Voice applications

	The number and type of applications you offer (and the number of calls these applications handle) will affect the resources you need.
	How many applications will you offer to callers?
	How many different national languages will the applications use?
	How many channels are needed to handle the expected call volume?		See Estimating telephony traffic.
	How much memory and storage will each application need?		See Memory and storage planning.

Answering incoming calls

	If you have more than one application to answer incoming calls, you need to have some way of selecting the right application. You might use different telephone numbers, in which event the dialed number needs to be passed from the switch to Blueworx Voice Response.
	Will you have applications that answer incoming calls?	☐	See Inbound calls.
	If you have VoiceXML applications, will call routing be done using CCXML?	☐	See Inbound calls.
	Do you need dialed number identification (DNIS or DID)?	☐	See Choosing the application to answer incoming calls.

Transferring callers to an agent

	With some applications, you should provide callers with the opportunity to speak to a human agent if they want to.
	Do you need call transfer capability?	☐
	Do you need to coordinate the transfer of voice and data?	☐	A CTI product such as Genesys and Cisco can help you transfer voice and data at the same time.

Making outgoing calls

	For some scenarios, your application will need to make outgoing calls.
	Will you have applications that make outgoing calls?	☐	See Outbound calls.

Caller interaction

	How will callers interact with the application?
	DTMF tones?	☐	See State table applications.
	Speech recognition?	☐	See Speech Recognition.
	How will information be delivered to callers?
	Pre-recorded speech?	☐	See Creating the voice output for applications.
	Synthesized speech?	☐	See Text-to-speech.
	If speech recognition is to be used, what type of input must it be capable of handling?
	Discrete words?	☐	See Speech Recognition.
	Connected digits?	☐
	Continuous speech?	☐
	For speech recognition, how large a vocabulary is required?
	Under 5000 words?	☐	See Speech Recognition
	5000 words or over?	☐	See Speech Recognition
	For speech recognition, to enable callers to interrupt prompts you will need to implement barge-in?
	Is barge-in (cut-through) required?	☐

Application programming environment

	Based on functional capability, and whether Blueworx Voice Response is to be a standalone IVR, part of a CTI call center, or used as a voice portal, which application programming environment is most suitable?
	VoiceXML?	☐
	CCXML + VoiceXML?	☐
	Java?	☐
	State table?	☐

Databases

	Where will the files containing business information be stored?
	Locally, on storage media attached to the Power System?	☐	See Information access and Data communications network.
	Remotely, on storage media attached to other computers?	☐	See Information access and Data communications network.
	You can use terminal emulation to provide telephone access to the same data. You need one terminal emulation session for each database (or file) accessed during a call.
	Are databases currently accessed by screen-based applications using the 3270 data stream?	☐	See Integration and interoperability of state tables.
	How many different 3270 terminal emulations sessions do you need per call?

	You might want to be able to locate a caller's database records quickly without asking their name. You can do this if they always call from the same number, which needs to be passed from the switch to Blueworx Voice Response.
	Do you need calling number identification (ANI or CLID)?	☐

Voice messaging

	Voice messaging can be used stand-alone, as voice mail, or integrated with other voice applications.
	Do you need message waiting indicator (MWI) control?	☐
	Will callers who already use fax or e-mail want it integrated with voice mail?	☐	See How state table voice applications handle voice messages.