Telecommunications and Networks - Principles of Information Systems - page 250

Voice-to-Text Services
Voice mail is more difficult to manage than e-mail because you must deal with messages
one-by-one without knowing who has called you and without being able to prioritize the
messages. In recognition of these shortcomings of voice mail, several services (e.g., Jott,
SpinVox, GotVoice, and SimulScribe) are now available to convert speech to text so that
you can manage voice mails more effectively. If you subscribe to one of these voice-to-text
services , your voice mail no longer reaches your phone service provider's voice mail service.
Instead, it is rerouted to the voice-to-text service, translated into text, and then sent to your
regular e-mail account or a special account for converted e-mail messages. You can also tem-
porarily disable the voice-to-text service and receive voice messages. 54

voice-to-text service
A service that captures voice mail
messages, converts them to text,
and sends them to an e-mail
account.

Home and Small Business Networks
Small businesses and many families own more than one computer and look for ways to set
up a simple network to share printers or an Internet connection; access shared files such as
photos, MP3 audio files, spreadsheets, and documents on different machines; play games
that support multiple concurrent players; and send the output of network-connected devices,
such as a security camera or DVD player, to a computer.
One simple solution is to establish a wireless network that covers your home or small
business. To do so, you can buy an 802.11 n access point, connect it to your cable modem
or DSL modem, and then use it to communicate with all your devices. For less than $100,
you can purchase a combined router, firewall, Ethernet hub, and wireless hub in one small
device. Computers in your network connect to this box with a wireless card, which is con-
nected by cable or DSL modem to the Internet. This enables each computer in the network
to access the Internet. The firewall filters the information coming from the Internet into your
network. You can configure it to reject information from offensive Web sites or potential
hackers. The router can also encrypt all wireless communications to keep your network
secure.
In addition, you can configure your computers to share printers and files. Windows Vista
includes a Network and Sharing Center that helps with network configuration. Some of the
basic configuration steps include assigning each computer to a workgroup and giving it a
name, identifying the files you want to share (placing an optional password on some files),
and identifying the printers you want to share.

Electronic Document Distribution
Electronic document distribution lets you send and receive documents in a digital form
without printing them (although printing is possible). It is much faster to distribute electronic
documents via networks than to mail printed forms. Viewing documents on screen instead
of printing them also saves paper and document storage space. Accessing and retrieving elec-
tronic documents is also much faster.
An issue in the use of some paper documents (e.g., college transcripts and various gov-
ernment documents) is the requirement to verify their authenticity. Hewlett-Packard has
developed technology at its lab in Bangalore, India, that enables authentication of paper
documents based on a two-dimensional bar code printed on the back of the document. The
bar code is read by a scanner and verified online in a database accessible at a Web site estab-
lished by the issuing authority. Bangalore now issues bar-coded transcripts. 55

electronic document
distribution
A process that enables the sending
and receiving of documents in a dig-
ital form without being printed
(although printing is possible).

Call Centers
A call center is a physical location where an organization handles customer and other tele-
phone calls, usually with some amount of computer automation. Call centers are used by
customer service organizations, telemarketing companies, computer product help desks,
charitable and political campaign organizations, and any organization that uses the telephone
to sell or support products and services. An automatic call distributor (ACD) is a telephone
facility that manages incoming calls, handling them based on the number called and an
associated database of instructions. Call centers frequently employ an ACD to validate callers,
place outgoing calls, forward calls to the right party, allow callers to record messages, gather
usage statistics, balance the workload of support personnel, and provide other services.