SOA finds its VoIP

Outside of the call center, voice/data applications have yet to take off. But adding unified communications services to SOA environments may change all that

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Typically, the biggest delays in business processes involve human latency, when a process cannot continue until key people are found, contacted, and informed, and they take the appropriate action, such as giving approval. Unified communications functions such as presence and find me/follow me excel at bringing the right people together quickly, wherever they are and using whatever communications medium is available. Moreover, Web conferencing and videoconferencing enhance collaboration to accelerate decision-making. SOA makes it easier to weave these functions directly into data applications and process flows, rather than requiring human beings to switch to separate communications applications or devices.

The simplest example is the application-generated voice alert. Instead of pinging the customer service department to an important change in a customer account or portfolio, a back office financial application might kick off an event that alerts the customer directly through a telephony Web service and voice recording. Take this a step further and the process could ask for a recipient response via touch tone (IVR), speech, IM, or SMS and move on to the next step in the process based on the response.

If the recipient is internal to an organization or partner organization, the application could invoke presence and find me/follow me services to find the recipient on the current preferred medium or device, or via IM if presence indicates that the recipient is currently on a phone call. If an appropriate response doesn’t come, the process might escalate the alert across time to others who can cover for the recipient, or a supervisor, or eventually broadcast to everyone with the authority to handle the situation. Or, if a stock falls below a certain threshold, an event processor might automatically invoke a combination of presence and conferencing services to find and bring all relevant, available decision-making parties into a video/Web conference.

Find me/follow me information can be invaluable when an immediate response is required. “If there’s a mismatched part that has shut down the production line, an ERP application could [use unified communications services to] reach out to the plant manager, head of quality, inventory guy, and seven other people wherever they are at 2 a.m.,” says John Hart, vice president of product line management at Ubiquity.

Siemens has been working with Salesforce.com, SAP, and others to embed context-sensitive presence lists and click-to-call services in their CRM and ERP applications. For example, if a customer has a question about a particular order, the rep would be able to bring up a list of all available people from the relevant account team, along with their voice and IM presence information, right alongside other transaction information, then reach them via IM or phone call to their preferred device at the click of a mouse.