15/11-05   -   Pressemeddelelse

SOAP web services in innovaphone products:

Sindelfingen, October 20th 2005 - The integration of SOAP web services in all innovaphone IP telephony products generates tremendous added value for innovaphone authorised dealers - innovaphone authorised reseller (iAR). The interface enables resellers to perfectly integrate the innovaphone PBX to the customer´s individual business specifications.

The SOAP interface (Standard Object Access Protocol) is an XML based internet protocol which enables applications to be exchanged over the internet and enables two-way support of such applications. Customers access telephone features as web services. SOAP web services are neither tied to one particular programming platform nor are they tied to a certain language as opposed to traditional interface architectures. Thus innovaphone PBXs are extremely flexible to be integrated in the present company network with its individual features.

An English company for example has integrated a button onto its web site to enable its employees to set their call diversion themselves. This is an easy way to ensure increased availability especially for sales representatives. The administrator, who had experience with such implementation, needed just one afternoon to program this.

Many companies have their own software solutions especially specific to their branch of trade which need to be integrated into the IP telephony environment. The law firm Dom, Kraemer and Partner who are based in Berlin, uses a solution developed by the software company Proacta which brings PC applications and telephony together. The law firm has almost 50 employees. All of whom have immediate electronic access to all cases when the phone rings. This enables them to be able to act without hesitation upon all customer requests. Billing is simplified in that call time is directly incorporated into the invoice. Total integration was also easily made possible with the assistance of SOAP services. Work processes can be considerably simplified and rationalised thanks to this total integration.

Martin Mangeng, network and system integrator at the Volksbank Vorarlberg was able to implement a corporate special technical feature. Employees in the executive and consultation offices have an "occupied" light-sign on the office door. A proprietary development uses SOAP to check whether certain users´ phone lines are busy and then switches the occupied light signs on the doors on or off as appropriate. Martin Mangeng emphasises the integration possibilities "we especially liked the functional design of innovaphone´s PBX and the independent standards".

Resellers profit most from the possibilities of SOAP web services as they can offer their customers real added value thanks to the innovaphone PBX with its SOAP interface. Lorenz Buchberger from the system vendor Buchberger IT GmbH has developed a synchronisation program based on SOAP to be able to answer precisely to customer IT needs. The administration tool "Inno-import" enables respective user data to be brought together with the innovaphone PBX - independent of the respective format such as Active Directory, Lotus Notes, Excel or Access Database. Christoph Künkel, Director Product Management at innovaphone AG highlights "Having SOAP web services integrated into innovaphone products enables customer work processes to be considerably simplified and optimised - for example in that all user data appears on the computer screen when a call comes in".

Due to the fact that SOAP web services are platform independent, solutions for other systems are also possible. A SOAP integration for Apple systems will soon be available.