Companies that carved out a competitive edge in the 1990's through innovative software applications face a different challenge in the new millennium: their clients want instant access to these applications via the web. When evaluating a number of equally capable software solutions, clients are increasingly choosing web-based solutions that require no installation on client machines and provide instant access from virtually any location. Re-architecting an existing software solution for the web is a crucial step for many companies to maintain their competitive standing in today's market and an area in which Berwick Heights Software can provide extensive expertise.

TelAthena Systems LLC, headquartered in New York City, provides Human Interaction Software systems for multi-media, multi-functional call center operations. Clients rely on TelAthena's interactive call center software to increase the effectiveness of their telesales, customer service, financial services, market research and fundraising. Unlike most call center software, which provides call center agents with static "screen pops", TelAthena's software is dynamic and script-based. Using decision-trees, the software provides new questions based on respondents' most recent answers.

Architecting and creating a dynamic web application based on TelAthena's successful client/server-based product presented numerous business and technical challenges. Foremost was the challenge of using a static web browser to provide the dynamic, script-based capabilities and telephony interface that are key to TelAthena's market advantage. Dr. Michael Dellaira, Executive Vice President, turned to Berwick Heights Software to figure out how to achieve the company's business goals and software requirements via a web-based solution. Dr. Dellaira comments, "Whenever we need elegant solutions to complicated problems, we turn to Berwick Heights."

One of the challenges of this project was to implement TelAthena's dynamic call scripts through HTML, which is typically static in nature. Achieving split-second timing for the delivery of dynamic script information was also critical to TelAthena's success since agents need information about the customer in a fraction of a second. Since the HTTP protocol does not provide an event-based model to notify browsers of events occurring on the server, web applications typically use a polling model to retrieve this information, but this is slow and uses excessive bandwidth. Berwick Heights architected a better solution using an out-of-band eventing model with embedded ActiveX objects, JavaScript and XML in the browser.

An embedded ActiveX object opens a separate TCP/IP socket connection to the web server, thereby listening on a separate thread for the call connection message from the server. When the ActiveX object receives the message, it sends an event to the browser with the call script information to be displayed. By listening for messages on a separate channel, the browser need not poll the server continuously, thereby saving bandwidth, network resources and client CPU resources.

As calls progress, agents indicate respondent answers on-screen. Using the AJAX technique, JavaScript running in the browser sends the answers to the server and retrieves the next set of questions from the decision-tree using XML/HTTP running in the background. New script questions appear without refreshing the entire browser screen providing a more fluid visual experience for the call agents. The speed and dynamic nature of the new web solution met all of the expectations created by TelAthena's existing client/server-based application.

Initially, TelAthena implemented the web-based application using Microsoft tools; however, TelAthena's client base indicated overwhelmingly that it needed a Java-based solution on the server. In response to market needs, Berwick Heights Software worked with TelAthena to port the web application to JSP. Since the out-of-band event architecture relied on TCP/IP sockets and XML for communication, the same embedded ActiveX object in the browser could be used for both implementations. The dynamic XML/HTTP mechanism (AJAX) used for recording respondent answers was also easily ported to JSP.

Once the web-based software had been created, Berwick Heights Software took on the important job of training TelAthena's team members in XML, AJAX and dynamic HTML to enable them to maintain and modify the web application over time.

Berwick Heights Software's successful architecture and creation of TelAthena's dynamic call center application for the web has enabled TelAthena to meet its client's needs at many levels. The speedy retrieval of dynamic script information via the out-of-band solution solidifies TelAthena's position as a leading provider of dynamic scripting software. The browser-based solution eliminates the need for software installation, gives clients greater convenience and adds the ability to support off-site call center agents, a rapidly growing model for call centers. The web solution also introduced new capabilities for online surveys and proxy voting.

A successful project is not only dependent on the delivery of excellent software. TelAthena needed Berwick Heights Software to understand its business goals and create a solution that met market needs at the feature level and the company's needs at the macro, strategic level. According to Dr. Dellaira, "Berwick Heights Software is far and away the best software firm we have run across in over two decades of developing applications. Nobody else has grasped more quickly what we want to do, or understood more thoroughly how to do it than Berwick Heights."