AA (Automated Attendant) – A device which answers callers with a recording, and allows the caller to route themselves to an extension. AMIS (Audio Messaging Interchange Specifications) – A series of standards aimed at addressing the problem of how voice messaging systems produced by different vendors can network or inter-network ANI (Automatic Number Identification) – The service used to deliver the telephone number of the calling party. ARS (Automatic Route Selection) – System software that analyzes the telephone number dialed and automatically selects the “Least Expensive” or “Best Route” for the call and then places the call accordingly. (also see “LCR”) ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) – The ability of a machine to understand human speech as opposed to voice recognition, which needs training and only recognizes one user. BRI (Base Rate Interface) – A digital signaling protocol used to deliver voice and/or data communications over a specialized circuit designed to deliver (2) voice communications paths referred to as “B Channels, or Bearer Channels”, and (1) “D Channel, or Data Channel” which is used for signaling and control. This service is frequently called a 2B+D circuit. CAT 5, 5e, 6 (Category 5, 5e, 6) - Data wiring standards used to define the level of certification and data handleing characteristics of data cable infrastructure. CAT 6 is the newest and latest standard designed to support up to Gigabyte Ethernet versus CAT 5e which has been the standard for the last several years, and capable of supporting up to (100) Megabyte speeds. CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) – Any phone equipment (key systems, PBX’s, answering machines, etc.) which reside on the customers premises. CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) – A term for connecting a computer (single workstation or file server on a local area network) to a telephone switch and having the computer issue the switch commands to move calls around. DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) – A protocol enabled on a server designed to automatically allocate a unique IP address to each device connected to the data network, and manage the use and “licensing” of each of these IP addresses. This is a very common method used on data networks, and is opposed to using dedicate IP addressing within the network. DID (Direct Inward Dial) – This feature allows one to dial directly into a company without going through the attendant. DNIS (Dialed Number Identification Service) – This feature, which is utilized mostly by 800 and 900 lines, informs you of the number the incoming caller dialed (do not confuse this feature with ANI, which is the number the caller called from). DTMF (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency) – A technical term referring to push button or Touchtone Dialing. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – A method used to transfer data files from one computer to another. H.323 or H323 (Host 323 Standard Language) – A protocol used for control of multimedia communications across an IP network. HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) – A programming language used to create web pages. HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) – This is the scripting language used on the World Wide Web for accessing web pages. IMAP (Internet Messaging Application Protocol) – An email protocol that allows users to create and manage mail folders over the WAN, scan message headers and then download only selected messages, and search for keywords. IMAPTSE (Transparent Storage Engine) - This gateway is used to provide a single data store for both email messages and voice mail messages. By unifying these stores, it gives the user a single access point to retrieve, send, and manage their messages. IM (Integrated Messaging) - also called basic UM provides a consolidated view of all messages (voice/fax/email) from an email client (PC desktop) IP (Internet Protocol) – Part of the TCP/IP family of protocols describing software that tracks the Internet address of nodes, routes outgoing messages, and recognizes incoming messages. ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) – This term defines the specialized voice and data communications services combined and delivered via either a BRI (Base rate) or PRI (Primary rate) circuit. IVR (Interactive Voice Response) – Think of IVR as a voice computer. Where a computer has a keyboard for entering information, IVR uses remote touchtone telephones. Where a computer has a screen for showing the results, IVR uses snippets of a recorded human voice or a synthesized voice to “read” the screen to the distant caller. LAN (Local Area Network) – A short distance data communications network (typically within a building or campus) used to link together computers and peripheral devices (such as printers) under some form of standard control, such as TCP/IP. (also see “VLAN”) LCR (Least Cost Routing) - System software that analyzes the telephone number dialed and automatically selects the “Least Expensive Route” for the call based on the anticipated cost of the call and available paths at the time, and then places the call accordingly. This feature is similar to ARS except that in its purest form it technically calculates the “cost per minute” of the call based on the destination, whereas ARS simply follows a pre-defined order. LDAP (Lightweight Directory Application Protocol) – LDAP defines both a standard manner of organizing directory hierarchies and a standard interface for clients to access directory servers. For example, when using Enterprise TOL you will receive message notification on your phone, Outlook inbox, PDA, etc. When you delete the message from one of these devices, LDAP provides the synchronization necessary to delete the message from all directories. MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) – This application protocol is designed for transmitting mixed-media files across TCP/IP networks. MMC (Microsoft Management Console) – A Windows-based multiple document interface (MDI) application that uses Internet technologies heavily. Both Microsoft and ISVs extend the console by writing MMC snap-ins, which perform management tasks. MWI (Message Waiting Indicator) – An indication (such as a blinking light) that there is a new message. MOS Score (Mean Opinion Score) – A number between (1) and (5) that is derived as a result of a “Network Assessment”, which is an analysis and study conducted on a given data network to evaluate its capability to provide an adequate level of quality for the use of Voice over IP (VoIP) communications. The resulting score should be at least (4) in order to guarantee an adequate call quality. MOS Scores in the truest sense are a numerical representation of the opinion of the listener to a VoIP call, ranking the call quality from (1) for Bad; (2) for Poor; (3) for Fair; (4) for Good, and; (5) for Excellent. The MOS is the resulting arithmetic mean of all of the scors. