New Innovation in Click-2-Call Telephony Service

Click-2-Call services have been growing in popularity and are now being used by individual users and companies who have a web-presence (Blogs, Social Networking profiles, Customer support etc). They offer a convenient way to engage the web visitor to get instantly ‘in-touch’ directly from the web. TringMe and a couple of other companies offer the two call-legs based Click-2-Call services, however all Click-2-Call services suffer from a major deficiency. Due to it’s two call-legs nature, the call cost is doubled compared to a normal call and hence it is relatively expensive (technical details here). Inspite of such a market, there hasn’t been a disruptive innovation in this area that would solve the above mentioned deficiency and make such a service economical and commonplace amongst businesses interested in offering this ability.

Even though TringMe offers a pure web-based Push-n-Talk widget (single call-leg) which addresses the above deficiency, we still see a need for a service which offers callback-based Click-2-Call service in a manner that’s relatively much cheaper.
Tradional Click-2-Call Service

That’s exactly where TringMe’s new product comes in. It attempts to handle the need for an innovation in this space head-on and assures to reduce the cost of Click-2-Call telephony by more than half, thereby accounting for substantial savings over recurring use. This new product is focused towards the enterprise Click-2-Call users who can tremendously benefit from it. TringMe employs a very simple, yet an innovative patent-pending technique which enables the call-back based Click-2-Call solution to be relatively cheaper when compared to the existing callback-based solutions.

How does it work? Instead of originating multiple calls (call-legs), TringMe intelligently notifies the called entity about the caller. Notified entity then automatically initiates a call back to the original Caller. The method of notification can be of any type, including sending an SMS containing the caller details OR using the data network.

For example, when a website visitor clicks on the click-2-call link on a website which uses TringMe’s solution, it will simply notify the caller’s phone by a special message using SMS or data network. Once the caller’s phone receives the message, it will automatically initiate the call to the caller and hence meet the same goal at a drastically reduced cost (refer to diagram below). The call can be either cellular or using our MobileVoIP or a combination of both depending on the cheapest method to the caller’s destination. For example, a local call could be cheaper by cellular, and long distance by VoIP (a typical scenario in markets like China & India) and hence be routed accordingly.

Although, this may sound like a very simple extension to how Click-2-Call solution works, it’s an important one since it caters to the mass market. For any decent size business website which uses Click-2-Call solution, the savings will be tremendous. For example, a website in India deploying Click-2-Call solution will have to pay massive 11-15 cents per minute (based on existing rates from TringMe and other Click-2-Call services) for India-India calls.  Whereas, using our new Click-2-Call solution, it may cost just as low as 2-3 cents per minute.  As you can see, the savings are substantial. India is just one example. Given that the solution can be applied worldwide and the solution is flexible enough to be applied in varying scenarios, the overall savings would be phenomenal.

All that a business website owner needs to do is to install our software on their mobile and specify the security and other call preferences. Our application works in the background and processes the notification messages from SMS and data network and make appropriate callbacks. We currently support Nokia Symbian 2nd and 3rd Series phones. Support for more phones and a desktop application is in progress. If privacy of number is required by the caller, it is also achieved by our MobileVoIP solution wherein a random phone number is generated on the fly which is then mapped to caller’s number.

We had already announced the API and additional APIs will be announced soon.

While the overall solution is catered towards the enterprise use, even individual users can make use of it to meet their personal needs.

Since we have filed for the patents on the key concept, TringMe will be an exclusive company which can offer you this solution and help you reduce the costs drastically. This new service is ready to use for any business and we are running a ‘launch special’ for the next few days that will essentially give companies who deploy our solution right away a ‘first to the market’ treatment including special services and rates from our end. We will infact customize and brand the solution for the first few companies at no cost. 

There are several companies who may be offering some flavor of Click-2-Call solutions but TringMe’s portfolio contains a broad range of products backed by patent-pending technologies to offer world-class, cutting-edge solutions. Because of our extensive portfolio, we can combine these services and products in innovative ways to cater to varying needs. For example. MobileVoIP in addition to the traditional calling support in Click-2-Call, Integrating Instant Messengers and other termination options etc.

As demonstrated in the past, TringMe will still continue to provide other innovative solutions in the overall next generation telephony paradigm. TringMe’s complete capability and products are available at tringme.com. If you have a unique requirement, let us know and we will work with you to provide a custom solution as well.

TringMe’s MobileVoIP API - Build your own MobileVoIP solution

Are you a VoIP provider or a VoIP/SIP Service Provider who wants to offer MobileVoIP solution to the customers but do not have sufficient technology or investment to guarantee a ROI?

