Pronexus Launches VBVoice 7.1

Pronexus, the developer of the VBVoice interactive voice response (IVR) toolkit, today launched VBVoice 7.1, the newest release of its free IVR development software.

"We are fully committed to supporting the latest technology in the IVR and telephony industry," said Gary Hannah, president and CEO of Pronexus. "We're excited for new and current VBVoice developers to try all that VBVoice 7.1 has to offer. We truly appreciate our long term partners who provided us guidance in adding an express installer, 64-bit support, and a new major capability, Early Media. This release is our most advanced yet."

VBVoice now allows users to harness the power of 64-bit systems for IVR applications and take advantage of the latest Windows operating platform. VBVoice 7.1 creates a stable environment for developers who want to run complex and demanding VBVoice applications. 64-bit operating systems enable production of larger processing projects with improved performance.

"We develop IVR applications for many different companies, so being able to have multiple VBVoice applications on one computer simultaneously is essential. With VBVoice's new 64-bit system support, I am able to run numerous IVR applications on one machine with zero slowdown," said Kurosh Sahraie of Central Touch.

VBVoice 7.1 includes a new express installer that allows VBVoice users to set up the software faster and easier. The new silent installer option is great for those required to deploy on IVR servers hosted at customer sites. The ability to hide VBVoice Start Menu options enables IVR application to stand out as the final product.

With Early Media, the caller will not be charged until the call is accepted and connected. It allows companies to provide interaction between their IVR and an inbound caller before actually connecting the call.

"The express installer adds a new level of simplicity to getting your voice applications up and running. It took only a couple of minutes to install and setup the software, then I was able to start developing our voice messaging application," said John Pope, President of CenturiSoft.

Also new in the release is an enhanced VBVoice feature called SIP Early Media, which allows the caller to hear the IVR before the voice call is actually connected. Early Media allows companies to provide interaction between their IVR and an inbound caller before actually connecting the call. Now, the caller will not be charged until the call is accepted and connected. This feature proves useful in scenarios where callers are billed for connected calls to an IVR, for example, where a message has to be delivered to the caller prior to the connection for information, legal, or billing purposes.

"Early Media is a great new VBVoice feature that is perfect for my IVR applications that require per-call billing. With Early Media, I can tell a caller that reaches my IVR that they will be charged before the charges begin. This gives my clients ample time to have payment out, and eliminates the potential for misunderstandings," said Stefano Favaro, application developer at Edistar, a long-standing Pronexus customer.

VBVoice integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio, leveraging familiar programming skills and industry-standard programming languages. It combines a visual call flow environment with fully programmable controls and options, like speech recognition and text-to-speech, and comes with everything a developer needs to kick start their IVR project, including the VBVoice IVR toolkit, two free VBVoice runtimes for testing, 10 days of free technical support from Pronexus' IVR experts and a free online training demo. VBVoice is available to download at no charge at www.pronexus.com/