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) – Reading data using a machine that visually scans the characters in a document and converts that data into standard form which can be stored on conventional medium, e.g. floppy or hard disk. PBX (Private Branch Exchange) – A private (i.e. you, as opposed to the phone company owns it), smaller version of the phone company’s larger central switching office. PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) – A consumer electronics gadget that acts much like a personal computer. PIM (Personal Information Manager) – A specialized form of software used by individuals and groups for keeping track of contacts (including addresses and phone numbers), appointments, project schedules, to-do lists, reminder notes, anniversaries, etc. POP3 (Post Office Protocol) – A protocol widely used on the Internet and other IP-based networks to retrieve electronic mail from a (typically distant) email server. You use POP3 to get your mail from the server it is sitting on and to download it to your PC. POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) – A term used to describe an analog copper trunk telephone line that may be used on a single line telephone, key telephone system, or PBX system, and is capable of handling one phone call at a time. PRI (Primary Rate Interface) – A digital signaling protocol used on a T1 circuit, designed to deliver (23) voice communications paths, referred to as “B Channels, or Bearer Channels”, and (1) “D Channel, or Data Channel” which is used for signaling and control. PSTN (Public Switching Telephone Network) – Usually refers to the worldwide voice telephone network accessible to all those with telephones and access privileges (i.e. in the U.S., it was formerly called the Bell System network or the AT&T long distance network). QoS (Quality of Service) – The process used to insure that all data packets (especially voice) are sent across an IP network and delivered in the appropriate “priority” and in the proper sequence. Typically in a Voice over IP (VoIP) environment voice IP packets are given the highest priority level allowing VoIP calls the highest level of quality attainable under the given circumstances, which includes numerous elements such as the Data Routers and Switches, as well as the physical network itself and all of its associated connections, and the other data traffic inherent on the network at the time. A “Network Assessment” is generally required to ascertain the impact of all of these factors on the resulting expected QoS. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) – A standard Internet signaling protocol used for the initiation and communications of VoIP calls, Conferencing, and Instant Messaging. SMDI (Simplified Message Desk Interface) – The SMDI is the data link from the central office that gives you your stutter dial tone or message waiting light. In essence, SMDI is a data line from the central office containing information and instructions to your on premises voice mail box. With SMDI, the calling person is not required to re-enter the called phone number once the call terminates on the messaging system. SMS (Short Message Service) – A means to send or receive, short alphanumeric messages to or from mobile telephones. SMTP (Simplified Mail Transport Protocol) – A TCP/IP protocol for sending e-mail between servers. T1 or T-1 – A transmission protocol designed to deliver voice and/or data communications between locations on a dedicated point-to-point basis for private networking, or used by the phone company to deliver dial-tone, long distance access, or Internet connectivity. A T1 represents 1.544 Megabytes of data capacity and is generally converted to (24) logical connections when used to deliver voice communications. (Sometimes referred to as a DS1, for Digital Service.) TAPI (Telephone Application Programming Interface) – A changing (i.e. improving) set of functions supported by Windows that allow Windows applications to program telephone-line-base devices such as single and multi-line phones (both digital and analog), modems and fax machines in a device-independent manner. TAPI essentially does to telephony devices what the Windows printer system did to printers – make them easy to install, and allow many application programs to work with many telephony devices, irrespective of who made the devices. TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) – A standard protocol used for the management of connection oriented data communications with error correction. TDM (Time Division Multiplex) – Digitization of voice signals into a “time divided slot” on the system communications highway. Each voice call is sampled at a high rate of speed, such (64,000) times per second, and converted to a “digital signal” which is then “switched” across the communications highway to the remote end where it is then reconstructed into a voice signal. TTS (Text to Speech) – Technologies for converting textual information onto synthetic speech output. UC (Unified Communications) – Unified messaging plus the ability to manage messages in real time and includes personal productivity options such as speech, personal assistant services and CTI applications. UM (Unified Messaging) – The integration of email, fax and voice messages in a single mailbox or message store accessible by PC, browser, or telephone. UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) – A power backup system designed to supply electrical power in the event of commercial power failure. Generally, the UPS is equipped with one or more built-in batteries depending on the required backup time. The internal inverter of the UPS converts the battery power to 120 Volts AC output. VLAN (Virtual LAN) – A “Virtual” Local Area Network co-exits within a physical Local Area Network structure as a segregated series of IP addresses and priorities that collectively operate as a unique LAN even though the physical connections are the same. The use of a VLAN is frequently designed to separate the traffic on a physical LAN connection giving different priorities and capabilities to the VLAN for such capabilities as Voice over IP (VoIP) to insure the best Quality of Service (QoS) available within the network. (also see “LAN”) VM (Voicemail) – Voicemail allows you to receive and forward messages to one or more voicemail boxes in your company or in your universe of friends. VPIM (Voice Profile for Internet Mail) – An Internet messaging protocol that allows disparate voice messaging systems to automatically exchange voicemail over the Internet. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) – A standard protocol used to carry voice communications via small IP packets over data networks, including LANs, WANs, and the Internet. VXML (Voice Extensible Markup Language) – VXML is software designed to let you talk to web sites and have them answer you. It is a Web-based markup language much like HTML and XML, but designed for voice-based, rather than typing, graphical or textual interaction. XML (Extensible Markup Language) – A software programming language used to develop interactive applications requiring minimum amounts of bandwidth. WAN (Wide Area Network) – A series of Local Area Networks (LAN) joined together over geographically diverse areas. Connectivity is most often provided by third party carriers, such as the phone company. WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) – A carrier-independent, transaction-oriented protocol for wireless data networks such as cell phones and PDAs. The protocol contains security, transaction handling, byte coding, and encryption, making it secure. | 
