The Avaya SIP Application Server in conjunction with the Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application environment brings open standards technology and techniques long associated with the Web to telephony developers. With Avaya SIP Application Server, web-centric software engineers work in the popular J2EE environment and tap into SIP functions through well defined interfaces to build sophisticated multi-media applications. Ultimately, development approaches based on SIP, Java, and XML enable businesses to better connect with customers through more personalized and dynamic interactions. Before IP convergence technologies, it was a complex and expensive undertaking to get voice and data applications to work together. For example, if a pharmacy chain needed to build an IVR system for ordering prescriptions, uniquely skilled developers using proprietary software tools had to be brought in to work alongside IT staff. They created IVR menus with inflexible prompts in which, at best, dynamic information could be injected into fixed places within the text. In general, these IVR development efforts often required intense collaboration between telephony and IT specialists as well as additional support from vendors. Projects timelines were often pushed back, making it difficult for IT to respond quickly to new businesses conditions. In the Internet model high-productivity software development tools based on open standards are the rule, which contrasts with the closed, proprietary approach to development found in the telephony world. Using popular environments such as J2EE, Java developers extend static web pages using servlets, a software technology that pulls external data into HTML, to generate dynamic, targeted web page content. J2EE also supports a structured way to separate out business logic-including interfaces to back-end IT systems-through special re-usable components called JavaBeans. By dipping into the large repository of existing Java components, businesses are able to quickly and inexpensively update corporate Web sites. In this new world of converged communications, the Avaya SIP Application Server delivers the advantages of the Internet model—speedy project turnaround and dynamic user interactions—to multi-media app builders How? IP servlets on the Avaya SIP Application Server abstract out lower-level SIP details, making it easy to incorporate communication services into business applications. IT staff with limited telephony backgrounds can continue to work within the familiar J2EE platform, invoking call control and media functions on the SIP Application Server as needed. From the SIP Application Server, the Avaya Voice Portal, a SIP-aware and XML-based IVR and speech recognition system, appears as another SIP endpoint. On-the-fly, text-based XML prompts drive the Voice Portal to respond more flexibly to customer's speech and DTMF inputs. Result: a higher-quality customer experience. Because it is based on widely adopted open technologies, the Avaya SIP Application Server can draw from a large pool of existing web developers, system integrators, and data-oriented VARs, thereby helping businesses to rapidly create innovative voice, video, and web applications. | 
