By Rick Luhmann

While it's true that Buffalo International's (Valhalla, NY - 914-747-8500) ebullient David Friedman dragged me into their booth, he dumped me quickly on one of their VARs - a company called Drextec (Marlton, NJ - 609-596-8285).

"Here," David chirped. "If you don't believe that we make the finest open predictive dialing platform in CT, talk to somebody who's using the technology. I did.

The rep's name was Chris Brown. He took me through Drextec's end-user product- their Prospecting and Telemarketing System (DPTS). He showed how it handled multiple predictive dialing campaigns, how those campaigns could be managed from a single supervisor app and how things were quickly customized. You could muck with dialing rates, callback intervals, agent staffing, etc. Very nice.

It all works on Buffalo International's Open Architecture Predictive Dialing Engine (OAPDE), which is really a technology platform that's made up of two parts.

On one hand, Buffalo sells VARs a full-fledged "Un-Predictive-Dialer" that comes in an industrial PC with the SCbus humming and necessary Dialogic hardware (usually - you can buy erector-set "kits" too). It can also integrate with existing network / database systems via TCP/IP, NETBIOS or OCX.

But besides a CT box, the real value of the OAPDE is its underlying software algorithms - for tricky predictive and outbound dialing, digital voice logging, some media-processing and ACD call control - and the API that makes that software accessible to VARs. Both have companies like Drextec in love with the OAPDE.  Said Chris: "It really is an open book. We could never even think of doing the things we do with it on a closed, proprietary system. We just communicate via TCP/IP to the API and it takes care of the rest."

Drextec has worked with both "complete" Buffalo engines and the erector-set pieces. "With the construction kits," said Chris, "you do have to write a lot more code. But because they're so open, it's not difficult. The good news is you can craft the system exactly the way you want. The key in both cases is leveraging their predictive dialing algorithms."

Sounds good to me. They win a Best Of Show for making the best open Un-Predictive-Dialer at CT Expo.  Actually, they're the only ones doing it, essentially taking the same hardware that many of the UnPBX vendors are using and focusing it for a very specific call-center niche.

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Call Center Magazine - December 1996
Editor's Choice Award - Joe Fleischer

Drextec, a 1O-year-old company that designs custom database applications, offers PC-based client/server software called the Drextec Prospecting and Telemarketing System (DPTS). It uses Buffalo International's (Valhalla, NY; formerly Buffalo Audiotex) predictive dialing engine. DPTS lets you separate your campaigns between customers and prospects. You can also determine the number of new calls you add to the queue at once.

With DPTS, you can set callback intervals if the agent reaches an answering machine, voice mail or busy signal. If you wish, you can even create your own call result codes (e.g no answer, abandoned call). To avoid repeated calls to someone who's not available, you can set a maximum number of calls to any one person in a 24-hour period. The Call Processor Monitor displays call results in real time, one screen per campaign. For multiple campaigns, Call Processor Monitor automatically cycles among each screen.

DPTS' Call Processor Supervisor software manages agent groups and even multiple dialers. Chris Brown, president of Drextec, says that DPTS is the only software that can run multiple predictive dialers on a single supervisor application. Without Buffalo international's dialing engine, Brown says, DPTS could not provide predictive dialing at all. Buffalo international's engine has given Drextec the ability to make predictive dialing an intrinsic part of its software, rather than a costly add-on.

DPTS lets you set the dialing rate and the number of lines allotted to agents and supervisors. You can establish the frequency with which the software checks the dialer's database for calls added to the queue. DPTS accommodates 96 lines, or about 72 agents, per system. (Drextec recommends a ratio of 1.5 - 2 phone lines for each agent using the predictive dialer) To enable your agents to call back specific customers, DPTS allows you to reserve lines for manually dialed outbound calls.

DPTS form Drextec (Marlton, NJ) costs $500 for each agent using the predictive dialer. It runs in DOS, various versions of Windows (including Windows 3.11 for Workgroups), Windows 95, Windows NT 3.5 or 4.0. 609-596-8285. If you plan to write your own software and only want Buffalo International's dialing engine, the engine's retail price averages between $1,100 and $1,400 per predictive dialing user. The engine includes the software license, and industrial PC equipped with Dialogic voice boards and support for installation and development. You can reach Buffalo International at 914-747-8500.

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