Distribution agreement signed between Siltek Telecoms and Dictaphone Corporation

Siltek Telecoms, a specialist distributor of telecommunications, has signed a distribution agreement with Dictaphone, a global provider of Integrated Voice and Data Management (IVDM) systems and software, which include dictation, voice processing,voice response, unified messaging, records management, court recording, call centre monitoring systems and communications recording.

Under the terms of the agreement, Siltek Telecoms will distribute the Dictaphone Freedom product, which is the first voice recording system of its kind that is also a network appliance. Freedom enables users to avoid being locked in to a proprietary storage device as dictated to them by a voice-recording vendor.

Michael Aitken, managing director of Siltek Telecoms, comments, "The newly-signed agreement brings a reputable name into the Siltek Telecoms stable of products. Dictaphone already has strong relationships with a number of vendors with whom we deal on a regular basis. This synergy is obviously good for our business and for our channel."

Anthony Life, country manager of Dictaphone South Africa, explains why Freedom is a cost-effective option for companies with voice recording requirements. "For as long as they have been in production, all voice recorders have consisted of three main components: a telephony interface, which takes the recordings from the PABX; a storage device, which stores the recordings; and a user interface. These components are so entwined that they have, until now, come as a proprietary system. This has limited the users' ability to take advantage of better technology as it is introduced."

Freedom is an open-architecture recording system that gives companies built-in protection from obsolescence. Using standard file access methods like SMB, NFS, and FTP, Freedom allows users to easily take advantage of any existing or anticipated future storage device.

"Storage technologies are evolving at a very rapid pace," continues Life. "The only thing that's certain is that new technologies will continue to emerge. Why should a company tie itself down to a DAT or Optical storage device? With Freedom, companies are able to store their voice recordings on any network-attached storage device."

Additionally, Freedom's plug-in telecommunications interfaces and operating system-independent architecture mean that Freedom can easily adapt should a company upgrade its phone system, operating system or network.

"Freedom also provides companies with more ways to access and share voice recordings than conventional recording systems," says Aitken. "Freedom's network-ready design and standard audio file format make voice files accessible over any LAN/WAN, Internet or Intranet, using any multi-media PC. Compressed .wav file recordings can be e-mailed - which is a faster way to share information than copying and shipping tapes."

According to Life, Siltek Telecoms exhibits the kind of infrastructure and market credibility necessary to effectively handle the Freedom product.

Targeted customers, expalins Aitken, are likely to be existing users of voice recording systems, looking for an alternative to the standard design of proprietary systems, and companies keen to "place a toe in the voice recording waters" without incurring the previously accepted high costs associated with such systems.