Now that we have released our MobileVoIP solution publicly, we wanted to share how a VoIP provider or a VoIP/SIP Service Provider - basically the key players across the spectrum - can benefit from it using our API.

TringMe has always been a big proponent of the next generation of voice communication - being able to initiate and terminate calls from one suitable device to another, be it be on the Web, PSTN or Mobile. We really see that there is a lot of opportunity and innovation that can happen in this area and we want to actively contribute to it.

VoIP providers, you can quickly deploy a completely customized MobileVoIP solution using our API including creating and managing users, billing, configuring your VoIP backend and even the look and feel (branding) of the solution. There are several benefits of doing so:

VoIP/SIP Service Providers can use TringMe APIs (available at http://tringme.com/developer.php with sample source code) to configure it in such a way that TringMe’s MobileVoIP solution can route calls via their infrastructure. In other words, TringMe’s MobileVoIP application becomes “their own MobileVoIP solution” which can route calls through the VoIP/SIP Service Provider with just a few lines of code or changes to configuration. As you can see, this opens up the VoIP/SIP Service Provider’s service to all the users of TringMe including via TringMe’s MobileVoIP solution!! So, go ahead and deploy “your own MobileVoIP” solution and let us know if you need any help or extra functionality. We continue to add new features and your inputs will certainly help us.

We really believe that technology needs to enable creative solutions and hope that this will spur the same in the MobileVoIP area. We look forward to hearing from you to see how we can make our solutions even better or easier for you to integrate and deploy.

TringMe launches Toll-free Platform for Enterprises

TringMe announces availability of web-based toll-free platform for Enterprises. Key advantages of TringMe’s toll-free platform over the existing traditional (e.g. 1-800 numbers in USA) toll-free solutions are to allow enterprises to deploy toll-free services at extremely low cost and also offer worldwide reachability.

As we had mentioned in the last post, we are almost ready to release public beta of live phone widget, one of the most asked features of TringMe. In brief, live phone widget enables a user to make a phone call by merely clicking on the widget. We have been giving it to a limited set of testers so far and we are quite happy with the results.

Enterprises and call centers have shown keen interest in TringMe’s technology, especially to compliment their existing toll-free (e.g. like 1-800 numbers in USA) services by using TringMe widgets. TringMe is the easiest way to stay connected on the web, no numbers to dial – just push and talk. Leveraging this capability to implement a single click to connect to customer support can enhance the usability and value of an enterprise in the eyes of its customers. Enterprises can not only improve overall interaction with customers by providing web based toll-free access, but at the same time save drastically on telephone cost to offer such a service, a win-win situation for both the parties. In addition, unlike normal toll-free service that is limited within a geographic region, toll-free calls using TringMe can be received from worldwide users.

Advantages are obvious and easy to visualize – enterprises can setup their complete sales & support system or call center in almost no cost that replaces or complements existing toll-free service. Enterprises can also expect better response as customers do not have to dial any number neither do they have to spend on airtime if they are using cell phone (1-800 numbers are subjected to airtime charges). Imagine a customer, reading your sales pitch on your website, can merely by a press of a button talk to you at absolutely no cost, neither to you nor to customer. Enterprises can introduce custom announcements or integrate IVR with TringMe to offer a consistent and complete experience.

TringMe’s toll free platform can route calls to the existing enterprise infrastructure – SIP server, PBX that manages the enterprise wide telephony. Here are a few ways an enterprise can use TringMe to provide web-based toll-free accessibility:

TringMe route calls to enterprise SIP sever. A key benefit for the enterprise would be to offer free web based call at absolutely no cost thereby eliminating major telephony (and possibly infrastructure) costs.

If the enterprise does not have its own SIP server, TringMe offers a hosted solution. TringMe will offer dedicated or shared server for enterprise use depending on the individual requirements, thereby offering a competitive price.

Alternatively, TringMe can route the web calls to enterprise’s chosen destinations including PBX, landlines, cell phones or even Gtalk, Skype (Skype support is coming soon).

TringMe offers all necessary features for enterprise level call management, including call hunting, call queuing, resource loading, alternate call routing, etc. TringMe solution enables enterprises to create as many real and virtual extensions as required. To provide a consistent user experience, most of the features available via 1-800 toll-free lines (e.g. music on hold) are available via TringMe as well.

As always, we look forward to feedback and suggestions. Please write to us bizdev@tringme.com if you are interested in using TringMe for your enterprise.