C.a.T.S. is very pleased to announce that it has once again completed a successful IBM voice installation abroad; this time with the GSM operator VMobile, in Lagos, Nigeria.
This is the second biggest single IBM voice installation in Africa, and most probably the second biggest overall.
The system runs on IBM`s legendary pSeries servers, making use of AIX as an operating system and WebSphere Voice Response as the voice solution.
C.a.T.S. provided the skill and expertise to install the system - including the OS, software installation, signalling, application development and commissioning.
The system can handle close to a 1 000 calls simultaneously, providing the caller with a whole host of services and self-help options 24X7. This automates call centre queries to the maximum and subsequently reduces the call centre load and operating cost.
The information provided on the system range from promotional information, SIM information, competitions and prepaid information to self-help services like PUK retrieval, stolen line reporting, line unbarring, voicemail transactions and more.
C.a.T.S. founder and managing director, Johan Grobler stated: "It gives us great pleasure to introduce a system in which we have complete confidence to perform as a telco grade voice response system. We have been fortunate to achieve uptime of over 300 days on this solution and have installed this solution at five other GSM operators in Africa."
The installation proved to be a challenge in terms of multiple switching centre interfaces, multiple call centres, PABX systems and protocols to interface to, as well as multiple backend integration requirements.
Grobler continued: "The installation will prove to be very resilient and issues like DRP and BCP where thoroughly addressed."
The solution is spread over two sites with two VPUs (voice processing units) per site and with multiple telephone adapters per unit. Each site also makes use of two dedicated Cisco switches for redundancy.
Grobler further stated: "What makes this investment so valuable from a customer perspective is the fact that technologies like VOIP, where the IVR acts as a fully-fledged media gateway, VoiceXML and Java can be easy to incorporate and are all part and parcel of the IBM voice offering in which C.a.T.S. specialises."
C.a.T.S. has also concluded an intensive nine-day training course on site in Lagos, Nigeria. The training was highly successful and ranged from support to complete application development.
The course was received very positively and once again proved the maturity and open interface of the IBM WebSphere Voice Response solution.
Grobler concluded: "It is imperative that the voice application is agile and up to date in all respects at all times; this is to the benefit of our client and theirs alike. Empowering our client to make changes and perform basic support places them in the driving seat."
C.a.T.S. (Pty) Ltd can be contacted on 012 345 9020 or info@ivr.co.za for any information related to this release. C.a.T.S. (Pty) Ltd, as an IBM business partner, focuses on IBM`s WebSphere Voice Response IVR solutions, integrated with WebSphere Voice Server and WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Portal Server. It is available on PC and RS6000 (pSeries) platforms, as well as operating systems like AIX, OS/2, Linux and Microsoft Windows.
C.a.T.S. also has a strategic alliance with the UK-based Company C3 Ltd as its Southern and Central Africa business partner. Johan Grobler, a professional electronics engineer, founded C.a.T.S. in 1996 after spending two years at IBM in the network solutions team working on voice applications and is currently the MD of the company.
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