customer record and then automatically direct the call to the caller’s regular sales representative, or the debt-collecting department as appropriate.
Chill
What the system will not do yet is enable the NetWare server to store digitised Voicemail in the way pioneered by UK company Vmail Ltd. This is because there is no direct digitised voice connection into the NetWare system – only control information is carried over the ISDN D-channel. On the other hand, this approach means that a single interface should adequately cope with 5,000 Busy Hour calls, says Schoeller. The companies have been discussing the alliance for the last eight months and active development has been under way for at least two, according to AT&T. Novell said its discussions with AT&T over Unix System Laboratories Inc led the two companies to consider this and several other areas of synergy, which they declined to enumerate. The tie-up could also send a chill through Bill Gates since it gives lead rival Novell an interesting new point of entry to the enterprise.
