In 2004, we took stock of our situation and came to the conclusion we could not continue to produce so many different services in such high quality without consolidating our basic software architecture.
In the past we had used the industry standards for interactive voice response, Voice and Call Control eXtensible Markup Languages (VoiceXML and CCXML). These languages fit our philosophy perfectly: they bring the advantages of Web-based development and content delivery to interactive voice response (IVR) applications and make the programming of IVR applications independent of any specific vendor's application programming interface (API).
But when we first began to implement complex voice services in the VoiceXML and CCXML standards, we realized that they could be made significantly more powerful through practical additions. Over the years, we added more and more enhancements to VoiceXML and CCXML, e.g. for complete network independent call control and extensive media control. Taking stock in 2003, we decided the time had come to codify all our efforts in a new programming language for voice and multimedia services: ECT eXtensible Markup Language (ECTXML®).
Today, ECTXML® is our core intellectual property and is the rich language used in all of our value-added service applications. In more than 200 installations of our technology worldwide, leading network operators are offering extremely diverse, profitable voice and multimedia value-added services using the same product modules, which we call ECTXML® Service Enablers and Building Blocks. These software modules are continuously reused and further developed. On this basis, we are able to create new applications with a wide range of market-orientated features quickly and cost-effectively, while also preserving a high level of stability.
